Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Train Driver, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Empathy
Language
Helplessness vs. Agency
Names
Hope vs. Despair
Summary
Analysis
Roelf is quiet as Simon splits a loaf of bread between them and spreads apricot jam across it. Roelf recalls the brand-name honey he used to put on bread as a child, and Simon fondly remembers looking for wild honey with his family in Hluleka. Roelf knows he cannot stay with Simon, but he doesn’t feel like his mission is finished.
As Roelf and Simon share memories of food as they eat, it becomes evident that their backgrounds shaped how they have interacted with food, but both men enjoy the same basic flavors. This commonality represents how factors like race and class affect people in important ways, but they do not undermine the basic human experiences that all people share.
Themes
Roelf tells Simon that he knows they won’t find Red Doek’s grave, but he can’t leave because he has claimed her. Simon is startled, thinking that Roelf has developed a sexual attraction to Red Doek, but Roelf explains that his feelings for her are not like that. When they locked eyes just before she and her baby died, she became Roelf’s “like nothing else in [his] life has ever really been [his] before.” He wonders if Red Doek felt the same connection to him, as the last person she ever saw. He remembers that her eyes held no anger or hatred; she simply saw him. This is why, unlike Simon, who buries the bodies and walks away, Roelf cannot leave.
The question of identity has been important to Roelf throughout the play, but it has primarily manifested in horror at how the identities of the dead have been robbed from them. As he describes Red Doek seeing him on the tracks, he reveals that he also values his own ability to be seen and known—in other words, his identity. Simply being witnessed by Red Doek was enough to bind him to her. His claim that this moment made Red Doek his “like nothing else” suggests that Roelf does not believe he has truly been seen by anyone but Red Doek; and, in turn, this moment of shared understanding has allowed Roelf to develop empathy he did not know he was capable of.
Themes
Simon looks out over the graves and wonders how many people are “sleeping” in them. He tells Roelf that he is collecting another nameless body tomorrow, and he requests that Roelf bury her. They will project Red Doek’s identity on this body, and when Roelf buries her, he can walk away. Roelf agrees. When Simon goes to sleep, Roelf takes the spade and goes outside. He starts digging a grave.
Though Roelf has undertaken a complex emotional journey, he still cannot think of a way to finally find closure. It takes Simon to guide Roelf toward action. Simon understands the importance of naming and identifying Red Doek’s body, but he is not as immediately invested in the matter as Roelf. This, as well as his persistent practicality, allows him to come up with a tangible course of action to help Roelf. However, Roelf is too obsessed with Red Doek to wait until morning, so he starts digging in the middle of the night.
Themes
