Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tsotsi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Apartheid and Racism
Parents and Children
Identity and Memory
Hatred, Sympathy, and God
Habit vs. Choice
Summary
Analysis
Isaiah is trying to plant a row of seedlings straight but fears he has planted them crooked, despite Miss Marriot’s demonstrations. From the office window, Miss Marriot asks whether everything is fine. Pretending he can’t hear her due to old age, Isaiah measures the rows with his hand to demonstrate he’s planting correctly. Yet he hears her coming. Miss Marriot asks him what he's done. He sneaks a look at her “white, powdery face and thin lips” and sees her smiling. She calls him a “naughty boy” and reminds him to plant one hand apart.
Up to this point the novel has mostly represented racism as a structural force, impacting the Black characters’ lives not through their encounters with individual racists, but through their oppression by racist laws. Here, however, the novel foregrounds interpersonal racism in South African society. Although Isaiah (who is Black) is elderly, his white employer Miss Marriot calls him a “naughty boy” and condescends to him as if he were stupid or a child.
Themes
Isaiah replies, “Yes, Miss Marry.” Miss Marriot corrects his pronunciation of her name and says he has to replant the seedlings. He agrees dutifully. They pause in silence, and he notices he finds her “white, powdery” odor “repellent.” She tells him to start working.
Here, the novel jokingly reverses an anti-Black racist stereotype about Black people smelling bad by having a Black character find the “white” smell of his employer “repellent”—that is, disgusting.
Themes
Isaiah starts replanting. He wishes Miss Marriot would leave him alone. When he works by himself, his memory helps the time pass quickly. When she watches him work, the time passes painfully slowly. But Miss Marriot stays to watch and criticize, insisting on showing him how to treat roots gently. He hates her being near him demonstrating things, because once he saw her “flat, white breasts” down the front of her collar and once she farted. She insists on him watching and asks whether he was doing it the way she is. He says no and reflects, “To an incredible extent a peaceful existence was dependent upon knowing just when to say no or yes to the white man.”
Again, the novel is reversing a racist stereotype. Under apartheid, the South African government outlawed marriage and sexual relationships between non-white and white people. One law had harsher penalties for non-white women who “seduced” white men—the racist assumption apparently being that non-white people would particularly want to have sex with white people, who are somehow more desirable. In the novel, on the other hand, the only extended contact between a Black person (Isaiah) and a white person (Miss Marriot) involves him being physically disgusted by her. Isaiah’s comment that “peaceful existence” requires him to come up with the right responses for “the white man” shows how, in Black-white interactions in apartheid South Africa, all the power resided with the white person.
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Miss Marriot accuses Isaiah of wanting the plants to die. She calls him a “naughty boy” again, claims to have completed all his work, and reminds him that he’s “planting on holy ground, because it [is] church ground.” After that, she leaves.
This passage makes clear that—despite Boston’s argument that God and religion increase sympathy between people—religiosity can coexist with racism, as demonstrated by church lady Miss Marriot.
Themes
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Isaiah plants seedlings and thinks about white people—specifically, the great difference between the two white people for whom he works, Miss Marriot and Rev. Ransome. He reflects that while Miss Marriot tries to teach him to plant, Rev. Ransome has taught him how to ring the church bell.
Although Isaiah recognizes that the same white-supremacist power dynamics are at play in all his interactions with white people, he does not assume that all white individuals are the same—he sees differences between his two white employers.
Themes
Shortly after Isaiah began working for the church, Rev. Ransome approached him and asked his name. When he said Isaiah, Rev. Ransome sked whether he was Christian. He said yes. Rev. Ransome asked whether he wanted to ring the bell and offered to show him how. Before the evening service that day, Rev. Ransome showed Isaiah how to tug the bell rope and asked whether he believed in God. Isaiah said he did. Rev. Ransome told him that the bell serves to summon believers, including those who “are lazy and don’t want to hear.” That encounter was all Rev. Ransome told Isaiah about the bell, in contrast with Miss Marriot constantly bothering him.
Rev. Ransome assumes Isaiah is Christian because the name “Isaiah” also belongs to an Old Testament prophet in the Bible whom Christians believed prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ, making Isaiah a logical name for Christians to give their son. Rev. Ransome’s comment that some believers are “lazy and don’t want to hear” suggests that it isn’t enough to believe—you also have to be motivated and break with bad habits to be a good Christian. Isaiah’s preference for Rev. Ransome suggests he likes how Rev. Ransome treats him as a competent worker who doesn’t need constant supervision—whereas Miss Marriot, due to her racism, supervises him like he’s a child.
Themes
When Isaiah sits under a bluegum in the churchyard to drink his tea, he sees a man (Tsotsi) sitting on the sidewalk looking exhausted. His exhaustion reminds Isaiah of when he worked as a farm laborer. It strikes Isaiah as strange that a “tsotsi-type,” who doesn’t work hard, would be so exhausted. Though Isaiah knows other people would tell him to avoid Tsotsi, he derives meaning from life based on “what he [can] recognize or remember, what he knew or what he had been through himself.” He goes and offers Tsotsi some tea.
Like Cassim and Morris, Isaiah at a glance recognizes Tsotsi as a “tsotsi-type,” a gang member. Unlike Cassim and Morris, however, Isaiah immediately sympathizes with Tsotsi’s exhaustion because he can remember being that exhausted. Isaiah’s memory and his tendency to act based on “what he had been through himself” allow him to extend kindness to Tsotsi in a way other characters haven’t.
Themes
Tsotsi takes the tea and looks at the church thoughtfully. Isaiah says, “The Church of Christ the Dreamer.” Tsotsi states, haltingly, that God is inside the church. Isaiah affirms it and tells Tsotsi he rings the church bell. Tsotsi asks why. Isaiah says it’s to call believers, including the lazy ones who “don’t want to hear.” Tsotsi seems struck by this answer.
Isaiah gets the name of the church wrong (it’s Church of Christ the Redeemer), which implies that he may not have had a very good religious education—casting a negative light on the white people who run the church. When Tsotsi responds strongly to Isaiah’s claim that some people “don’t want to hear” God’s call, it hints that Tsotsi himself is ambivalent about his possibly religious experiences.
Themes
Miss Marriot calls to Isaiah, asks him whether he’s finished planting marigolds, and tells him they don’t allow “strangers” in the church yard. Then she asks Tsotsi’s name. He leaves without answering. She asks Isaiah who Tsotsi is, but Isaiah says he doesn’t know. Miss Marriot tells Isaiah to tell Tsotsi that the church yard isn’t a park, but that they do want him to pray. Then she tells Isaiah to come when he’s done planting and returns to her office.
Miss Marriot’s obvious desire to drive Tsotsi, a young Black man she doesn’t know, away from the church suggests she’s suspicious of him due to racism. Her attempt to cloak her suspicion and hostility by claiming she wants Tsotsi to pray suggests that her religious feelings are only skin-deep, whereas her racism is entrenched.
Themes
Tsotsi comes back to the church fence while Isaiah is planting and asks whether Isaiah has been inside the church. Isaiah says yes. Tsotsi asks what’s inside, so Isaiah lists things, including “Jesus Cries on a cross.” Tsotsi asks what Jesus does, and Isaiah explains that people killed him on a cross after his father, God, sent him. Tsotsi asks about God. In response, Isaiah asks Tsotsi why he has so many questions and why he’s so tired.
When Isaiah misnames Jesus Christ as “Jesus Cries,” the novel once again suggests that apartheid has prevented many Black people from getting an education in general and religious education specifically. Isaiah’s discussion of the crucifixion may foreshadow an act of self-sacrifice later in the novel.
Themes
Tsotsi says he wants to know about God because “He’s got something to do with me.” Isaiah tells Tsotsi God created everything. God saved the world from a flood by putting everything in a boat built by Moses, who sailed it “into a promised land,” after which “Maria and Joseph gave birth to Jesus.” When Tsotsi asks whether there’s anything else, Isaiah explains that Rev. Ransome tells part of the story each Sunday and hasn’t finished yet.
Tsotsi’s comment that God’s “got something to do with” him suggests that he believes Boston’s claims about God without fully understanding them. Isaiah’s inaccurate rendering of the Bible (Noah built the ark, not Moses; Moses never reached the promised land; Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father) yet again suggests a lack of religious education for poor Black people in apartheid society; yet Isaiah also grasps a very rough outline of the biblical narrative, which suggests his interest in and devotion to Christianity is sincere.
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Isaiah realizes that—distracted by talking with Tsotsi—he has started planting crookedly again. He returns to the place in the row where he began making mistakes. Tsotsi, tailing him, asks where God is and what he wants. Isaiah says God is everywhere and that he wants people to be good and to stop “stealing, and killing and robbing,” because these things are sins. Tsotsi asks what happens if you sin, and Isaiah replies that Jesus will punish you with hell. Tsotsi asks whether punishment means killing. Isaiah replies, “Maybe.”
Isaiah makes several accurate theological claims here: according to Christian belief, God is everywhere and does want people to be good. Notably, if Tsotsi becomes a Christian, he must stop “stealing, and killing and robbing”—permanently break with gang life and give up his old, violent habits. Here, the novel may be suggesting that God has somehow, mysteriously, called Tsotsi to change his life. Yet when Isaiah entertains Tsotsi’s suggestion that maybe Jesus punishes sinners by killing them (which is not an orthodox Christian belief), it leaves open a more cynical interpretation: that God is just another, bigger gang boss who answers violence with more violence.
Themes
Tsotsi leaves for a time but returns to ask Isaiah when they sing. Isaiah says that evening and invites Tsotsi to join. Tsotsi is shocked. Isaiah tells him that everyone is welcome: “It’s the House of God. I ring His bell. Will you come?” Tsotsi agrees.
This passage highlights the importance of forgiveness and redemption in Christianity: even Tsotsi, who has murdered people, is welcome in “the House of God” if he is willing to listen to God’s “bell”—that is, God’s demand that sinners change their evil habits.
Themes
Tsotsi, feeling weightless, walks down the street holding the baby in his coat. Miriam, who’s in the yard doing washing, spots him. When he walks up to her, she leads him into her room, takes the baby, and puts it on the bed. Tsotsi claims the baby wasn’t hungry, but Miriam asks whether Tsotsi gave it the milk she left. Tsotsi says the baby vomited it up. Miriam asks whether he has money, and he says no. Miriam leaves to buy medicine, returns, and feeds some to the baby. Then she gives him milk. She looks at Tsotsi, asks what’s wrong, and offers him food.
That Tsotsi feels weightless and that Miriam asks him what’s wrong, implying that he looks disturbed, may indicate that he’s having an intense reaction to his religious conversation with Isaiah, that he’s very worried about the sick baby, or perhaps both.
Themes
While he eats, Miriam tells him that when she first realized Tsotsi wanted her to feed the baby, “it was worse than if…” Rather than completing the thought, she says Tsotsi knows what she means. She says she thought it was worse because her baby has a father, Simon, who vanished—but she was wrong, because mother’s milk should be used. Then she admits that she believes her husband Simon is dead.
Miriam seems to be implying that at first, she felt that breastfeeding a strange baby would be worse than Tsotsi raping her. Her later decision that she should give her mother’s milk to the baby, on the other hand, suggests she has come to believe that due to individuals’ common humanity, all adults should be willing to act as parents to children in need. This decision is freeing for her: it allows her to break with her old, antisocial habits and come to terms with her husband’s probable death.
Themes
Miriam concludes that she, her baby, baby David, and Tsotsi all have to live: “That’s all it is. Tomorrow comes and you got to live.” Tsotsi thinks of his own history and silently agrees. Miriam offers to let him rest at her house, and she goes outside to finish the washing. Tsotsi watches the baby. When Miriam comes back inside, he says he knows she wants the baby and asks her please not to take him. Miriam asks Tsotsi when he’ll be back and asks whether he’s going. The church bell rings. Later, Tsotsi returns, takes the baby, and hides it again in the ruins because he doesn’t trust Miriam enough.
Miriam’s claim—“Tomorrow comes and you got to live”—is a hopeful one. It suggests that as long as people are alive, they have the capacity to break with their old, destructive habits and make new choices. Tsotsi agrees and, to an extent, acts according to his agreement: by having the church bell ring as Tsotsi is leaving, the novel implies that Tsotsi has accepted Isaiah’s invitation to go to church, a repudiation of his old “gangster” identity. Yet Tsotsi is still too possessive of the baby, with whom he identifies, to trust the baby with Miriam, which suggests that his transformation is not yet complete.
Themes
Tsotsi wakes up. He remembers that Miriam told him, “Come back, Tsotsi.” He thinks he needs to tell her his real name. In the street he says out loud, “My name is David Madondo,” and laughs. The milkman overhears him and wishes him peace.
In this passage, the reader learns Tsotsi’s real, full name—“David Madondo”—for the first time. That he decides to tell Miriam his whole name shows that he is fully rejecting his old identity as a gang member and embracing his true individual identity. Notably, the milkman wishes Tsotsi peace rather than immediately reacting to him with fear, as previous characters such as Cassim and Morris Tshabalala have done. The milkman’s reaction suggests that Tsotsi’s transformation is visible to others; mysteriously, he no longer looks like a gang member. That the two characters wish each other peace—a religious greeting—suggests that Tsotsi’s transformation is somehow religious in nature.
Themes
David wishes the milkman peace and begins walking when he hears the noise of bulldozers. Evidently, people in the white township have complained that people are reclaiming the ruins, so they have sent the bulldozers in to destroy them a second time. David starts running and yelling at the bulldozers to stop. A few people, hearing him, start yelling “Stop” as well. He runs into the ruins without any of the workers seeing him. He has just reached the baby when a bulldozer knocks down a wall on top of him. Shortly afterward, he is pulled out of the wreckage, dead, but wearing a “beautiful” smile.
At this point, the novel stops calling Tsotsi “Tsotsi” and starts calling him “David,” indicating that he has completed his transformation, freeing himself from the gang member stereotype and reclaiming his individual identity. That the white township has insisted on re-razing the ruins where David has hidden his baby, however, indicates that the white supremacist social structure is once again threatening to destroy David’s family. David dies in a Christlike, self-sacrificing manner trying to save the baby—which fulfills the foreshadowing implicit in Boston singing “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” and in Isaiah’s discussion of the Crucifixion. Yet, although the novel does not explicitly state that the baby dies, it seems likely that the wall that killed David also crushed the baby. Thus, the novel’s ending suggests that while religion can cause positive individual transformations, it cannot cure structural evils like apartheid or white supremacy. David’s “beautiful” smile after death, then, may be a sincere sign of his redemption or an ironic comment on his powerlessness.
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