It's easier for the former masters to put aside the masks that hid their humanity than for the former slaves to recognise the faces underneath. Or to trust that this is not a new mask these are wearing.
Nadine GordimerRead
Rebirth. I mean by this simply what happens when the child begins to realise the fact that the black does not enter through the white’s front door is not in the same category as the fact that the dead will never come back.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Rebirth signifies a deeper understanding of social realities beyond fundamental truths about life and death.
In this quote, Nadine Gordimer explores the concept of rebirth as an awakening to the often painful truths of societal divisions, particularly racial ones. It suggests that the recognition of these divisions is a critical moment of realization for a child, highlighting the difference between the inevitability of death and the painful recognition of social injustice and exclusion that limits access and opportunity based on race.
Themes
RebirthAwarenessSocial InjusticeRaceTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about racial equality, one might say, 'As Nadine Gordimer noted, rebirth is essential to understanding the harsh realities of our society.'
More from Nadine Gordimer
All quotes →The gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind's eye only, fade out in sand.
Nadine GordimerRead
Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.
Nadine GordimerRead
Art defies defeat by its very existence, representing the celebration of life, in spite of all attempts to degrade and destroy it.
Nadine GordimerRead
A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.
Nadine GordimerRead
If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.
Nadine GordimerRead
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Jacob did not cease to be a Saint because he had to attend to his flocks.
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