NSC English FAL Poetry: Read the extracts from the novel

Question

Read the extracts from the novel below and answer the questions set on each. The number of marks allocated to each question serves as a guide to the expected length of your answer.

NOTE: Answer the questions set on BOTH extracts, i.e. QUESTION 1.1 AND QUESTION 1.2.

1.1 EXTRACT A

[Stephen Kumalo undertakes the journey to Johannesburg.]

It is always so, he said, as if to himself, but in truth to the people.
I thank you for him, umfundisi.
The train whistled and jerked. Kumalo was nearly thrown off his feet. It would be safer, more dignified to take his seat.
— Stay well, my friend.
— Go well, umfundisi.
He went to his seat, and people looked at him with interest and respect, at the man who went often to Johannesburg. The train gathered way, to creep along the hills, to hang over steep valleys, to pass the bracken and the ferns, to enter the darkness of the white plantations, past Station, down into Ixopo.

The journey had begun. And now the fear back again, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the great city where boys were killed crossing the street, the fear of Gertrude’s sickness. Deep down for the first man. Deep down the fear of a man who lives in his own mind where his own world is slipping away, dying, being destroyed, beyond any recall.

Already the knees are weak of the man who remembered since had shown his little vanity, told his little lie, before these respectful people.

The mountain reached in his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain.

[Book One, Chapter 3]

[Stephen Kumalo is alone on the mountain.]

Do tears come into his eyes, and does he wipe them away, and stand up like a man? Does he say, I will not eat alone, I will pray? Is Msimangu with him, or Father Vincent, or the other priests? Does he want to comfort and strengthen him, for he is afraid of the great city? Or is there only comfort for his fear? Is there nothing that can be done now, is there not an all-powerful God that will not allow him to meet, to make a great man with me?

He looked out of his clouded eyes at the faintly lighting sky behind the mountain, and he saw the silence. And he gave his hand, and he was comforted in a silence that had no name. He could not find it, he could not see it, but he could feel it. And yet he turned again and the pain rose in his eyes and looked on the far off.

And it was not the mountain, it rose to his heart like a cord. And he laid it down like a child. And he thought of Absalom.

[Book Three, Chapter 7]

Read the extracts from the novel below and answer the questions set on each - NSC English FAL - Question 1 - 2019 - Paper 2

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Read the extracts from the novel below and answer the questions set on each - NSC English FAL - Question 1 - 2019 - Paper 2

1.1.1 (a) Clutches Stephen Kumalo a room in Johannesburg.

1.1.1 (b) Denies being an accomplice to Arthur’s murder.

1.1.1 (c) Eponent of South Africa's racial injustices.

1.1.1 (d) Teaches the Ndotsheni people better farming methods.

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