Tsotsi’s Transformation: A Story of Redemption in Apartheid South Africa
In Tsotsi, the novel revolves around the character of Tsotsi, a young man who leads a gang of four thugs in a township of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1950s. While the novel isn’t just about Tsotsi, technically, the story is shaped by all the other minor characters because they are the people who alter the plot, and the plot revolves around Tsotsi. Throughout the novel, we see an evolution of Tsotsi’s character from a hardened, uncaring individual to a man with an understanding much greater than that of an average man, and this is the main core of this novel. These changes are centered around a baby.
The Baby’s Impact on Tsotsi
The baby is introduced relatively early. He is given to Tsotsi at the beginning of the novel by a woman during a robbery, and this changes Tsotsi’s entire life.
In the early stages, Tsotsi demonstrates his hardened, uncaring shell when he jumps on the train, killing Gumboot for no reason other than the color of his tie, his smile, and the money he carried with him. Tsotsi carries fear, a fear of the past and the pain such memories could bring him. He cannot begin to care for others as he refuses to admit feelings himself. But then, when the baby appears in his life, he starts experiencing different emotions toward life and his past. He starts taking care of the baby. In chapter 4, he goes to Cassim’s shop to get milk for the baby, and this represents that he is starting to care for others. His heart is softening. Tsotsi becomes obsessed with caring for and keeping the baby as his way out of a rotten life.
The Baby as a Catalyst for Self-Discovery
As the plot progresses, we come to see that the baby is a catalyst for Tsotsi’s self-discovery. The baby represents innocence, kindness, and the positives of human nature, just like David, which was Tsotsi’s name before becoming a gangster. Tsotsi recognizes that and names the baby after his past self. The baby helps Tsotsi towards becoming David again by teaching him simple life lessons such as caring, nurturing, and responsibility for others. He reveals his change brought on by the baby when he talks to Boston in chapter 11: “There were lights in those eyes. Where there had been darkness, there was something like light.”
Tsotsi’s Compassion and Miriam’s Influence
Tsotsi nurtures the baby with milk and cleans the baby, which proves this new compassionate outlook. Tsotsi goes home and finds the baby in poor condition, covered in ants. Realizing it needs a mother’s care, he observes the line-up for water, trying to pick a woman who would suffice. He decides on Miriam, and at first, she is reluctant to help. He must threaten the life of her own child, showing he hasn’t fully changed as a man. In the last chapter, he goes to Miriam to feed the baby, and she opens up to him, explaining how her husband is dead and she accepts that she must move on. “I mean, we got to live. Little David, he’s got to live. Anyway, Simon must, and me too. Even you. We just got to live.” “Tomorrow comes, and you got to live.” This belief transfers to Tsotsi and resonates within him. From her belief, he understands that you can’t let your past determine your future, and you must continue living despite past influences. But think about it, if the baby did not exist, he wouldn’t know Miriam, and he would not understand this belief.
The Baby as a Symbol of Apartheid
The baby also represents the apartheid of Africa because he is the one who reveals Tsotsi’s past. It forced Tsotsi to choose violence when he was a little kid. The police came and took his mother away because she didn’t have a passbook, representing the blacks’ instability economically and socially. Their lives could be uprooted by the white expansion any day, and they lived in fear of frequent raids.
The Baby’s Importance
The baby is not a main character in the story, but it is one of the most important. When Tsotsi names it David, he realizes that he has to keep it alive in order for himself to become David instead of Tsotsi.