29 pages • 58 minutes read
The Ultimate Safari
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Symbols & Motifs
Shoes
The unnamed grandmother sells her church shoes to afford a plastic container to transport water on their long march to safety. In essence, she gives up the tools of autonomy for the necessities of survival. Her feet bleed when she does not have her shoes; she suffers and loses some of her autonomy.
Shoes represent security in the story. For the grandmother, shoes are a luxury one can only have when one feels safe. For this reason, her church shoes are sacrificed early in the story when she no longer feels safe and no longer has a home. Feet are symbolic of action: of movement and autonomy. Shoes, then, are the necessary tools of action and movement. Without them, one cannot safely move forward, Through the bulk of the story, the grandmother endures and suffers the loss of her shoes.
Once they arrive safely at the refugee camp, the grandmother does not buy new shoes for herself but buys school shoes for the children. At this, the little girl says, “[w]hen we look at them it is as if we are in a real house, with no war, no away” (13). The shoes at the end represent hope for security in the future.
Nonverbal Characters
In “The Ultimate Safari,” several key characters have given up speech all together. Their silence startles other characters; nonverbal characters symbolize the devastating effects of war.
The grandfather is the most notable nonverbal character. When the grandmother decides to abandon their home in Mozambique, “grandfather made little noises and rocked from side to side” (3). He does not contribute to the decision, and grandmother “took no notice” of his noises (3). The grandfather is truly nonverbal and viewed as inconsequential as a result of war. His opinions, dreams, and ideas have all been silenced by war. The grandfather’s lack of speech portrays the debilitating results of war. It does not suggest that war silences men’s ambitions but rather shows how a man is made nonverbal by war.
To demonstrate the lasting effects of war, the baby in the story is also nonverbal. His sister says, “[h]e wants to ask something but you can see he can’t” (10). The reason for his behavior is “because we didn’t have enough food at home. Because of the war. Because our father wasn’t there” (14). Characters are nonverbal from the oldest generation to the youngest, suggesting that war’s effects will last for years to come.
Gardens
A garden is a symbol of hope, plenty, and promise. In this story, Gordimer points out the absence of gardens in war-torn Mozambique, highlighting the lack of hope, prosperity, or substance.
The narrator points out that there used to be gardens in Mozambique before the war. The grandfather’s garden was trampled and he had no seeds to plant again. The “bandits” came and ate his food, stole his livestock, and trampled the seeds. This suggests that not only does the war destroy the present but the future as well. Survival and hope are simultaneously removed.
It is not until the final scenes at the refugee camp that readers learn that some refugees have planted gardens outside the tents. There is some hope, at last, though not among everyone in the camp. Many sit silent and damaged by the war, unable to move forward or reconcile their experiences with their reality. For others, the gardens are small, but they are planted and representative of the renewal of hope, sustenance, self-reliance, and dignity.
Away
For the unnamed narrator, the word “away” has many meanings. Initially, she uses the term to refer to the death of her parents. “My father also had gone away one day and never returned” (1). “Away” is an unnamed location that does not involve a return.
When the grandmother decides that they will leave, the little girl does not know where they are going or where they will end up–she only knows that it is “away” (4). Gordimer has already established that the narrator’s use of “away” means death, heightening the sense of danger for the refugees.
By repeating this motif throughout the text, Gordimer highlights the innocence of children in war who do not understand their situation and conflate death and travel. At the same time, by coupling the meaning to death, she demonstrates how dangerous fleeing is for the refugees.
By never naming the location of the refugee camp or the country of destination, Gordimer suggests that “away” can be anywhere. In this way, Gordimer uses the motif of “away” to signal the global nature of conflict and the refugee crisis.
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By Nadine Gordimer
