Holding back Midnight

1. Holding back Midnight Maureen Isaacson

2. President Manzwe Mother Ethel Leon (husband) Dad Uncle Otto Louis Dutoit Joyce Dutoit The daughter Paul Schoeman Characters

3. President Manzwe • President Manzwe is the new President of South Africa after transformation • He is the first black President.

4. The daughter • She and her non-white husband, Leon, lives on a communal plot in the outer limits of the mega-city.

5. Mother • She is drinking • She is old, and looks like a dead person • They have ravaged voices from smoking

6. Ethel • The mother’s friend • She is also old and ravished from smoking.

7. Leon Laubscher • Leon is coloured • He is married to the daughter • The dogs always bark at him because of his colour • Leon is not bitter about the past. • His motto is forgive and forget. • He has equilibrium, he is peaceful. • Laubscher is a white surname so people don’t know immediately that he is a non-white.

8. Dad • The father is caught up in history • He still lives in the Old South Africa and does not want to change. • He was a hotel owner. • White men used his hotel rooms to sleep with women of another colour • These meetings were not allowed in the Old South Africa • He is the perfect host at the party.

9. Dad • He was very rich and had connection in the government during the old regime. • He was a miner but made his money with the hotel. • They owned three game farms and four cars. • The new regime took away some of his farms because of the redistribution of wealth policy.

10. Uncle Otto • Ex-minister of Home Affairs • He lost his position when the government changed. • He was one of her father’s guests at the hotel • He calls the prostitutes angels.

11. Louis Dutoit • A Dentist • A family friend • Still believes in the Old Johannesburg • Louis only treats white people.

12. Joyce Dutoit • Still believes in Old Johannesburg as it was during Apartheid.

13. Paul Schoeman • The old minister of Law and Order. • He cannot understand that the daughter lives in a native township (Soweto) • He wears a panic button around his neck which is set off when he pulls the daughter too close to him when dancing.

14. Setting • Set in the last minutes before midnight, 31 December 1999. • South Africa is on the brink of the new millenium. • Women wear recyclable dresses and everyone uses paper gloves in restaurants to prevent the transmission of AIDS.

15. Plot • The daughter and her non-white husband is at her parents New Year’s party. • They await the arrival of the year 2000. • Some of the guests are ministers from the old regime. • The characters find themselves in the new South Africa • Through the conversations you hear that the old generation is not accepting the changes. • The daughter sets off Paul Schoeman’s panic button when they dance • Armed security guards arrive and the dogs are let out. • They insinuate that the husband is hiding because the dogs don’t like him • Midnight arrives and the father says no not yet, suggesting he is holding back midnight

16. Intention • The writer concentrates on the past. • The parents and their friends – among them cabinet ministers from the old regime – refuse to relinquish the past. • The writer shows the difference between the views of the daughter and her parents. • The older generation can not read the signs that things have changed.

17. Intention • The older generation misinterprets the new freedom for anarchy (chaos and disorder) • The older generation protects themselves with security guards, panic buttons and dogs. • The old generation tell stories of lifts not working and rubbish piling up

18. The heading of the story • ‘Holding back midnight’ can be interpreted figuratively. • Nobody is able to stop midnight (12’o clock) from happening. • Midnight refers figuratively to the New South Africa, change, events,. • By not accepting the new government the father and his friends are holding back the arrival of the new regime.

19. Old South Africa • Cheap labour was the cause of ghettos. • Afrikaans and English are the only official languages.

20. New South Africa • The ghetto’s got smaller when there was no more cheap labour • There are more shebeens and malls that play jazz in the old poverty stricken township. • Soweto is connected to Johannesburg with a skyway and a highway • Soweto runs on foreign funding • There are millions of people, of all races, living in the new exciting and modern Soweto. • They plant organic food. • They care about Johannesburg.

21. New South Africa • The daughter wears a dress made of paper. • They recycle their products. • There is a downswing in crime. • Because of the redistribution of wealth there are no more poor people. • Afrikaans and English are not the official languages.