Six Feet Of The Country By Nadine Gordimer Summary -
Nadine Gordimer’s "Six Feet of the Country" explores the systemic cruelty of apartheid South Africa through the story of a black laborer's desperate attempt to bury his brother, who died illegally on a white-owned farm. The narrative highlights the dehumanization of black individuals under apartheid, as bureaucratic indifference results in the wrong body being returned to the family after a costly, sacrificial, and ultimately futile effort to secure a proper burial.
Plot Overview (brief)
A Black farm worker, recently married, suddenly collapses and dies. The farmer (Sally’s husband, an Afrikaner) and his wife (Sally, the narrator) must arrange burial and notify the authorities. The local policeman, magistrate, and registrar become involved. The white couple are chiefly anxious about paperwork, property, and neighborly appearances. Sally observes the dead man’s body and family; she experiences discomfort and intermittent empathy, but ultimately aligns with the prevailing system—organizing burial with minimal acknowledgment of the deceased’s personhood beyond administrative needs. six feet of the country by nadine gordimer summary
The Cost of Dignity
Initially, the narrator is sympathetic. He agrees to help, viewing it as a gesture of goodwill. However, he quickly discovers that the state does not treat the bodies of poor Black laborers with the same respect as white citizens. Nadine Gordimer’s "Six Feet of the Country" explores
Suggested avenues for further research (brief)
- A close linguistic study of the story’s legal and administrative vocabulary and how it functions rhetorically.
- Comparative analysis with Gordimer’s other apartheid-era stories to trace evolving strategies of moral critique.
- Reception history: how the story was read within and outside South Africa in the 1950s and how interpretations have shifted since.
Racial and Social Divide: The narrator’s frustration is largely about the "inconvenience" and the loss of money, whereas for Petrus, it is a profound spiritual and familial tragedy. A close linguistic study of the story’s legal
The narrator reads the letter to Petrus. He tries to soften the blow, to explain that he fought as hard as he could. Petrus stands in silence. Then, for the first time, the narrator sees a true emotion in his face—not anger, but a profound, silent grief and a dawning realization of the nature of the world he lives in. Petrus does not thank the narrator. He simply turns and walks away.
The story follows an unnamed white narrator and his wife, Lerice, who have moved to a farm outside Johannesburg to escape city life and improve their strained marriage. Their quiet existence is disrupted when a young migrant worker from Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe)—the brother of their farmhand, Petrus—dies of pneumonia.