Six Feet Of The Country By Nadine Gordimer Summary ((top)) Now

Nadine Gordimer’s 1956 short story "Six Feet of the Country" explores the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa through the narrative of a white couple whose farmhand loses his brother to strict, negligent bureaucratic policies. The narrative highlights themes of systemic injustice, white apathy, and the powerlessness of individuals against a state that reduces Black lives to interchangeable, disposable units. For a full summary and analysis, visit SuperSummary Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide

Part 1: The Setup – A Rural Business Venture

The story is narrated by a white man, who remains unnamed. He and his wife, a liberal, well-intentioned couple, have left Johannesburg to run a small roadside "general dealer’s" store and a transport business in a rural area. They have also acquired a piece of land—"six miles of ground"—on which they hope to raise chickens and pigs. The narrator describes their relationship with the local black population as transactional but not unkind. They employ several black workers, and the narrator fancies himself a fair "baas" (boss), albeit one who keeps a comfortable distance from the personal lives of his employees.

The couple lives in a small cottage attached to the store. They are outsiders: white, English-speaking, and Jewish in a predominantly Afrikaner rural district. They feel a sense of superiority over their Afrikaner neighbors, whom they consider crude, and a sense of frustrated benevolence toward the black people, whom they see as childlike and in need of firm management.

One evening, a young African man who works for them—a garden boy named Petrus—approaches the narrator. Petrus is anxious. He explains that his younger brother, who has been visiting from a distant rural area (the "reserves"), is very sick. The brother’s name is Johannes. Petrus asks the narrator for a pass to take Johannes to town to see a white doctor.

The Moral of the Story

"Six Feet of the Country" is a scathing critique of the dehumanization inherent in the apartheid system.

The Bureaucracy of Death: Gordimer shows how the apartheid state extended its control even into the grave. The paperwork, the fees, and the mishandling of the body strip the family of their right to mourn with dignity.
The Limits of White Sympathy: The narrator is a classic Gordimer archetype—the "liberal" white who tries to help but is ultimately trapped within the system he benefits from. He pays for the hearse, but he remains detached. He is concerned with the leftover wood and the receipt, while his workers are grieving a spiritual catastrophe.
Dispossession: The title refers to the six feet of earth required for a grave. The tragic irony is that for these migrant workers, who have traveled hundreds of miles to work the land, the only piece of the country they are guaranteed to own is the small patch of dirt they are buried in—and even that, they had to pay for.

Key Themes & Meaning

Apartheid Bureaucracy: The story critiques the brutal, impersonal nature of the pass laws and racial regulations that stripped Black South Africans of dignity, even in death.
Liberal Helplessness: The white narrator believes his good intentions and status can change things, but he ultimately learns that the system is designed to exclude him from real power over Black lives. His outrage accomplishes nothing.
The Title’s Irony: “Six feet of the country” refers literally to the shallow, unmarked grave. Metaphorically, it shows how the land belongs to the white regime, and even the smallest piece of it—a grave—is denied to Black people for a proper burial.
Cultural Disconnect: The narrator realizes he knows nothing about Petrus’s family, his brother’s name, or his traditions. The story ends with him noting that Petrus never even told him the dead brother’s name, highlighting the vast, unbridgeable gap between white and Black experiences in apartheid South Africa.

Nadine Gordimer’s "Six Feet of the Country" is a 1956 short story critiquing apartheid in South Africa, focusing on the bureaucratic dehumanization following the death of a Black farm worker. The narrative highlights the failure of white privilege to navigate a racist system when the wrong body is returned for burial. For a detailed breakdown, read the summary and study guide at SuperSummary. Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide

Six Feet of the Country is a short story by Nadine Gordimer, first published in 1953. The story revolves around the death of a farm worker, Paulus, and explores the themes of mortality, social class, and the relationships between the rich and the poor in a rural South African setting.

The story takes place on a farm owned by a wealthy family, the Van der Vyers. Paulus, a poor farm worker, dies after being crushed by a tractor. The narrative follows the events that unfold after his death, particularly focusing on the reactions of the farm's white inhabitants and the treatment of Paulus's body.

The title, Six Feet of the Country, refers to the common phrase "six feet of earth" needed for a person's burial, symbolizing the minimal space allocated to a person's life. The story highlights the disparities in how different social classes are treated, even in death. six feet of the country by nadine gordimer summary

The body of Paulus is taken to the local morgue, and when his family cannot afford to pay for a funeral, the undertaker suggests they sell one of their goats to cover the costs. This act symbolizes the economic struggles faced by the poor and the devaluation of a poor person's life.

The climax of the story occurs when Paulus's widow and children decide to take his body from the morgue and bury it themselves. They dig a grave on the outskirts of the farm where Paulus worked and bury him with makeshift arrangements. This act can be seen as a form of resistance and a reclaiming of dignity for Paulus and his family.

Gordimer uses Six Feet of the Country to critique the apartheid regime and the social and economic inequalities it perpetuated. Through the lens of a single event—the death of a marginalized farm worker—Gordimer exposes the brutal realities of life under apartheid and questions the morality of a society that dehumanizes its poor and non-white populations.

The story is characterized by Gordimer's straightforward yet powerful prose, which effectively portrays the harsh realities of life in South Africa during the apartheid era. Six Feet of the Country has been widely praised for its thought-provoking exploration of social injustice, human dignity, and the impact of systemic oppression on ordinary lives.

The narrative technique employed by Gordimer involves a matter-of-fact presentation of the events, which contrasts with the profound implications of those events. This technique reflects the normalized brutality and injustice prevalent in the society of the time.

Six Feet of the Country not only serves as a critique of apartheid South Africa but also poses universal questions about human rights, dignity, and the valuation of human life across different cultures and societies. Through this story, Gordimer challenges readers to reflect on their own moral and ethical positions regarding social justice and human equality.

Summary of "Six Feet of the Country" by Nadine Gordimer

"Six Feet of the Country" (1956) is a powerful short story by South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. It explores the emotional and moral chasm created by Apartheid—South Africa’s legalized system of racial segregation and oppression. The story uses a deeply personal tragedy to expose how the regime dehumanized black South Africans and distanced white citizens from the reality of suffering occurring on their doorstep.

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.

Bibliography (select)

Gordimer, Nadine. “Six Feet of the Country.” [Primary text]
Critical works on Gordimer and apartheid-era literature (e.g., scholarship by J.M. Coetzee, Christopher Wagstaff, Homi Bhabha on race and representation)
Theoretical texts on bureaucracy and dehumanization (e.g., Max Weber, Hannah Arendt)

If you want, I can expand any section into a full-length essay (e.g., 2,500–4,000 words) with direct textual quotes and line-by-line close reading.

Nadine Gordimer’s short story "Six Feet of the Country" (1956) is a poignant exploration of racial division, systemic inequality, and the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa. Quick Summary

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.

Because the deceased was an illegal immigrant, the authorities take the body for a post-mortem. Despite the narrator’s initial reluctance, Petrus and the other workers scrape together £20—a massive sum for them—to pay for the body’s return and a proper burial. However, when the coffin is delivered and opened, the family discovers it contains the wrong body. The narrator's attempts to navigate the apathetic bureaucracy to recover the correct body fail, and the money is never refunded, leaving the family without their loved one or their savings. Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide

Six Feet of the Country " is a powerful short story by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer

, first published in 1956. Set in South Africa during the apartheid era, it explores themes of racial inequality, bureaucratic indifference, and the failure of human empathy. SuperSummary Plot Summary

The story is narrated by an unnamed white man who, along with his wife

, has moved from Johannesburg to a small luxury farm ten miles out of the city. They hope the rural lifestyle will repair their strained marriage, but instead, it only highlights their disconnect. SuperSummary Six Feet of the Country Summary & Study Guide Nadine Gordimer’s 1956 short story "Six Feet of

Nadine Gordimer ’s " Six Feet of the Country " (1956) is a poignant exploration of racial injustice and the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa. The story centers on a white couple living on a farm near Johannesburg who become embroiled in the bureaucratic tragedy following the death of an illegal immigrant laborer. Plot Summary

The unnamed narrator and his wife, Lerice, move to a farm outside Johannesburg hoping to salvage their strained marriage. However, the idyllic setting is shattered when a young man from Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe)—the brother of their farmhand Petrus—dies on their property from illness and exposure. Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide

1. The Failure of Liberal White Liberalism

The narrator is not a racist monster like the Afrikaner officials he despises. He considers himself enlightened. He pays his workers, he does not beat them, and he occasionally defends them in barroom conversations. Yet, when a life-or-death request is made, his first reaction is irritation and dismissal. Gordimer’s devastating insight is that liberal goodwill is useless when it refuses to engage with the actual humanity of the oppressed. The narrator’s “help” is condescending, belated, and ultimately futile. He is part of the system, not its antidote.

Key Themes

1. The Dehumanization of Black South Africans under Apartheid The central horror of the story is that the dead man becomes a "case number." The white officials see no difference between one black body and another. The line, “They are all natives,” is the story’s damning indictment of the system.

2. The Innocence of Ignorance vs. Guilty Complicity The narrator considers himself a "good" white man (he runs a store for black people, employs them). He believes he has nothing to do with Apartheid’s cruelty. Yet, his refusal to grant the simple request for a coffin and transport directly leads to the tragedy. Gordimer shows that complicity is not just active cruelty, but also the failure to see others as fully human.

3. The Clash of Cultures The story pits Western bureaucracy (death certificates, permits, numbered plots) against African spirituality (burial with ancestors, community mourning). The cold, bureaucratic system wins, but only by committing a form of spiritual violence. The family is left unable to complete their mourning ritual.

4. Land and Belonging The title, Six Feet of the Country, is bitterly ironic. The government claims to give land to everyone, but for a black man, the only land he is truly allowed to “own” is a six-foot grave. And in this story, he doesn’t even get that.