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    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope"
    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope"
    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope"
    Ebook45 pages26 minutes

    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 15, 2016
    ISBN9781535841412
    A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope"

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      A Study Guide for Alan Paton's "Too Late the Phalarope" - Gale

      1

      Too Late the Phalarope

      Alan Paton

      1953

      Introduction

      Following his successful debut with Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton wrote a second novel set in South Africa, Too Late the Phalarope. This second novel continues to be overshadowed by its predecessor, despite considerable critical opinion that it is the more polished of the two. Both books carry Paton's imprint in their portrayal of unfairness in a system designed to keep the races separate. As a dedicated political activist, Paton saw his writing as a means to a higher end. Too Late the Phalarope clearly exhibits the author's disgust with injustice in a supposedly moral society.

      Cry, the Beloved Country centers on the black experience in South Africa, while Too Late the Phalarope depicts the lives of Afrikaners (descendants of Dutch settlers who traveled to South Africa three hundred years ago). Specifically, Paton depicts a heroic protagonist, Pieter van Vlaanderen, grappling with private issues in the face of a strict law forbidding interracial sexual relationships. Pieter's internal struggles are intensified by the fact that, as a top-ranking police officer, he represents lawfulness and duty. His inability to resolve his dilemma with self-control leads to his ruin.

      Numerous critics regard Too Late the Phalarope as a modern-day Greek tragedy. The story features an extremely virtuous and upright hero whose downfall comes about as the result of his own tragic flaw. Further, secondary characters (such as Pieter's family) are destroyed by forces outside themselves and over which they have no control. The narrator, Sophie, is somewhat re from the rest of the characters because of her disfigurement, and thus serves as the chorus, commenting on the action of the plot. By updating the Greek tragedy, Paton refers to the universality of human suffering and weakness while demonstrating the dangers of an unjust social structure.

      Author Biography

      Alan Paton is remembered as an exceptional writer, a passionate activist, and a compelling educator. He was born on January 11, 1903, in Pietermaritzburg in Natal, a province of South Africa. Paton's father, like Jakob van Vlaanderen in Too Late the Phalarope, was a domineering, harsh, and religious man. Although he was a tyrant at home, James Pa-ton also passed along his love of literature and writing to his children. Alan Paton married in 1928, had two children with his wife, and was widowed in 1967. He remarried two years later.

      After completing his education at Pietermaritzburg College and Natal University, Paton taught for three years in rural Ixopo, which would later serve as the setting for Cry, the Beloved Country. In 1935, he became the principal of Diepkloof, a school for delinquent boys. Paton changed the dynamics in the school from force and conflict to trust and respect. This experience prompted him to travel around the world to study prison systems. He wrote his

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