Protest Against Oppression in Alan Paton\'s Short Story \"Life for a Life\"

During the colonial period the inhabitants of South Africa experienced social and cultural discriminati on in all spheres of life. The colonizers considered the nonwhites as inferiors and suppressed them and such opp ression was cruel and inhuman attitude which suffocated the natives. The European colonizers introduced apartheid system in South Africa in order to bring them under their control. Alan Pat on pictures this attitude of subjugation and aims a t making an end to this problem. In one of his short story 'Life for aLife' he pictures the sufferings of Enoch Maarman a nd his family on account of the discrimination between a rich white fa rmer and a poor brown shepherd. In order to avenge th murder of a rich farmer, the innocent Enoch Maarman is killed an d buried. His wife, Sara's voice against the murder of her husband is suppressed. Alan Paton portrays the horrible pict ure of oppression in the short story.