The Prize Within the Pursuit
To the rest of the world, education is a sort of key to unlock job opportunities, money, and eventually power or social status. To me, education is simply a means of erasing ignorance, finding one's individual creativity, and obtaining a new perspective on life. To little Johanes Mathabane, these propositions seem a threat to his deeply implanted lifestyle. Under South Africa's system of legalized tribal racism (apartheid), school permits are almost impossible to recieve. Add to that an abusive, alcoholic father, and an environment that generally deplores education, and it is no wonder that Johanes gives his life to the streets. However, when he learns that street life often turns into street death, in order to break his family's cycle of bitterness, his views of education will come to change. They must.
Initially, Johanes sees the streets as his salvation. The concept of daily revolution, stealing to live with his fellow adolescent outlaws, enthralls him. Where and why should school enter?
As he says, "Survival was our first priority."
In his own mind, he is already educated, street-smart. Through his rebellion, he defies his own oppressive, finding his own "attraction".
However, this confidence is heavily swayed when he hears the story of a stranger woman's own rebellious (and dead) son.
"I dropped my eyes. I was confused."
Although he feels remorse, Johanes does not know how to respond. This is evidence of his ignorance.
Later on, Johanes encounters his father, who has beaten his mother in a rage over his son's education costs. After retreating to his grandmother, Johanes learns that this father of recent is a control in an experiment of which Mathabane is currently undergoing. To him, this thought is summed up in a statement that "shattered every defense mechanism and every pretext I had against going to school." In other words, Johanes' father never recieved an education. To be his own man, that is Mathabane's new mission.
At this moment, Johanes' ignorance ends. The future that he sees through his parents is incentive enough for him to "open the doors where none seem to exist", to pursue an education. Even more, Johanes' view of education is not the only one that changes. Through this experience, the bonds between him and his mother and grandmother are strengthened. Ultimately (although unbeknownst to him), Johanes has learned a lesson that no classroom can teach - love.
