Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The wild olive bowl
Includes bibliographical references.
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of English Language and Literature
2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613639282786304 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | King, Michael |
| author2 | Barris, Ken |
| author_browse | Barris, Ken King, Michael |
| author_facet | Barris, Ken King, Michael |
| author_sort | King, Michael |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12846 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:20.754Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12846 The wild olive bowl King, Michael Barris, Ken Coovadia, Imraan English Includes bibliographical references. Set against the political backdrop of the boycotts, arson and funerals of July 1980 in Grahamstown, this novel explores how the discovery of the dead body of a street child under the walls of St Jude’s Chapel sets events in motion that provoke the spiritual crises faced by the two protagonists. Father Philip Riley, the non-stipendiary curate at St Jude’s who had come to South Africa as a missionary inspired by Trevor Huddleston, has over the years lost any sense of his priestly vocation and his own personal beliefs. Lieutenant Daniel Broughton of the Grahamstown CID has to solve the mystery of the boy’s death, but he too has lost his idealism following a career in the South African Police that began at Sharpeville, and now hovers in a dead-end position in Grahamstown. Both these men have to come to terms with what the death of the street child requires of them. Riley has to overcome his reluctance to give the child a proper burial, and Broughton has to dig deeper than he is initially willing to, to determine how the child died. As the story unfolds, details emerge which thwart the opening attempts by both men to deflect any responsibility for the child from themselves. Riley had started life in an orphanage, and had been forced into colluding with the supervisor to cover up the cause of death of one of the orphans. He is challenged by the selfless love shown for the child by Mrs Mabata, a parishioner at St Jude’s who had tried to foster the street child. He realises that his reluctance to engage with the situation has to do with denying his own failures, based on his own life story. Giving in to pressure from a Roman Catholic priest to carry out the funeral, he discovers an inner strength to defy a police order not to conduct the funeral. The funeral goes ahead successfully, and Riley experiences moments of transcendence that allow him to re-discover his vocation. On the other hand, Broughton discovers that the street child’s involvement as an informer for the Security Police had been the cause of his death. 2015-05-26T14:07:41Z 2015-05-26T14:07:41Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12846 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | English King, Michael The wild olive bowl |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The wild olive bowl |
| title_full | The wild olive bowl |
| title_fullStr | The wild olive bowl |
| title_full_unstemmed | The wild olive bowl |
| title_short | The wild olive bowl |
| title_sort | wild olive bowl |
| topic | English |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12846 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kingmichael thewildolivebowl AT kingmichael wildolivebowl |