“Sponono” – By Alan Paton

“Sponono,” by Alan Paton, is about a boy who attends a reformatory school in South Africa. Sponono, a member of the Xhosa tribe, has a very different cultural background than those who run the school.  The reader first sees Sponono when he asks to speak the principal in order to defend and protect a fellow student.  Johannes, an older reformatory student had stolen a watch and was likely to be expelled from the school and then imprisoned.  Sponono, realizing the Principal may choose Johannes fate, tries to persuade the principal to offer the boy another chance.  Sponono argues that since the goal of the school is to reform the boys (it is, after all, a “REFORMatory”), sending Johannes to prison would in fact make him more of a criminal.  Johannes himself states:  “‘I am learning,’ he said, ‘but not yet enough.  If I come back here, I shall learn completely. But if I go to prison, I shall learn to steal more than before’” (53).  The principal is persuaded and agrees to give Johannes another chance. This early look at how reformation works sets the tone for the reader’s understanding of Sponono’s reform attempts later in the story. Throughout the rest of the story, Sponono makes mistake after mistake.  He steals and he gets in fights, but each time he misbehaves, he expects to be forgiven.  The Principal grows weary of this tomfoolery and is not as keen to repeat this cycle of constant forgiveness.  The principal and him, have very different ideas about forgiveness. Sponono, in spite of his faults and mistakes, honestly wants to reform. 

Sponono had listened carefully to his catechism lessons and liked Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness: “Jesus said that we must forgive those who offend against us, even unto seventy times seven” (61). The principal though, seems to base his ideas about forgiveness more on the Old Testament teaching  about “an eye for an eye.”  The principal feels that Sponono must be punished in some way for his mistakes/crimes.  Sponono sees his actions as mistakes on the road to reforming and the Principal sees them as crimes and signs that Sponono will never reform.  The Principal wants to punish rather than forgive because he thinks that will be a more effective way to reform Sponono.  Sponono though, doesn’t see the purpose of the punishment.  He thinks he just needs to be genuinely sorry for what he has done.  Sponono and the Principal both take the idea of reform fairly literally.  The word “re-form,” literally means to form yourself again.  The Principal thinks that can only be done through punishment.  Sponono thinks that being sorry is the way to re-make your ideals.  The Principal works with hundreds of boys in the reformatory and he wants the punishments to deter others from misbehaving.  Sponono doesn’t understand how deterrence  relates to reforming himself or others.  Sponono also doesn’t see how retribution helps.  He does give back the money he stole from the couple, thinking that it is right to compensate a victim’s loss.  He just doesn’t see how revenge or deterrence help a sinner reform.  After Sponono steals from the couple, he doesn’t understand why he can’t still work in the Principal’s garden.  He feels that he made amends and was sorry, so he doesn’t see what his punishment will accomplish.  Sponono applies these ideas to others.  He wants forgiveness for Johannes and when Tembo injures his eye, he doesn’t ask for “an eye for an eye,” he forgives him:  “He did not mean to hurt my eye. I might have hurt his eye too, if he had not hurt mine first. It was his bad luck, meneer” (60).  The one thing he can’t forgive is his Principal’s inability to forgive him:

“Are you then like other people, who, when a man has done wrong, treat him badly? I have always looked upon you as a trustworthy, but now I am ashamed… Why have you turned?  You were always a man of your word, but now you are changed.”

This seems to contradict what Sponono says about forgiveness, but maybe that’s the author’s point.  Like Penelope Lively, maybe Paton too doesn’t want to give easy answers.  He wants to leave things ambiguous.

Sponono Blog

Emily Unthank

3/24/14

Great Books

Stephanie Berry

Why does Sponono want the principle to forgive him when Sponono won’t forgive the principle?

               

The Story Sponono by Alan Paton is about a boy named Sponono. It is in Africa and there are many different tribes of people. Sponono was from the Xhosa tribe. Sponono lived at the reformatory for a couple years. Sponono expects the principle to forgive him for many of his mistakes. Sponono goes to the principle one day and tries to help a boy named Johannes from getting into jail. The principle was impressed by Sponono’s act of kindness towards Johannes and they started a sort of relationship. Eventually Sponono becomes the principles gardener. Sponono gets in trouble for stealing money and throwing a rock at some people that where having a picnic on Christmas. The principle did forgive him for this but he could no longer be his gardener at the reformatory. The principle left the reformatory and Sponono asked if he could come with him. The principle said that he could come with him. After Sponono gets out of the reformatory he comes to the principles home. Sponono had an incident and was sent back to the reformatory. Later he asked the principle to come back but the principle found him a job that Sponono would fit in better and possibly like better. Later he was found guilty of stealing a watch and a leather jacket and was sent to prison. While he’s in prison he keeps in touch with the principle and try’s to persuade him to let him come to him. The principle is not able to forgive Sponono and Sponono doesn’t forgive the principle for not forgiving him.

Sponono always assumed that forgiveness would come easy. There were many occasions that Sponono made mistakes and the Principal did forgive him. The last incident that happened and the principal would not forgive Sponono happened while he was working at the principal’s home. Sponono came to work for the principle as his gardener when he was out of the reformatory. The principle had other workers in his home, Jane was a house keeper and Cele was a gardener. Jane and Cele where Zulu’s and Sponono felt like they never liked him. Sponono was invited to a party at Jane’s sister’s home. Sponono didn't like the food and killed one of her chickens. This was a great offense to her sister and Sponono made an advance to the host’s daughter. After that they called the police and Sponono had a choice to go to court or go back to the reformatory. He chose to go back to the reformatory because he felt the Zulu’s didn't like him. When Sponono asks again to come live with the principle he refuses. “But you” he wrote “you ought to know better. You have worked with thousands of sinners and have gained a good reputation amongst us. Also you are a white man, and have no reason to hate me. Lastly you are a writer not a gardener, and you could never lose a job to a person like myself.”   Later the principle finds Sponono a job with a friend of his. Sponono was writing a letter to the principle and wrote, “Are you then like other people, who, when a man has done wrong, treat him badly? I have always looked upon you as trustworthy, but now I am ashamed in front of my friends.” Sponono tries to obey the commandments of Christianity. Sponono wants the principle to forgive him because he looks up to him as a father. If he was the principle’s son he would forgive him. Sponono thinks of the principle as a father so that he should forgive him and not kick him out. 

Sponono Revisited

Mason Unthank
Great Books
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014
Mrs.  Stephanie Berry

     The Short Story "Sponono," by Alan Paton, does not only have a weird name, it has a good story
too. Sponono is a boy in a reformatory school in Africa for some reason or other. Sponono is not a
Christian, yet, he frequently quotes the Bible over and over again when he gets in trouble. Sponono
frequently talks about forgiveness to the principle of the reformatory school who he considers somewhat of a father figure. "Why would I make trouble in my own father's house?" Sponono gets in trouble over and over again for things that make him start over in the reformatory. He lies to talk to the principle, steals, threatens people with rocks, gets in fights, and more. Over and over again, he asks for forgiveness from the principle. When the principle doesn't forgive him for the hundredth odd time, Sponono writes him an angry letter saying: "are you then like other people, who, when a man has done wrong turn treat him badly?" Sponono may have different tribal cultures than the other people at the reformatory, because he is a Zulu. It seems like Sponono sometimes tries to reform, most of the time though, he just doesn't try very hard.
     I think Sponono wants to reform his life, he just isn't trying very hard. Sponono is an Xhosa tribesman, so he probably takes whatever he hears in English literally. This is portrayed in the way he takes the Bible. Forgiving people seventy times seven is probably an example that we should forgive often. Sponono probably thinks he can mess up four hundred and ninety times before he gets punished. Some examples that Sponono isn't trying very hard are quite easy to find. Such as the time he threatens the couple with the rock, and then steals their money. To make him admit it, the principle has to make it easy for him to acknowledge he did it.  He also lies frequently, though sometimes it is for good. "Do you think it is wrong to tell a lie?" "Not to save a person." Sponono has good morals, but he needs to practice what he preaches more. When he does though, he seems like a decent person. "I forgave him." He said. " He did not mean to hurt my eye. I might have hurt his if he did not hurt mine first. It was his bad luck, meneer." Sponono usually means well, but when a so-called, "great temptation" is put in his way, he strays from his path of goodness.

Sponono (Read This)

Alan Paton

"Sponono", by Alan Paton, is about a boy named Sponono who lives in a reformatory that is located in South Africa. This story is also about the Principal of the reformatory, which Alan Paton wrote so the Principal is narrating the story. This story begins when Sponono sees the Principal in order to save someone named Johannes Mofoking from going to prison. After Sponono's persuasion, Johannes is set free. Sponono soon returns to the Principal with an irregular request to work in the Principal's garden, which I thought was very peculiar. After the Principal agrees to let him work in it, Sponono quarrels with the previous worker, William, and they get two separate sections to work with. When Christmas Day comes around, a boy from the reformatory does something terrible to some guests named Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Anderson.

(55)"This boy menaced them with a large stone and had snatched up Mrs. Anderson's handbag from the grass and made off into the bushes. In the bag was sixty pounds, in twelve five-pound notes, a whole month's earnings, and the distress of the husband and wife was painful to see." the Principal says. 

Later he finds out it was Sponono that terrorized this couple and stole the money. His consequences were serious; he lost his free privileges and has to start his term in the reformatory all over again. But that wasn't all. He also later got into a fight with a boy named Tembo and got whipped in the eye with a metal belt. But, with his forgiving heart, Sponono forgave Tembo and hoped to move on. When he is asked where he got the  idea of forgiving, Sponono said it was a teaching of Jesus. He isn't a Christian, for he said, (61)"'I am not good enough, but I like to obey the commandments.'" I thought this was odd.

He was banned form working in the Principal's garden, which didn't satisfy him. Sponono assumes that once someone is forgiven, they can wipe out the memory of their bad-doing and act like it never happened. He made the Principal promise he could work in his garden again and the Principal gave his obliges. This promise backfired on him because, when he quit his job as a principal to move to Natal, he was forced to allow Sponono to come  because of a silly promise. After a few days of working in the Principal's garden, he got invited to a party, killed and ate a chicken from dissatisfaction for the food, and threatened the host. He was sent back to the reformatory the next day. 

Reformatory

Even though he pleaded and begged the Principal to come back and work in his garden, the Principal never let him.

One  thing in Sponono that can set several of the readers off is the fact that Sponono quoted the Bible, even though he isn't Christian. Back in the story when he forgives Tembo so easily, Mr. van Dyk asks him why he forgives people so easily and where he got this idea from. He claims that Jesus forgives everyone, even if they wrong him seventy times seven. Sponono also believes that if someone is forgive, they can forget their wrong like it never happened.

(60)"'Do you think,' I asked, 'that if a person is forgiven, his offence is wiped out like it had never been done?' 'Yes,' Sponono said."

I think that Sponono wants the Principal to forgive his offences so he doesn't have to keep thinking about them. he uses the quote form the Bible about forgiving people seventy times seven so the Principal might start forgiving him, thus relieving him of his crimes.

Sponono Homework

Sponono – Alan Paton     3/24/14
Homework:
Write a minimum of 2 paragraphs (minimum of 10 sentences in each paragraph)  discussing one of the following topics.   Make sure your first paragraph introduces the short story name and author, and then provides an overview that relates to the topic you will be discussing.   Also make sure you let us know what topic you will be writing about and what your viewpoint is!   In your 2nd paragraph, provide evidence that supports your viewpoint from the source material.   Please use direct quotes or passages from the story and indicate the page number where you found the source.  
Questions you can answer:
1.    Why does Sponono quote the Bible so much when he is not a Christian?
2.    Do you think Sponono wants to reform his life?
3.    Why does Sponono expect the Principal’s conduct toward him to surpass “in superhuman degree” (50) his own conduct toward the Principle?
Honors:   2 pages (MLA format) answering one of  the above questions.

"At the Pitt Rivers" -- By Penelope Lively

“At the Pitt Rivers” by Penelope Lively is a short story about a boy who realizes that although he thought he knew a lot about love, he really knows very little.  At the beginning of the story, the boy describes how he enjoys wandering around in the Pitt Rivers museum.  He goes there almost every day to work on a poem he has been writing. The poem is about an old man and a young boy who have a conversation about life:

They swap opinions and observations (it’s all dialogue, this poem, like a long conversation) and it’s not till the end you realise they’re the same person.  It sounds either corny or pretentious, I know; and what I could never decide was whether to have it as though the old man’s looking back, or the boy’s kind of projecting forward -- imagining himself, as it were (30).

He is writing the poem as both the young boy and the old man, as though he already had the wisdom of someone much older and wiser.  He realizes that this is pretentious, but he still attempts it.  He thinks he knows a lot, and even says at one point, “I’ve seen films and I’ve read books and I know a bit about things” (25).  One day, however, he sees a woman at the museum.  Because he always notices girls, he observes that, "this girl was definitely not attractive. In the first place she was in fact quite old, not far off thirty, I should think, and in the second she hadn't got a nice figure; her legs were kind of dumpy and she didn't have pretty hair or anything like that"(24-25).  He is dumbfounded when she meets an older man, somewhere in his fifties, and they seem genuinely in love.  He at first is disgusted by the couple, but as he sees them more, (they are together at the museum almost every week), he begins to like the idea of them.  Their relationship goes against everything he thinks he knows about love.  He thinks only attractive people should date each other and that they should be the same age. Even he, a 16 year old boy, with a deluded view of love, can tell that despite their big age difference, they are in love.

One day, the boy is confused because the couple seems detached and sad. They don’t talk; they just look at each other. At one point, she takes out a comb and brushes her hair, most likely because she is stressed. When she drops it, she doesn’t bother to pick it up. In fact, she ignores it. The young boy observes this and is terribly affected by this sudden change of heart. He goes home and tears up the poem he had been working on. Lively does not make it clear why in fact the young boy tears up the poem. She, instead, lets the mind wander. This is intentional.  Her view of fiction’s job is that is should “illuminate” life’s “conflicts and ambiguities.” The boy tears up the poem because he feels conflicted about watching what he had come to think actually was true love, come to an end.  He realizes that just as he couldn’t understand why they were together, he can’t understand why they are apart.  He realizes he knows very little, if anything, about love.  Trying to write his poem, as though he had all the wisdom of the old man, is ridiculous. He realizes that this is a poem that should only be written by an older man or woman who has been through life’s troubles and truly knows how to deal with the ambiguity of love.

At The Pitt-Rivers (x2)

The short story, 'At The Pitt-Rivers', by Penelope Lively, takes place at a museum called Pitt Rivers.

 

The main character of the story is a boy that often visits the Pitt-Rivers because he likes to work on his poetry. One day, while walking up the steps to the museum, he notices a woman sitting on the bench. This woman is not particularly pretty, according to him.

"This girl was definitely not attractive. In the first place she was in fact quite old, not far off thirty, I should think, and in the second she hadn't got a nice figure; her legs were kind of dumpy and she didn't have pretty hair or anything like that."(pg. 24-25)

When he walks nearer to the woman, he realizes that, even though her figure wasn't gorgeous, he face expression was "the most beautiful expression I've ever seen in my life."(pg. 25)He eventually leaves after staying a while to see who she was meeting. Later, he finds the woman again and realizes the "bloke" she was with appeared to be a man who looked over 50  years. He found this rather disgusting because of the wide age difference and how dumpy the old man looked.

"He might have been a schoolmastser or something, he wore those kind of clothes, old trousers and sweater, and he had greyish hair,a bit long.(pg.27)

He was thoroughly disgusted with this and left with a huff. Later in the story, though, his feelings about the couple change rapidly when he sees them again at the museum. He sees that the old man  is the person who gives the girl her delectable expression. He also starts to see that two people don't have to be attractive to be together. As the story goes on, he finds the girl again, only to find out how unhappy she was. When they exited the museum, the old man leaves and the lady sits on the bench, looking miserable and "out-of-it".

"I could see her face then, and I hope I don't ever see anyone look so unhappy again. I truly hope that."(pg. 31)

Because of this, he tears up  his poem, even though he has been working on it forever.

I think he tore up his poem because he may have realized that not every true love has a happy ending. The story states that he has been in love twice. The first time was with a girl in a class at his school, but it only turned out it was a bit of a trial run and he faded away.

"The second time was last year, when I was fifteen. She came to stay with her married sister who lives round the corner from us and though it's months and months ago now I still feel quite faint and weak when I go past the house."(pg.25)

When he took the second girl out, he realized they had nothing to talk about and decided that he preferred just thinking about her. Both the times he has fallen in love, they turned out to be all right or better, so he assumes when you fall in love, there's always a solution and you're never really unhappy. When he sees the girl and the old man part, he could apprehend the true meaning of true love and that it doesn't always work out. After that, he rips up his poem about an old man and a boy trading ideas and find out in the end that they're the same person in order to write about this experience instead of his first idea, since the couple is all he probably can think about now.