Biblioteca de la EOI de Oviedo

Título: The Grass is Singing

Autor: Doris Lessing

Editorial: Penguin

Obra adaptada: Sí

Nivel: Intermedio

Reseña:

The Grass is Singing is a novel about the problem white people always have had with black people. It tells the story of a married couple who had a difficult and poor life in Africa. The main characters are:

-Dick Turner: a poor white African farmer who married Mary and whose dream was to marry and have childern.

-Mary Turner: a secretary in an office in the town who married Dick and moved to the farm.

-Moses: a black man who worked for Mr Turner in the fields and later in his house as a servant.

At first, Mary wasn´t able to fit in with the lifestyle in the farm. It reminded her of the poverty and the problems her family had had and she was filled with horror. She felt unhappy and bored and treated the natives, who worked as servants for her, badly. But everything changed when Moses arrived at the house. He wasn´t a simple servant as the rest. Mary had hit him with a whip in the fields, so Moses wanted revenge and waited patiently. He won power over her and she was confused; she found him attractive but she was also afraid of him. Finally, she sent him away, and one night he killed her. He didn´t want to escape from the police. After all, the trial suggested that he had murdered her in search for money and jewellery. They couldn´t admit that a white woman could have a relationship, good or evil, with a black man.

The story makes you think about society in the past and the differences between white and black people and rich and poor ones. It´s incredible, looking back, that nowadays the USA President is a black person and that society has changed so much, fortunately.

Valoración: 4/5

Salomé Menéndez Rego  2ºNI