Six Characters in Search of an Author 867and tend to his sibling. Kumalo’s arrival at Johannes-
burg reveals a city that suffers from overcrowding,
just as Ndotsheni suffers from overgrazing. People
with large families rent out spare rooms just to pay
the bills. Those with no place to live form Shanty
Town, a small, makeshift settlement built of corru-
gated iron and scrap metal. Thieves and vagabonds
move from house to house until their landlords evict
them for their illegal practices. The city’s space is
overcrowded with people, just as Ndotsheni’s land
suffers from an overabundance of livestock.
Kumalo’s lingering suffering is only amplified
when he learns the fate of his family members. He
soon discovers that his sister Gertrude had become
rich in the illegal liquor business. Having lost her
wealth, she essentially prostitutes herself while
raising a son. Kumalo’s brother, John, has risen to
power and wealth as a politician but has turned his
back on the church. Kumalo is saddened to hear of
his sister’s transgressions and his brother’s rebellion
against religion. Learning of his family’s ventures
in Johannesburg only amplifies the suffering that
Kumalo feels for his people.
However, the umfundisi does not experience
his greatest suffering until he learns the fate of his
son, Absalom. After days of fruitless searching and
dead ends, Kumalo eventually discovers that his
son became a thief, preying on the city’s rich white
households. During a routine robbery, Absalom
becomes frightened and shoots a young white man.
He is caught by the police and eventually found
guilty of murder. The young man is sentenced to
death, leaving behind his pregnant wife. Kumalo’s
suffering is especially bitter because the man Absa-
lom killed was the son of a rich white man who lives
not far from Ndotsheni. His suffering is so great that
during a chance encounter with the man’s father,
James Jarvis, Kumalo falls to the ground, incapable
of movement or speech.
It is also important to consider the suffering
of the others involved in the murder. Absalom is
perhaps the one who suffers most, considering that
his sentence is death. Furthermore, his accomplices,
Johannes and Matthew (his cousin), deny any part
in the murder and are acquitted of all charges.
Absalom is left to suffer imprisonment and hanging
alone, without even the companionship of his closest
friends. Also, there is the suffering of Mr. and Mrs.
Jarvis, who must endure the horrible fate of outliv-
ing their progeny. Mrs. Jarvis is so grief-stricken
that her eventual death may be blamed on a “broken
heart.”
The outcomes of these sufferings, however,
are quite interesting. Jarvis, upon learning of the
drought and famine that devastates Ndotsheni, is
moved to provide milk, water, and an irrigation
system to the struggling village. He hires a young
man to teach the natives how to farm properly and
even donates a new church building. Furthermore,
Kumalo strikes up a friendship with Jarvis’s grand-
son—the son of the man who was slain by Absalom.
In the novel, a friend of Kumalo’s states, “[ Jesus]
suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not
to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to
bear suffering.” Paton’s vision of suffering, then, is
not merely a debilitating experience but, rather, one
that allows for empathy and generosity. Experienc-
ing true suffering, as Kumalo and Jarvis do, occa-
sions great acts of sympathy and charity. It seems
that Paton’s outlook on suffering is a hopeful one, in
that understanding the suffering of others allows for
greater empathy and compassion.
Kevin FitzgeraldPiraNDELLo, LuiGi Six Characters
in Search of an Author (1921)
Six Characters in Search of an Author is a three-act
postmodern play-within-a play. In the manner of
much theater of the absurd, it invests clichés or
ridiculous situations with a kind of sense. The most
radical aspect of Six Characters is that the characters
seek to talk back to their creator, their author. He is
not available, but in one of many witticisms, he is
identified as Pirandello (act 1). The characters have
to settle for an audience of the producer of a play,
plus the actors who are present for a rehearsal.
The six characters include the Father; the Mother
(his former wife); the Son they had together; and the
Stepdaughter, the Boy, and the Little Girl, who are
the offspring of the Mother and her paramour, the
Father’s assistant. The stage directions show that
these six characters inhabit a different reality. Their
clothing is thicker and stiffer, as well as starker in