Commentary on The Diamond Mine Essay

In "The Diamond Mine," a woman recalls her youthful surreptitious sexual initiation, while she and her parents chauffeured a young soldier to his wartime embarkation.In 'The Diamond Mine' a woman remembers her first, passionately erotic experience, hidden, in the company of her parents, with a soldier who may not be alive to remember her. In "Diamond Mine," a teen has her first sexual experience with a soldier in the backseat of the car while her parents in front drone on about the scenery.

Another story, as good as any Gordimer story I have ever read, is called "The Diamond Mine". A young girl, daughter of a mine manager on the Transvaal Reef, makes her first acquaintance with a boy who comes to stay. He is about to go off to the War. We can safely assume that this draws from Gordimer's own life, as the lively daughter of a mine manager in a small town near Johannesburg. The boy, by the end of the story, is about to be sent off to North Africa. In a very beautifully constructed account of their last day together, as her father pontificates about a diamond mine, probably the Cullinan Mine near Pretoria, she and the boy achieve a certain kind of intimacy under a blanket in the back of the car.

The fact that he is possibly going to be killed, or the fact that her parents, happily oblivious, are in the front seat, is far less important to the girl than her own discovery of the penetration which Gordimer is on record as saying is the essence of male/female sexuality. It reminded me of an earlier story of hers about a businessman on a plane who strikes up a mute, but sexual, relationship with a young girl in the next seat. Anyway, this aspect of the Gordimer psyche, still thriving, gives the lie to those who think she is simply a sort of fictionalised mouthpiece of the heroic doings of the ANC. "The Diamond Mine" demonstrates as clearly as any, that Gordimer is as concerned with the sensual as the "political", although what was going on in South Africa for all those years was less to do with politics than simple human rights.

The Diamond Mine is the title of the short story in question, by Nadine Gordimer. The title in itself, is very important seeing as it has two meanings in this story; the Diamond Mine of which the main character's father is manager of, and of her own 'Diamond Mine' which we discover the meaning of, later on in the story. The predominant factor throughout the story is the girl, Tilla at the age of 16, developing into a woman and much more. It is clearly shown in the way the author the author creates the mood as well as setting for Tilla to explore, shall we say, certain sexual relations as well as more innocent ones which is the basis of the story in the beginning. Tilla, the girl of whom the whole story focuses upon, is a 16 year old young woman who comes from a middle class home, where the father is a mine manager, which is later revealed in the story as they sit in the car, with her father explaining several facts about diamonds, while driving towards the military base, to say their goodbyes to the soldier. One thing I in particular noticed was the lack of characterization of basically all the characters in the story, except maybe in writing Tilla's thoughts and observations about the soldier, instead focusing and relying mostly on a vivid imagery clearly created by her choice of words. This can also be seen in the way that she inserts particular words after eachother, instead of perhaps just laying it flat out in a sentence, in a similar style reminiscent of spoken word. Almost in such a way as to make it as romantic for the reader as possible, making it very dream-like when the author describes a specific situation say for example, a simple gaze from Tilla towards the soldier, which we hear about early on.

The story is told by the girl Tilla in past tense, as she reflects upon her young and sweet but short love affair with this soldier, who is a friend of the family. All told from her point of view. There isn't a lot of changes as far as scenery goes, the story however does go from their house, to the street in which they first kiss, the army base, the restaurant, and the car, before it ends. It extends over a short period of time, although we don't get any real information as far as dates, but mostly it goes on in the daytime except for on a few occassions. I would guess the story takes place over approximately a months time, more or less. The only truly visible confrontation is the transition Tilla experiences as she goes from a young girl to a young woman in the world, through her sexual initiation.