Trace the autobiographical elements in “The Grass is Singing.”

Answer

Trace the autobiographical elements in “The Grass is Singing.” [NU: 2017, 20] ★★★

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) used her own life in “The Grass is Singing” (1950). She grew up in Southern Rhodesia, like the Turners. Her childhood, farm life, and thoughts on race shaped the story. Through Mary, Dick, Moses, and Slatter, her world appears.

Childhood and Family Life: Mary’s childhood reflects Lessing’s own. Mary grew up in poor railway towns. Her father drinks. Her mother’s complaint is exposed through Lessing in such a way, 

“She used to cry over her sewing.”

Lessing also had a troubled home. Her parents quarreled. She knew hardship. Like Mary, she felt loneliness and dreamed of freedom.

Farm Life in Rhodesia: Lessing lived on farms in Southern Rhodesia. She saw poverty, failure, and the harsh climate. In the novel, Dick Turner is a poor farmer. His farm is barren. Lessing used her own farm memories. She saw how white farmers exploited black workers. Charlie Slatter represents the rich, cruel settler who farmed “with the sjambok”. This was real in Lessing’s Africa.

Race and Apartheid Experience: Lessing grew up in a racially divided world. She saw how whites treated blacks as cheap labor. In the novel, Mary shouts at the black workers. She says, 

“I will take two and six off the ticket of every one of them that isn’t at work in ten minutes.”

The murder of Mary by Moses reflects this tension. Lessing writes: 

‘‘White civilization’ which will never, never admit that a white person, and most particularly, a white  woman, can have a human relationship, whether for good or  for evil, with a black person.’’

This is her commentary on apartheid.

“The Grass is Singing” reflects Doris Lessing’s own life. Mary’s childhood pain, Dick’s farm struggles, and the racial divide are drawn from her Rhodesian experience. Through fiction, Lessing tells both her story and the story of colonial Africa.