Short Story: Nostalgia

Short Story: Nostalgia

GENRE: Short Story

TITLE: NOSTALGIA

AUTHOR: Sindiwe Magona

PLOT SUMMARY
Ella returns to Cape Town to visit her mother. She left ten years ago, and her mother is
still angry with her for leaving. They sit in the lounge and talk. Ella wants to know why her
mother ignored all her letters. They argue. Ella goes to the window and looks down at the
square. She remembers her father working there, making leather handbags and belts. Her
mother is angry with her because Ella did not come home for his funeral. Her mother goes
to the kitchen to make tea. While she is there, she thinks nostalgically about how she misses
the way things were when she was younger. When she comes back into the lounge, Ella asks
her why she never protected her from her father. He used to drink and sexually abuse her.
Her mother pretends that she did not originally know about the abuse. She lies and says that
she only found out about it when Ella was old enough to protect herself. Ella is upset that
her mother still will not take responsibility for what happened to her when she was a little
girl. She decides to leave. She invites her mother to call her while she in Cape Town, but it
does not seem like she really believes that her mother will.

SETTING
The story is set in Cape Town. Ella visits her mother in her childhood flat on a noisy,
crowded and dirty square off Church Street. Most of the story takes place in the lounge.

SUMMARY REVIEW ACTIVITY: CLOZE PROCEDURE

Below is a summary of the story. Fill each of the gaps with a word / a few words:
NOSTALGIA

Ella returns to Cape Town to visit her [1] ________________ . She left ten years
ago, and her mother is still angry with her for leaving. They sit in the lounge
and talk. Ella wants to know why her mother ignored all her [2] ________________
. They argue. Ella goes to the [3] ________________ and looks down at the
square. She remembers her [4] ________________ working there, making leather
handbags and [5] ________________ . Her mother is angry with her because she
didn’t come home for his funeral. Her mother goes to the kitchen to make
[6] ________________ .

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Short Story: Nostalgia

While she is there, she thinks nostalgically about how she misses the way
things were when she was [7] ________________ . When she comes back into the
[8] ________________ , Ella asks her why she never protected her from her father.
He used to [9] ________________ and sexually abuse her. Her mother pretends
that she did not know about the abuse until Ella was old enough to protect
herself. Ella is upset that her mother still will not take responsibility for what
happened to her when she was a little girl. She decides to [10] ________________ .
She invites her mother to call her while she in Cape Town, but it does not seem
like she really believes that her mother will.

MARKING MEMORANDUM
1 Instruct the learners to compare their answers, to see if they can correct their
own mistakes.
2 Discuss the correct answers with the whole class.
1 mother / mom
2 letters
3 window
4 father / dad
5 belts
6 tea
7 younger / a young woman
8 lounge
9 drink / get drunk
10 leave / go

CONCEPTUAL VOCABULARY

WORD BASIC DEFINITION

nostalgia (n.) A wish to return to the happiness of the past. Ella’s mother is nostalgic about
the past, when she was young and beautiful. Ella does not think nostalgically
about the past, because she was so unhappy living with her abusive father.
to infer (v.) To infer something is to work it out, even though it is not said directly. We can
infer that Ella’s father used to sexually abuse her, even though we are not
told that directly. We make an inference.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

NAME ELLA

IMPORTANT 1 Ella goes home to visit her mother after ten years.
ACTIONS 2 They talk and argue.
3 She shows her mother that she is upset with her for not taking her away
from her father when she was a child because he sexually abused her.

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 Short Story: Nostalgia

MAJOR CHARACTERS

RELATIONSHIPS Ella has a bad relationship with her mother. She left South Africa ten years
ago to get away from her father. She wrote to her mother and invited her to
visit, but her mother ignored her. We do not meet her husband, but we know
they have an honest relationship because she has told him about her father’s
abuse.
PERSONALITY Ella is angry and sad that her father used to sexually abuse her, and her
TRAITS mother did not protect her. She tries to be calm, but she finds it difficult to
talk to her mother.
PHYSICAL She is 35 years old. She has streaked brown hair and elegant fingers. She is
DESCRIPTION wearing a wide blue cotton skirt and silk blouse.
CHANGES When the story starts, Ella is very nervous about seeing her mother. She
wants the conversation to go well. When she leaves, she realises that nothing
has changed. She invites her mother to contact her while she is in Cape
Town, but it does not seem likely that she will. She does not find peace.

NAME ELLA’S MOTHER

IMPORTANT 1 When Ella comes to visit, she is rude to her.

ACTIONS 2 We learn that when Ella left ten years ago, she was so angry that she did
not say goodbye. She has ignored all of Ella’s letters since then.
3 We find out that she did not protect her daughter from her husband’s
sexual abuse when she was a child. She still pretends that she did not
know about the sexual abuse until it was too late, even though she could
actually hear it through the walls.
RELATIONSHIPS She fights with all her neighbours and has not talked to her daughter in ten
years.
PERSONALITY She is a very grumpy and bad-tempered old woman. She is nostalgic about
TRAITS the past and wishes things were the way they used to be. She feels sorry for
herself that she is alone.
PHYSICAL She is very short and thin. Her back is still straight. She has the smell of an
DESCRIPTION old person. She puts a lot of effort into how she looks and always dresses
smartly and wears makeup. She is wearing a green cardigan, matching floral
skirt and blouse, a brown necklace and red lipstick.
CHANGES She does not learn anything or grow in the story. She remains angry, bitter,
and self-pitying (feeling sorry for herself). She continues to pretend that she
did nothing wrong.
NOSTALGIA

THEMES AND EVIDENCE OF THEMES IN TEXT

THEME 1
COMPLICATED FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Family relationships can be complicated and difficult. We cannot change who our family
members are. Sometimes, when bad things happen with someone we love, it is hard to walk
away and end our relationship with them.

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EVIDENCE OF THEME IN TEXT

This story shows how complicated and difficult family relationships can be. Ella wants to
forgive her mother and have a better relationship with her. However, her mother still refuses
to admit she did anything wrong. This hurts Ella’s feelings and she has to leave. Even though
Ella’s mother treats her badly, she does not just end her relationship with her. She tells her
she can contact her while she is still in Cape Town. Even though Ella’s mother is unkind and
has allowed horrible things to happen to Ella, Ella is hesitant (not sure if she really wants to)
just to end her relationship with her altogether.

THEME 2

NOSTALGIA
Nostalgia is the feeling of looking back on the past with fond memories, and longing
for things to be the same as they were back then. When we feel nostalgic, we generally
remember only the good things about the past and we forget about the difficulties. Often
people feel nostalgia for their childhoods.

EVIDENCE OF THEME IN TEXT

Ella’s mother looks back at her life remembering how happy she was when she was younger
and had beautiful clothes and things. Ella, sadly, can’t be nostalgic about her childhood
because she suffered abuse from her father.

THEME 3
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Everyone makes mistakes in life. When we take responsibility for those mistakes, we are
able to heal the relationships we have damaged. If we will not take responsibility, it is
difficult to do that.

EVIDENCE OF THEME IN TEXT

Ella’s mother refuses to take responsibility for her actions. She makes lots of excuses for her
husband’s behaviour. She says that he worked hard and sacrificed his happiness to support
his daughter. She also makes excuses for not leaving him when she found out about the
abuse. She lies and says that she did not know about the abuse until Ella was old enough
to protect herself. She also says that they had nowhere else to go and could not support
themselves. It is this refusal to take responsibility that makes Ella so sad. When Ella realises
that her mother will not take responsibility, she leaves. There is nothing left for her to say.

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STYLE AND STRUCTURE

1 NARRATIVE VOICE:
The story is told in a third person omniscient voice. This means that the narrator is all-
knowing and tells the story from the perspectives of the different characters. We get insight
into what both Ella and her mother are thinking and feeling.

2 MEMORIES:
Although the story happens when Ella is an adult, we learn about her past from her
memories. For example, she remembers her father working down in the square and how
much she hated the noise and the dirt of the square. We get a different picture of the past
from her mother’s memories. She remembers how much she enjoyed the company of her
neighbours, and how she loved dressing up. These memories show us that Ella and her
mother had very different experiences in their pasts.

3 INFERENCE:
The narrator does not tell us directly that Ella’s father sexually abused her. However, we are
given clues throughout the story. These enable us to infer it, or work it out for ourselves.
These are some of the clues:
• When Ella remembers how badly her father was treated by the Apartheid police, she
thinks, ‘Perhaps that was why’ (pg. 200). We are not told directly what she means, but it
is a clue that something bad happened. We later infer that she is thinking that perhaps
he abused her because he was so angry about the way he was treated and did not know
what to do with his anger.
• Later we are told that when she tried to book a flight to fly home for his funeral, she
could not because, ‘...her hand froze on the receiver’ (pg. 201). We are not directly told
why, but it is a clue that she was too emotional to even come to his funeral. We can infer
that something terrible happened in her past involving her father.
• When Ella asks her mother, ‘Why?’ (pg. 202), we are not told directly what she means.
We infer that she is asking why her mother did not take her away when she discovered
that her father was abusing her. When Ella is leaving she tells her mother that she can
NOSTALGIA

call her. She says that her husband knows everything. She does not explain what he
knows everything about. This is a clue. We infer that he knows about the sexual abuse.

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