Six Feet | Of The Country By Nadine Gordimer Summary
"Six Feet of the Country" is set on a farm near Johannesburg, South Africa, during the apartheid era. The story is narrated by a well-meaning but somewhat detached white farmer who employs several Black workers. The central conflict arises when one of the workers, a young man named Petrus, approaches the farmer with a request: his father has died unexpectedly.
In accordance with their rural traditions, the family wants to bury the old man properly on the farm. They ask the farmer for permission to use a piece of land—just "six feet of the country"—for the grave. The farmer, sympathetic but constrained by his own worldview, agrees.
However, the situation quickly becomes entangled in the rigid bureaucracy of the apartheid state. Because the deceased was not legally authorized to be on the farm, the white authorities intervene. The police demand a post-mortem, forcing the family to exhume the body. When the body is finally released after the autopsy, it has been handled disrespectfully, wrapped in a plastic bag rather than the traditional shroud.
The climax of the story occurs when the farmer attempts to retrieve the body from the city morgue. He arrives too late; the morgue has closed for the weekend. By the time the body is finally returned to the farm, decay has set in. The family is forced to bury a corpse that has been violated by the state and delayed by the farmer’s inability to navigate the system effectively. The story ends with the narrator reflecting on the tragedy, realizing that his sympathy was useless against the crushing weight of a system that denies basic human dignity.
Six Feet of the Country " is a powerful short story by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, originally published in her 1956 collection of the same name. It serves as a sharp critique of the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa, illustrating how systemic racism permeates even the most "peaceful" rural settings. Plot Summary Six Feet of the Country Background | SuperSummary
Six Feet of the Country " by Nadine Gordimer is a 1956 short story that critiques the apartheid system in South Africa. It follows a wealthy white couple who, despite living on a peaceful rural farm, find themselves entangled in the cold, indifferent bureaucracy of racial oppression. Summary of the Plot Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide
Nadine Gordimer ’s " Six Feet of the Country " (1956) is a poignant exploration of racial injustice and the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa. The story centers on a white couple living on a farm near Johannesburg who become embroiled in the bureaucratic tragedy following the death of an illegal immigrant laborer. Plot Summary
The unnamed narrator and his wife, Lerice, move to a farm outside Johannesburg hoping to salvage their strained marriage. However, the idyllic setting is shattered when a young man from Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe)—the brother of their farmhand Petrus—dies on their property from illness and exposure. Six Feet of the Country Summary and Study Guide six feet of the country by nadine gordimer summary
Six Feet of the Country " (1956) by Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer is a short story set during South Africa's
era. It explores the profound disconnect between white landowners and their Black laborers through a bureaucratic disaster surrounding a funeral. SuperSummary Plot Summary The Setting : An unnamed white narrator and his wife,
, move from Johannesburg to a farm ten miles outside the city, hoping the rural lifestyle will repair their strained marriage. The Incident : One night, their farmhand reveals that his brother—an illegal immigrant from
(modern Zimbabwe)—has died in a worker's hut from illness. The Conflict
: Authorities take the body for an autopsy. Petrus and his family scrape together their meager savings for a proper burial. The Climax
: When the coffin is returned for the funeral, the family discovers the authorities have sent the wrong body The Resolution
: Despite the narrator's attempts to use his "white privilege" to fix the error, the bureaucracy is indifferent. The original body is never found, leaving the family with nothing but a "complete waste" of money and a nameless grave for a stranger. SuperSummary Key Characters "Six Feet of the Country" is set on
“Six Feet of the Country” is not a story of heroism or redemption. It is a story of small, quiet failures: the failure of a boss to see a worker as a brother; the failure of a system to recognize a human need; the failure of a liberal to act when it matters most. Nadine Gordimer does not offer easy answers. She offers a clear, cold, empathetic gaze at the everyday violence of apartheid—a violence that could be committed not by a brute with a whip, but by a well-meaning storekeeper filling out forms.
In the end, Petrus stands alone by the cross on the narrator’s land. The six feet of the country he receives are not his brother’s homeland, but a foreign patch of earth, grudgingly given, forever owned by another. The story remains a timeless exploration of how property, race, and bureaucracy can combine to deny even the most fundamental human need: to go home for the final sleep.
Report: Summary of "Six Feet of the Country" by Nadine Gordimer
Overview"Six Feet of the Country" is a powerful short story by Nobel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer, set in South Africa during Apartheid. It explores the deep-seated racial tensions and the vast disconnect between white privilege and Black suffering through the lens of a failing marriage and a legal dispute over a corpse. Setting and Characters
The Narrator: A white, luxury-seeking man from Johannesburg who has moved to a farm outside the city. He is pragmatic, somewhat cynical, and views the farm as a hobby.
Lerice: His wife, who is more empathetic toward the farm laborers but remains trapped within the social hierarchy of the time.
The Farm Workers: Primarily Petrus and his family, who live and work on the land under the narrator’s authority. Six Feet of the Country " is a
The Plot SummaryThe story begins with the narrator describing his suburban-style life on the farm. The conflict arises when Petrus, one of the workers, informs the narrator that his brother—who had walked all the way from Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) to find work—has died in one of the farm huts.
Because the brother was an "illegal" immigrant, the authorities take the body for an autopsy and burial. Petrus and his father want to give the brother a proper funeral and ask the narrator to help retrieve the body. After paying a significant fee of twenty pounds (raised by the workers), the narrator navigates the bureaucracy to have the body returned.
The Climactic IronyA funeral is held, but when the coffin is opened at the graveside, the family discovers it contains the body of a stranger. The health authorities have made a clerical error, burying Petrus’s brother in a pauper’s grave elsewhere and giving them someone else’s relative.
The narrator attempts to fix the mistake, but he is met with indifference from the officials. Ultimately, the money is lost, the brother is never found, and the family is left with nothing. Key Themes
The Devaluation of Life: The title refers to the "six feet" of earth every human is supposedly entitled to for burial. Gordimer illustrates that under Apartheid, even this basic dignity is denied to Black individuals.
Racial and Social Divide: The narrator’s frustration is largely about the "inconvenience" and the loss of money, whereas for Petrus, it is a profound spiritual and familial tragedy.
Failure of Communication: The strained relationship between the narrator and Lerice mirrors the fractured nature of South African society—they live together but inhabit different moral worlds.
ConclusionThe story ends on a haunting note of futility. The "six feet" of country that should belong to everyone is shown to be a site of injustice, where the systemic machinery of the state treats the Black body as an interchangeable, nameless object.
Should I provide a thematic analysis of the narrator's tone or a list of discussion questions for a literature study?