Tsotsi Day 3

Review Vocabulary

From prior class
4. Using pages 34-41, look for passages that relate to Tsotsi's identity. How does Tsotsi identify himself? What is meaningful to him? Who does he see himself as? How does he see himself in relation to the world?
5. Let's talk briefly about the woman who gives away the baby. What do we know about her?

From last night's reading
1. Who is David?

• The second king of Israel
• ancestor, forerunner, and foreshadower of Jesus Christ
• Killed the Philistine champion Goliath.
• Spread his influence more widely than previous king.
• Brought the arc of the covenant (vessel for 10 commandments) to a special tabernacle in Jerusalem, therefore laying the foundations for the later significance of the city
• But big sin: committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged to have her husband (Uriah) killed. He repented, but was later used as an example of how sin spoils God's will.
• Son Absalom died in a bloody rebellion. The family bloodline was tainted because of David's adultery, and ran long after his death.
• Jews saw in David the kingly ideal of the image in which they looked for the coming Messiah, who did appear in David's family tree.

What is the symbolism in Tsotsi's real name? What parallels can we draw between Tsotsi and David?

Symbol: anything that stands for or represents something else BEYOND it.

--Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

2. The Talisman

• When we first meet Tsotsi, he has three hard and fast rules: “The first was the rule of working in the moment” (35), specifically seeing and working with his knife. We learn that “he, Tsotsi, knew himself and his dark purpose, and everything was all right. The knife was not only his weapon, but also a fetish, a talisman that conjured away bad spirits and established him securely in his life” (36). Yet, strangely, after being “given” the baby, Tsotsi remarkably takes the baby as his new “talisman”(59).
• Big question: What is the SYMBOLIC significance of Tsotsi’s “talisman” shift from the knife to the baby? In what ways does this shift change Tsotsi and how we, the reader, know know and understand him?
  
• Working in groups, I'd like you to come up with a thesis statement and evidence to support your claim. We will then share thesis statements and discuss the topic more completely as a class.