Born a Crime Summary

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lived in a white area => had a child with a white man (Robert). - But: It was forbidden for her and Robert to be seen together => not even she was allowed to be seen with Trevor (had to keep it secret) Chapter 3: Trevor, pray - Trevor talks about life in the black suburbs of Johannesburg → the largely inhuman circumstances - a story by Trevor: - he crapped on a newspaper at his grandmother's house because he was too scared to go to the toilet => his family thought they were haunted by a demon => Trevor had to pray in English for him to go away (it was assumed that God answers prayers in English more easily since it is the language of the white people) Chapter 4: Chamelion - Trevor recognizes the system of apartheid (of the different races) for the first time → previously he thought he was treated differently because he is him => was also treated differently than others by e.g. his grandmother and others - Trevor learned many different languages could join any group - through his mother's work: Trevor was able to go to a private Catholic school after the end of apartheid - Classes were divided according to the level of knowledge => smarter kids = white, less smart kids = black => he would have made it into the smarter class, but wanted to go into the black class Chapter 5: The second girl - This chapter is about Trevor's mother - through father: lived with many cousins at aunt's for a long time - was very poor, sometimes ate dirt or animal food, but attended school - became a secretary, therefore had to take care of the family - fled to the city, met Robert, got Trevor, moved to Eden Park - Trevor tries to keep all doors open, to give him everything she has Chapter 6: Loopholes - Trevor has always been a difficult kid, badly brought up - always misbehaved at school, church => had to change schools => Patricia decided to write him letters (communication without argument, Trevor formally learned to write in English - was still not good, burned down a house of a white family => name "Terror" - Patricia's friend worked for this family => This (Abel) then had to move in with Trevor and his mother Chapter 7: Fufi - This story is about pets - at first the family got two black cats, but they were killed due to the superstition of the neighbors, but it wasn't too bad for Trevor - Then they bought two dogs, Trevor's was called Fufi and his mother's was called Panther - Trevor's dog was deaf, but they thought he was stupid, which they assumed until his death, a burglar injured the dog so badly that he had to be put down - But before that there was also a problem: the dog could jump over the wall of the property and spent the day when nobody was there with another family - One day during Trevor's vacation, Trevor found out that the other family also called this dog theirs, Patricia had to buy the dog back first - That day Trevor learned an important lesson about love Chapter 8: Robert - This chapter is about Trevor's father, Robert - Trevor's father distanced himself a bit from him after his birth, he decided to let Trevor live his own life - After Patricia then married Abel, the contact broke off completely - only at the age of 24, about 10 years after they had not seen each other again, did Trevor decide to visit him again - This was harder than expected until he was able to contact Robert through the Swiss embassy and visit him - as it turns out, Robert has never forgotten his son and has always been able to follow him through Trevor's media appearances - Trevor then tries to find out something about his father, who remained very reserved and didn't want to reveal too much about himself Chapter 9: The Mulberry Tree - This chapter is about life after apartheid, in which Trevor could not integrate too well because of his skin color, too white for blacks and too black for whites - Trevor hardly had any friends at that point, whenever he thought he had found one, he would do something bad - Once Trevor was picking berries from a mulberry tree when a group of black kids attacked him, beat him up and scammed him with the berries - he ran home crying, his mother just laughed and said everything was fine, but he shouldn't tell Abel anything - because Trevor was so sad and wanted revenge he told him anyway and Abel decided to beat up one of the boys, a twelve year old - Trevor felt bad afterwards and Abel and his mother had a fight - In the evening the father came over, but the drunken Abel wanted to beat him up too Chapter 10: A Young Man's Long Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently Humiliating Raising in Matters of the Heart, Part I: Valentine's Day - This chapter is about Trevor's first great love and how was broken for first ime - when he went to public school, he celebrated Valentine's Day for the first time, although he didn't really know what it was - Since he always went home with Maylene, the other boys suggested her as a Valentine's Day date, she was the only other colored girl - The various groups of friends arranged the date and Trevor asked Maylene - She said yes Trevor was buying presents and was going to give them to her the next day, however Maylene said she found another date and left, Trevor's heart was broken Chapter 11: Outsiders - This chapter deals with Trevor's transfer back to Sandringham High School and his difficulties with group membership - At first, Trevor had trouble joining a group again - although he was known to run fast and would bring something from the kiosk to children who couldn't run that fast in exchange for money - so he moved back and forth between groups and always learned something new from the groups, Trevor was funny and the others accepted him for who he was Chapter 12: A Young Man's Long Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently Humiliating Raising in Matters of the Heart, Part II: The Crush - This chapter is about Trevor's second great love, Zaheera - During this time Trevor's mother used buy him one size bigger school uniforms because he was always growing so fast, but that's when he stopped growing - he also had a wild afro and bad acne - he fell in love with Zaheera, the best friend of his best friend named Johanna - since he didn't dare to confess his love to her, he waited and approached step by step, first the phone number and then hours of conversations by phone - one day Zaheera stopped coming to school, Trevor asked Johanna and found out that she had emigrated - he also found out that she was in love with him, a second time his heart broke Chapter Colorblin - This chapter is about Trevor and his best friend named Teddy - They met at Sandringham and became best friends as Teddy was black and the kids were all white - they used to do a lot of mischief and one day they started stealing from a shop in a mall - for a long time this went well and they even sold the stolen goods, but one day they were caught - they ran away, parted and Teddy got caught, with Trevor escaping because of his excellent orientation system -Teddy was pulled from school and one day Trevor was called to the principal's office, he thought it was over since Teddy had no other friends besides him - He was questioned and thought it was a ruse to force him to confess, it turns out the police were looking for a white boy as the surveillance cameras were black and white and Trevor looked like a white boy - he was never punished for this incident Chapter 14: A Young Man's Long Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently Humiliating Raising in Matters of the Heart, Part III: The Dance - Trevor and his family have now moved to Highland North, Abel's business is booming and Trevor has expanded his business from kiosks to bootlegging - He does thi ds Tom and Bongani ness together - With prom approaching and Trevor not yet dating, he was urgently looking => he made a deal with Tom who will find him a girl in exchange for some free copies - Trevor wasn't sure since Tom is known for lying, but it all seemed normal => Trevor was dating the girl named Babiki - so that she could go to the ball with him he wanted to borrow Abel's BMW and they made a deal, he also bought new clothes - on the evening of the ball, however, the drunk Abel did not want to give him the car and he had to drive off in an old Mazda - when he picked up Babiki, at first he couldn't find the place of the ball and when they arrived, Babiki didn't want to get off, everyone was surprised => It turned out that she didn't speak any English at all and Tom always translated everything for them (from English to Pedi and vice versa) - so they drove home and Babiki kissed Trevor on the cheek Chapter 15: Go Hitler! - This chapter is also about Trevor's criminal activities - When the child who burned the CD's for him didn't come anymore (his parents were probably arrested), he got the CD burning and now everything himself => he continued to expand his business and also began to burn compiled CDs - he, Bongani and other friends also organized live concerts with this music - since people didn't know how to dance to this music, they hired a dance crew, the best dancer was "Hitler", who was often the center of attention - at that time a MC Donald's opened, where Trevor ate almost every day - one day Trevor and his friends were booked on a cultural evening at a Jewish school (King David School). - Trevor played music and everyone cheered for Hitler => because of this they were thrown out (the Jews just connect Hitler with a bad part of their history, which many Africans, Trevor included, didn't know) - this type of history was not taught in most of Africa, which is why many people went names like Hitler or other well-known Europeans Chapter 16: The cheese boys - This chapter is about Trevor's life after school - Abel and his mother kicked him out at home because he was supposed to become self-employed - Actually, he wanted to study computer science, which was very expensive, which is why he wanted to continue his business with pirated copies and save - he lived with Bongani in Alexandria, where they continued to expand the business, they exchanged and lent money for favors or interest - one day when they were giving a concert, the police came and Trevor was supposed to turn off his PC immediately => this didn't work, otherwise the hardware would be damaged, so the policeman just shot the PC => The PC was still working, but was so damaged that Trevor lost all his stored music, which is why the business went out of business - once he and his crew were arrested after a dance match against another troupe, he was only released after someone paid bail => it was not a normal control, but corruption, because the police wanted to earn money - he realized that he could escape the ghetto, his friends couldn't, since they had always lived there, he couldn't - "cheese boys" because people were divided into two groups back the those who could affor cheese and those who couldn't Chapter 17: The world doesn't love you - In this chapter, Trevor was arrested again, this time also brought before a judge - One day Trevor saw an offer for mobile phones that he wanted to buy and wanted to sell at a higher price => The shop was outside and he had to drive there by car - he took a car from Abel, put a number plate on it and drove off until he was stopped by the police, who thought the car was stolen => he was put in jail to await his hearing - In prison, his language skills helped him find a new friend and his cousin also helped him until he was brought before the judge - shortly before his hearing he had to go to a real prison, he stood with the white ones because they didn't look too dangerous - in front of the judge he broke down and begged, everyone laughed, he was released on parole - The person who paid his bail was his mother Chapter 18: My mother's live - This chapter is about Trevor's mother and her relationship with Abel - When Trevor found out that his mother wanted to marry Abel, he was against it, he had a bad feeling about it - After some time the two had a son named Andrew, who was very important to Abel as he is the first born - Trevor's family one day visited Abel's family, who still lived very traditionally and women submit to men => Patricia didn't want this and fought against it → Abel looked weak - at home he tried to control her too, which didn't always work out, which is why he sometimes didn't repair the car and she couldn't go anywhere - Abel always drank a lot of alcohol, which made him very aggressive and abusive, which Trevor and his family felt as well, they were beaten - once it was so bad that Patricia went to the police, who didn't want to do anything about it, which is why Patricia fled to her mother with Trevor and Andrew However, Abel apologized and they moved in together again - Patricia also supported Abel and bought the car repair shop for him from his boss → However, she was so educated that they had to sell their house and moved into the workshop, where they worked day and night, including Trevor => However, Abel spent all the money on alcohol, so Trevor's mother looked for a job - she bought the house in Highlands North, Abel's business was so bad that he continued it in the garden of this house - Eventually Patricia split finances, got a promotion and had to take care of the whole family, this is when Abel became even more aggressive, he even bought a gun - Trevor moved out, Patricia slept in another room, but when she reconciled with Abel, they had another child named Issac - Patricia was still being beaten, but the police did nothing because Abel was friends with them, Patricia had a hut built in the garden where she now lived - finally Patricia moved out and got a new boyfriend => then Abel decided to kill this family and ambushed them - he waited for them to come out of the church and started shooting at them => Patricia protected the others but was hit in the leg and in the back of the head - she comes to the hospital, Trevor has to pay a very large sum of money for the operation, but his mother survives and is back at work after six days 2: Description of the characters Trevor: - is the main character, the narrator of the story - is colored (mother = black, father = white) - he speaks many languages through his mother, he uses her to be able to connect everywhere - started early to use different business models to earn money Patricia (Trevor's mother): - got Trevor with Robert - had a difficult childhood, worked for everything she achieved on her own - also speaks different languages - worked mainly as a secretary - Christian-oriented, strictly Catholic, goes to church often and for a long time - Husband: Abel, with whom she had Andrew and Isaac Abel: - Husband of Patricia - works as a mechanic - strong alcoholic, aggressive - strong, tall man - is kind to the world but a monster at home Robert: - Trevor's biological father - calm, serious and reserved (mysterious) - hates racism => doesn't care about the rules of apartheid - wants to be a part of Trevor's life, but not a burden either - follows Trevor's life, is proud of him Andrew: - eldest son of Patricia and Abel - loves his father, even if he is very peculiar - is the only person who can calm Abel down isaac: - second son of Patricia and Abel - he was four years old when his mother was shot mlungisi: - is Trevor's cousin - helps Trevor when he is in trouble - Trevor ended up staying with him too Bongani: - one of Trevor's friends - does some business with him Teddy: - one of Trevor's friends - is caught stealing by the police Tom - one of Trevor's friends - does some business with him - is known to cheat others - introduces Trevor to Babiki Babiki - one of Trevor's friends - doesn't speak English, only Pedi Maylene: - Trevor's first love - only other colored girls in school - Trevor had his first kiss with her Zaheera: - Trevor's second love - spent a lot of time with Trevor - was in love with Trevor - moved to America Daniel: - Boy who sold bootleg copies to Trevor - gives Trevor his gear whi gets home from school Hitler: - Part of Trevor's crew (dancers at the concerts) - best dancer in the neighborhood 3: Background information on apartheid Apartheid (literally "separation") is a historical period of state-defined and organized so-called racial segregation in South Africa and South West Africa. It was characterized above all by the authoritarian, self-declared supremacy of the "white" ethnic European population over all others. It began at the beginning of the 20th century, peaked from the 1940s to the 1980s and ended in 1994 after a phase of understanding with a democratic change of government, with Nelson Mandela becoming the country's first black president. Today the term is also sometimes used as a synonym for racial segregation in general. In addition, political action with such aspirations has been included in international law as a criminal offense. Some important data: 1652 The first European colonists, the Dutch, settled at the Cape of Good Hope. The locals are often referred to as Africans or Boers (farmers). Over time they regard South Africa as their own country. 1806 The British defeat the Dutch and seize control 1836/37 Many African farmers are moving inland to escape British domination 1886 Gold is discovered in Johannesburg, cheap labor is needed and the government passes a law that says that black people have to work in the mines 1880-81/1899-1902 The locals fight two wars of independence against the British. The second war ends in British victory, increasing the Boers' hatred of the British 1910 The Union of South Africa is created. Brits agree to racial segregation in new law. Black people are not allowed to vote, and in some areas voting rights are tied to property ownership. 1911-36 Various laws were passed to restrict the rights of black people: They may not own land, they may be forced to live in certain areas, they are not allowed to do certain jobs (moderate jobs only) 1936-1945 The Second World War brings with it a shortage of manpower as the white population is drafted into the army. Blacks are increasingly moving to the cities, and stricter racial segregation laws are being demanded. The fascist ideas unfolding in Europe at this time are having a tremendous impact on African thought.