Chapters 9-11 Summary

In these chapters, Noah reveals the animosity between different race categories: Black, white, Colored, and Indian. He explains that apartheid convinced every race group that their lack of status was the fault of another race group that was keeping them down. Apartheid taught people how to hate other races, and “I was the anomaly wherever we lived,” he says. He recounts being bullied by Colored teens who throw mulberries at him and call him “Bushie” for “Bushman.” His future stepfather, Abel, beats the ringleader, and Noah recognizes his commonality with the boy as a victim. Noah also recounts his first disastrous Valentine’s Day at age 12, when his girl dumps him for a white boy.

Always frugal, Patricia turns off the car when they don’t have enough petrol to get through a traffic jam, forcing Noah to push the car to school. Noah describes himself as an outsider at the new school that he enters for eighth grade. But he also describes himself as a “cultural chameleon” because he can hang out with any group of kids at his integrated school, from jocks and nerds to upper-class white kids and poor Black kids. He cracks jokes and gets along with everyone.

Chapters 9-11 Analysis

In these chapters, Noah discusses how the rules of apartheid were able to divide and keep the different race groups apart, each group blaming another for their problems and misfortunes. The rules of apartheid deepened previously existing divisions and mistrust, creating stronger boundaries between groups. The education system that taught Black people a different curriculum than white people intensified and widened divisions.

By helping Noah learn multiple languages, Patricia gives him one of the few tools that could help him navigate these divisions. Another tool Noah develops, his sense of humor, enables him to hang out with any group at school by cracking jokes and making people laugh.