The first theme of Waiting for the Rain, by Sheila Gordon is that real friendship is stronger than any of the human emotions that corrupt, even hate, distrust, fear, ethnocentrism, and intolerance. In Waiting for the Rain, this is portrayed in the final scene between Frikkie and Tengo, when they meet again, inside the shed after the protest. Frikkie has joined the military, almost as a defense against change, which he despises, while Tengo has gone to school, and become a part of the student protests, so that things will change. When they meet, their social positions have changed for the moment. Frikkie, the white boy, is lying helpless, while Tengo, the black boy has the power of determining whether Frikkie will live or die. In spite of this newfound power, Tengo lets Frikkie live. Why? Because they're friends. Their friendship was strong enough to endure the emotional and physical pain that they faced as a result of apartheid. It was strong enough to endure the injustice, anger, hate, fear, umbrage, that blacks, and even whites, had to put up with, just because of one race's power hunger. If friendship can survive through these feelings, than it can survive through anything.
Also, another theme is that one shouldn't fear change, because it will happen, whether one wants it to or not. For example, Frikkie fought change his whole life, and closed his eyes to the horrible things around him. Because of this, his close friendship with Tengo was almost completely lost. He spent most of his childhood thinking that he would grow up to inherit the farm, and that Tengo would be his bossboy. When Tengo shows some discontent about that, Frikkie isn't really sure what to think. For example, he says, "Hey-- wait for me!... Where are you going?" If Frikkie hadn't been dreading change all his life, and believing that everything would be just like he wanted it, then when bad things happened, it wouldn't have been so devastating for him.
Recommendation:
I probably would not recommend Waiting for the Rain, by Sheila Gordon, because it is fairly slow moving, and has a pretty bad ending. In spite of these bad traits, it is well written, and flows smoothly. It shows a good look at apartheid, but it doesn't show exactly how bad apartheid really was. It seems to me that the book closes its eyes to the horrors of apartheid. There are plenty of books out there that give a better picture of apartheid. Waiting for the Rain has a good storyline, but it could have been carried through a little bit better. For these reasons I would not recommend Waiting for the Rain, by Sheila Gordon.
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