Chapter 10 does not just ask these questions -- it begins to answer them.
Where We Left Off
The flood of memory
End of Chapter 9
The full memory has returned:
A mother who sang. A yellow dog who played. Cotton reels on the floor.
The dompas raid. The father's violence. The death of the dog and her pups.
The river. Petah. The pipes. The choice of a new name.
And the final, devastating line of Chapter 9:
"He had no use for memories. Anyway, he had none."
Both of those claims are now false.
The Knife That Fails
A symbol transformed
Close Reading
The Opening Moment
Tsotsi wakes to knocking at his door. His first instinct:
"Instinctively, but for no other reason than having awoken, he put his hand under his pillow to find his knife."
But before he finds it, another thought comes -- he looks at the baby.
And when he does find the knife:
"it did exactly the opposite of what it was meant to do."
The Three Rules -- Broken
Rule 1: The Knife
Handled each morning to establish identity and a sense of being real. Now it triggers memories instead of suppressing them.
Rule 2: No Memories
The inner darkness stays sealed. The seal is broken. Memories flood in uncontrollably.
Rule 3: No Questions Tolerated
Others must not ask questions. Tsotsi is now asking questions himself: "Because I must find out."
All three survival rules from Chapter 3 have been dismantled. The architecture of "Tsotsi" is collapsing.
The Gang Dissolves
Die Aap's visit and the end of an era
Comic Relief
Die Aap knocks at the door. Tsotsi's internal monologue:
"Jesus, what now. What the hell now. Things were happening too fast."
Tsotsi hides the baby under the bed before opening the door.
Die Aap smiles. Tsotsi thinks: "Where's his front teeth?" -- and then, "why the hell am I thinking that?"
Disbanding the Gang
Die Aap has come to ask about the next job.
He also brings news: Butcher has joined another gang.
Tsotsi's response:
The gang is finished. There will be no more jobs.
With this decision, Tsotsi dismantles the last structure of his old life.
Miriam Returns
A relationship transformed
Close Reading
A Voluntary Return
In Chapter 8, Tsotsi forced Miriam to come. He threatened her baby's life.
In Chapter 10, she comes on her own.
"He knew then that she had wanted to come, that she had come prepared to come; that for all he knew she might even have knocked on his door in passing if he had not stepped out into the street."
She brings ointment, clean clothes, and powder for the baby.
Tsotsi Watches
Fugard shows us Tsotsi noticing Miriam in the queue at Waterworks:
Her "strong slant to her eyes" and the "ochre tint of her skin."
The way she carries her body. The fullness of womanhood.
This is not the gaze of a predator. It is the gaze of someone seeing another person for perhaps the first time.
"His Name is David"
The most important sentence in the chapter
Close Reading
The Naming
Miriam is feeding the baby. She tries to coax him:
"What is your name? Drink my baby. What will we call you? Peter. The big fisherman. Drink Petertjie."
Tsotsi interrupts:
"His name is David."
Miriam's Question
Miriam asks: "Are you his father?"
Tsotsi's internal response is devastating:
"His father! A big, feathered man, flying them away to better times. Ow, David, he thought. Poor David. There were no better times."
What he says aloud:
"David never saw his father."
He is speaking about the baby -- and about himself.
"He Is Mine"
Miriam offers to take the baby. She can feed him, care for him, raise him alongside her own son Simon.
Tsotsi's first thought is violent: I will kill her.
But then a second thought:
"I gave him milk. Me on a Saturday in a shop, I bought it. I killed the ants."
His claim to the baby is not possession. It is care.
"Because I Must Find Out"
The question that drives the rest of the novel
Close Reading
Miriam's Final Question
Miriam presses: Why do you want to keep him?
Tsotsi's answer:
"Because I must find out."
Find out what?
He does not say. Perhaps he does not know.
But the baby is helping him remember -- and the remembering is changing him.
The Journey to the River
Verifying memory
"Driving to Hell and Gone"
Throughout the chapter, Tsotsi's mind returns to one memory:
The rusty shell of a car, crashed into the dry riverbed.
The river gang's only game: "driving to hell and gone."
"Beep-beep, toot-toot, Grrr-grrr-grrrrrrr..."
Only the driver made the noises. The rest sat silent, racing the approaching darkness.
Confirming the Past
After Miriam leaves, Tsotsi does something extraordinary:
He takes the baby and makes the long journey to the river.
He finds the pipes. He finds the shell of the motorcar.
They are real.
Why This Matters
Tsotsi needs to verify that his memories are true -- that the past he recovered in Chapter 9 actually happened. Finding the physical evidence confirms: David was real. The river was real. The past is not a dream.
Literary Features
Fugard's craft in Chapter 10
Shifting Diction
Tsotsi's language and thought patterns are changing.
Compare the blunt, aggressive internal voice of Chapters 1-3...
...with the reflective, almost wondering tone of Chapter 10.
He notices beauty. He wonders. He hesitates.
Even his speech is softer: he tells Miriam the baby's name rather than commanding her.
Structural Position
Chapter 9 was the climax -- the peak of the rising action.
Chapter 10 begins the falling action.
Every event in this chapter is a consequence of remembering:
The knife fails → The gang dissolves → The baby is named → The river is revisited
Each consequence dismantles one more piece of the old Tsotsi.
The Double Reference
Fugard uses a technique throughout Chapter 10 where Tsotsi's words apply to two people at once:
"His name is David" -- the baby, and himself.
"David never saw his father" -- the baby, and himself.
"He is mine" -- claiming the baby, and reclaiming his own lost self.
Every statement about the baby is also a statement about the boy Tsotsi used to be.
Thematic Connections
Pulling the threads together
Identity and Transformation
Can people fundamentally change who they are?
Chapter 10 provides the strongest evidence yet: yes.
But the change is not instant or clean. Tsotsi's first instinct when Miriam asks for the baby is still "I will kill her."
The old violence has not vanished. It has been overridden -- by care, by memory, by something emerging that Tsotsi cannot yet name.
Memory and Healing
How does confronting the past enable growth?
The journey to the river is Tsotsi's answer.
He does not go to escape. He goes to confirm.
He needs the past to be real -- because if it is real, then David is real.
And if David is real, then Tsotsi might not be all that he is.
Human Connection
What enables genuine human connection?
Miriam returns voluntarily -- not because she is forced, but because she chooses to.
She brings supplies. She speaks to the baby tenderly. She offers to take him.
And Tsotsi lets her in. He does not threaten. He watches. He listens.
Two people, damaged by apartheid, finding a fragile connection through a baby.
Discussion
Think about this:
Tsotsi names the baby David -- the name he declared "dead" as a child. Why does he resurrect this name now? What does it mean to give your lost name to someone else?
And this:
"Because I must find out." What is Tsotsi trying to find out? Can the baby really help him find it?
Looking Forward
At the end of Chapter 10, after confirming his memories at the river, Tsotsi has one more thought:
He begins to wonder where Boston is.
Why Boston? Why now?
Boston was the one who asked the question that started everything:
"Does anything, anywhere, anytime do that to you?"
Tsotsi is ready to answer.
Tracking Questions for Chapter 11
What does Tsotsi do when he finds Boston?
How does Tsotsi's physical behaviour toward Boston differ from Chapter 2?
Watch for the word "pain". Whose pain? What kind?
What do we learn about Boston's past?
Keep noticing moments that surprise you. The surprises are increasing -- and they are the evidence.
For Next Class
Read Chapter 11 carefully.
Chapter 10 dismantled the old Tsotsi.
Chapter 11 asks: what is being built in his place?
Complete your metacognitive worksheet for Chapter 10 before next class.