"Dream Life and Real Life: A Little African Story" by Olive Schreiner is a tale set in South Africa that explores the contrasting worlds of dreams and harsh realities. The story centers on Jannita, a young, underprivileged girl tasked with herding goats, whose imagination provides an escape from her difficult life. The narrative dives into themes of freedom, identity, and empathy, all set against a landscape of poverty and yearning. When Jannita loses a goat, her flight into nature symbolizes a search for freedom, though she encounters stark truths of loss and betrayal along the way. At its core, the tale emphasizes the resilience of spirit as Jannita aims for independence in a restrictive world, by contrasting the enchanting dreams of childhood with the starkness of adulthood.
Dream Life and Real Life: A Little African Story
By Olive Schreiner
A young, poor girl’s dreams of a better life clash with a harsh reality when she flees into the wilderness to find freedom, only to face the stark truths of her existence.
Summary
About the AuthorOlive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.
Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.
More Like This
Explore books similar to the one you're viewing
Between Sun and Sand: A Tale of an African Desert
By W. C. (William Charles) Scully
Thoughts on South Africa
By Olive Schreiner
Blue Aloes: Stories of South Africa
By Cynthia Stockley
Wild Honey: Stories of South Africa
By Cynthia Stockley
Poppy: The Story of a South African Girl
By Cynthia Stockley
The Story of an African Farm
By Olive Schreiner
More by This Author
Discover other books written by the same author
Related by Category
Discover books in the same genre or category
Cessions of Land by Indian Tribes to the United States: Illustrated by Those in the State of Indiana First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 247-262
By Charles C. Royce
Young Lucretia and Other Stories
By Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
Miss Numè of Japan: A Japanese-American Romance
By Onoto Watanna
Milly: At Love's Extremes; A Romance of the Southland
By Maurice Thompson
Penelope's Irish Experiences
By Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
The Whelps of the Wolf
By George Marsh