A) Characterize Marais Van der Vyver
             Marais Van der Vyver is an Afrikaner farmer, living in South Africa during the end of the apartheid regime. Furthermore, he is the regional party leader and commandant of the local security command. The people from his district remember how as child was rather shy and withdrawn, and it seems that the people around him believe that he has continued these personality traits as an adult. Nevertheless, he exposes his feelings at the police station when reporting the hunting mishap, where he accidently shoots one of his black farm labors.
             He sobs and weeps, and the captain of the police office is ashamed of this sudden breakdown of Marais Van der Vyver. Marais has three kids with his wife; Magnus, Helena and Karel. But in the last lines of the story it's revealed that the black laborer he accidentally shot to death isn't his boy, but his actual son. This boy's name is Lucas.
             The theme of the story is quite complex as it both deals with the racism issues which unfolded in the segregated society of South Africa. At the same time, it shows how complicated and paradoxical this separation of black and white people is. This appears in the text as Lucas turns out to be the result of Marais' extramarital relations. The whole affair becomes a personal tragedy for Marais Van der Vyver. But Marais knows that the story of this hunting mishap in the eyes of the opposition overtly is a callous act of negligent shooting and a perfect example of the oppressed blacks of South Africa.
             B2) What is the message of the story?
             The message of this text could be that one shouldn't judge a case by its superficial appearance, because it often turns out that the case may have many different aspects which ought to be taken in consideration. For example the immediate impression of the hunting mishap easiest takes the side of the opposition's opinions, as this very
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