In Phaswane Mpe's, "Welcome to Our Hillbrow", we are told this twisted story of love, life and death. We come to know the story of Refentse, Lerato his female lover and his best friend Sammy. Mpe offers a very believable view on the situation at hand. Refentse comes home to find Lerato and Sammy having sex which leads him down a dark road to which he finds himself in question of life or death. Unfortunately Refentse choose to die, which then also results in Lerato committing suicide. The real tragic part of this story was none of this was intentional and it all started with Sammy trying to be a good friend and keep Refentse's lover in love with Refentse. This is when it is most easily noticable how perspectives play a role in stories.
When Sammy cheats with Lerato, there are multiple different views on the subject. We see Lerato approach Sammy in need of emotional support. She confesses that she seems to be growing apart from Refentse and ends up sleeping with Sammy which leads to Refentse's death. I think that the view from each different perspective allows for the characters to really develop. As the reader gets further into the story you hear the same version of the story but from different perspectives. The reader can really pick up on this in Lerato's case.
At first it's hard not to judge each and everyone of the characters because you're only told the story by one person. But as you keep reading you get to see it from the other persons perspective which totally changes the readers view on each character. It's like the expression, "Walk a mile in my shoes, then judge me". The reader doesn't get that luxury until later on in the book so for me personally, it totally changed the way I saw each character. I can't really say that I approve of what happened between the two but in seeing it from Lerato's perspective I can understand a little better why it all panned out the way it did.
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