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| Doris Lessing Doris_lessing_20060312_(jha).jpg: Elke Wetzig (elya) derivative work: PRA, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons |
INTRODUCTION
Doris Lessing’s Going Home (1957) is a landmark work of autobiographical nonfiction. Written after her return to Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) from England, the book blends travelogue, memoir, and political reflection. It captures her confrontation with a homeland transformed by the racial and political tensions of colonial rule. Lessing sets out not only to revisit the landscapes of her childhood but also to examine the moral and political contradictions of the society she once called home.
In this sense, Going Home is less about a physical return and more about the idea of “home” itself: its instability, its nostalgia, and its collision with political reality. Lessing documents encounters with her family, with white settlers, and with Black Africans, moving chronologically from her train journey into Rhodesia to her reflections on its uncertain future.
This comprehensive guide offers a scene-by-scene breakdown of Going Home along with a thematic and character analysis, designed both for readers exploring the book for the first time and for those looking to deepen their understanding of Lessing’s political and literary vision.
SHORT SUMMARY
Doris Lessing’s Going Home (1957) is a work of nonfiction that reads with the vividness of a novel. Written after her return to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1950s, the book combines memoir, travel writing, and political commentary. Lessing documents her personal journey back to her childhood country while offering a sharp critique of colonialism, racism, and white settler society in Africa.
The Journey Back
After years in England, Lessing travels back to Southern Rhodesia with her young son. She records her impressions of the land, the people, and the profound changes—or lack thereof—that have taken place since she left. For Lessing, the journey is both literal and symbolic: it is a confrontation with her past and with the realities of colonial Africa that shaped her early life.
Observations on White Settler Society
Much of Going Home is devoted to Lessing’s observations of the white settler community. She describes their comfortable lives, social clubs, and self-contained world, noting how insulated they are from the hardships of the majority African population. Lessing is critical of their attitudes, exposing the racism, complacency, and fear that underpin the settler mindset. Their resistance to change reflects the tensions brewing in Rhodesia and across southern Africa during the rise of independence movements.
Encounters with Black Africans
Lessing also spends time among Black Africans, listening to their voices, stories, and aspirations. She observes their daily struggles with poverty, land restrictions, and lack of political representation. The contrast between the worlds of white settlers and Black Africans underscores the injustice of the colonial system. Lessing’s conversations reveal not only anger and frustration but also hope for a future beyond oppression.
Personal Reflection and Memory
The book is deeply personal, blending political critique with memoir. Lessing reflects on her own childhood in Rhodesia, her parents’ lives as settlers, and the formative experiences that shaped her worldview. She acknowledges her own complicity as part of the colonial society but also positions herself as a critic who can no longer accept its injustices. Through this self-examination, Going Home becomes more than reportage—it is a meditation on memory, belonging, and identity.
Themes of Dislocation and Change
The title itself, Going Home, carries irony. Lessing returns to the country of her childhood, but she finds it no longer feels like home. She is alienated from the white community she grew up in, yet she cannot fully belong to the African communities whose lives she describes with compassion. This tension reflects the larger theme of dislocation under colonial rule, where “home” is contested and fractured.
Significance
Going Home is both a personal narrative and a political document. It exposes the realities of colonial Rhodesia at a time when few white writers were willing to challenge the system so openly. Lessing’s sharp eye and unflinching honesty make the book an important work in the canon of postcolonial literature. It bridges memoir and political critique, offering insights into race, class, and the enduring search for justice in Africa.
ANALYTICAL SUMMARY
Scene-by-Scene Breakdown of Going Home
1. The Train Journey Back
The book opens with Doris Lessing traveling by train across the Rhodesian border after years of exile in England. This scene sets the rhythm of her return: the click of the wheels on the track mirrors her pulse of memory and reflection. She observes the passing landscape—the dry grasslands, the distant hills, the wide African sky—with both affection and unease.
The train journey introduces the memoir’s central paradox: Lessing loves the land itself yet feels alienated from the social and political system that governs it. This “double vision”—belonging and estrangement—permeates the entire book.
Theme: The opening establishes home as both physical and emotional terrain, already destabilized by memory, distance, and colonial injustice.
2. Reunion with Family
Arriving at her family’s farm, Lessing reunites with her father and mother. Their home embodies the settler ethos: hardworking, self-reliant, shaped by years of struggling against the land. Yet Lessing quickly identifies the contradictions in this life. Her parents view themselves as pioneers, carving existence out of the soil, but are simultaneously insulated from the realities faced by Africans who labor on the same land.
The scenes with her family are affectionate but edged with critique. She notices their narrow worldview, their tendency to speak of politics only in terms of crops, rainfall, and farm security.
Theme: The family farm symbolizes settler blindness—rooted in the land yet disconnected from its people. It illustrates the divide between private endurance and public complicity in racial hierarchy.
3. Conversations with Settlers
Much of Going Home unfolds in conversations with Rhodesian settlers. At social gatherings, in town, or around dinner tables, Lessing listens to their casual remarks about politics, economics, and race. She records the settlers’ nostalgia for “simpler days,” their suspicion of African nationalism, and their conviction that European rule is both natural and necessary.
These conversations are revealing precisely because they are ordinary. Prejudices and fears surface not as political speeches but as casual jokes, complaints, and offhand remarks. Settlers see themselves as guardians of order while fearing what might happen if Africans gained equal rights.
Theme: Here Lessing exposes the everyday psychology of colonial privilege. Racism is not only in laws and institutions but also in the rhythms of ordinary conversation.
4. Encounters with Black Africans
Contrasting sharply with settler dialogue are Lessing’s encounters with Black Africans—both friends and political activists. These voices express aspirations for independence, frustrations with the restrictions of pass laws, and anger at the exploitation of their labor.
In their stories, Lessing reveals the realities settlers prefer not to acknowledge: low wages, police surveillance, and the constant humiliation of systemic inequality. These scenes ground the book in the lived experience of oppression, moving it beyond abstract politics.
Theme: By juxtaposing African and settler voices, Lessing highlights the gulf between perception and reality. For whites, colonialism is security; for Africans, it is a daily struggle.
5. Visits to Townships
Lessing also visits African townships near the cities, recording the contrast between poverty and vitality. Overcrowded housing, poor sanitation, and visible deprivation dominate the landscape. Yet she also finds resilience—music, community gatherings, and clandestine political meetings where activists debate strategies for liberation.
Township life illustrates the contradictions of colonial Rhodesia: oppression on one hand, cultural vibrancy and political awakening on the other.
Theme: The townships symbolize the birthplace of nationalist resistance, proving that even under oppression, communities nurture both survival and future hope.
6. Landscapes of Memory
Throughout her journey, Lessing interweaves personal memories of childhood landscapes. Rivers, farms, and bushlands once filled with play and imagination now appear altered. What she once saw as neutral land now reveals scars of exploitation: fences, boundaries, and divisions drawn by colonial ownership.
This blending of memory and observation emphasizes the dissonance of return. Home is never as remembered; memory collides with history.
Theme: The past cannot be revisited unchanged. Memory is political—shaped by who owns the land, who works it, and who is excluded.
7. Political Reflections on Rhodesia’s Future
As the book nears its conclusion, Lessing turns explicitly to political analysis. She reflects on the inevitability of African independence, noting that settler intransigence only delays the future. She predicts conflict if whites refuse to yield power, sensing that the country stands at the edge of crisis.
Her reflections combine realism and moral urgency. She acknowledges the courage of African nationalists while lamenting the blindness of her fellow settlers.
Theme: The conclusion presents history as inevitability. Change will come—the question is whether through peaceful transition or violent struggle.
Thematic Analysis
Colonialism and Racial Division
Going Home exposes the layered mechanisms of colonialism: segregation, land ownership, labor exploitation, and everyday prejudice. Lessing emphasizes that Rhodesia’s entire social structure is built on racial division, making reform impossible without dismantling the system itself.
Belonging and Estrangement
Lessing’s love for the African landscape clashes with her alienation from its society. Her personal return dramatizes the paradox of exile: one can belong to a place emotionally yet feel estranged politically and morally.
Memory and History
The memoir insists that memory cannot be separated from history. Lessing’s recollections of childhood are reinterpreted through the lens of political awareness, illustrating how personal memory is always embedded in larger historical narratives.
Identity and Exile
As a white writer born in Africa but politically opposed to colonialism, Lessing occupies a liminal identity. She is insider and outsider, exile and native. The book embodies the crisis of identity experienced by many colonial-born whites.
Voice and Silence
Perhaps the most striking theme is the question of voice. Settler voices dominate public discourse, while African voices are suppressed. By recording African perspectives alongside settler conversations, Lessing intervenes in this imbalance, giving visibility to those silenced by colonial structures.
Character Analysis
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Doris Lessing (Narrator): A traveler, daughter, exile, and political critic. She embodies the tension between love of place and rejection of its politics.
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Settler Community (Family and Acquaintances): Hardworking yet narrow-minded, embodying the contradictions of colonial settlers who see themselves as victims of hardship while perpetuating inequality.
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African Voices (Workers, Friends, Activists): They grounded the book in lived experience. Their stories of resilience and political awakening highlight the inevitability of change.
Symbolism and Motifs
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The Land: Central symbol of both beauty and exploitation. Beloved by Lessing yet marked by colonial scars.
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Journeys: The train and road journeys symbolize both physical travel and internal reflection.
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Silence vs. Speech: Who is allowed to speak—settlers or Africans—becomes a metaphor for power.
Conclusion
Doris Lessing’s Going Home is more than a memoir of return; it is a political testimony and a meditation on exile. By weaving together personal memory, everyday encounters, and political analysis, Lessing reveals the contradictions of Rhodesia in the 1950s: its beauty, its violence, its people divided by race and history.
The book foreshadows Zimbabwe’s later liberation struggle, making it both historically prophetic and deeply personal. For contemporary readers, it remains a vital exploration of what it means to belong, to remember, and to confront the political realities of one’s homeland.
