HITTING BUDAPEST ANALYSIS [PDF]

Hitting Budapest
NoViolet Bulwayo

 

Characters:

Basta – 11 years old

Chipo – 10 years old

Godknows- 9 years old

Sbho – 8 years old

Stina

Narrator – 9years old

 

Main concern

·        The devastating impact of poverty on children (juveniles)

 

 

Other issues;

·        Poverty

·        Immigration

·        Social classes

·        Exploitation

·        Delinquency

 

 

Synopsis

Hitting Budapest explores the hardships encountered by children living in a poor neighbourhood ironically named Paradise. These are Basta, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho, Stina and the (unnamed) narrator.

 

They lack basic needs like food because of poverty. They are forced to steal guavas to quell their hunger pangs. They used to steal guavas from Chipo's uncle’s tree but now they steal from strangers who live in an affluent neighbourhood called Budapest.

 

Getting out of Paradise is easy since the adults are too preoccupied with plaiting hair or playing draughts. As they ran, it turns out Chipo who was the fastest among them is slower today. She is pregnant after being sexually exploited by her grandfather. She has to sit down and rest.

 

Chipo describes Budapest as “a country where people who are not like us live” There is social stratification. The children are accustomed to the life in the shanty where there is pollution from burning things and smell of cooking food and rotting things.

 

Their mission in Budapest is stealing guavas. At Budapest they meet a thin woman from London known as Mello. To their surprise, she smiles at them. Nobody at Budapest smiles at them. When Chipo asks about the food she is eating, the woman mistakenly thinks she’s asking about the camera she was holding. They have different worries; point of views. The children are surprised when woman throws away food.

 

The narrator has dreams of moving to America where her aunt Fostalina lives. She expects to live a better life there. Africans feel life is better overseas especially in Europe and America. Godknows’ uncle, Polite, lives in London.

 

As they go back to paradise the ill-mannered children spit and litter the streets of Budapest with guava peels. Chipo vomits. They admire the big houses in Budapest. Sbho says she will live in houses like those one day. Basta dismisses this as a pipedream and throws guavas at the house. Basta is violent. He has beaten all the children except Stina. Sbho dreams of marrying a man from Budapest to escape the shanties of Paradise, Heaven and Fambeki.

 

Basta also dreams of going out of the country where he will make lots of money and buy houses in Budapest, Paris or Los Angeles. He wants to go to South Africa or Botswana.

 

Chipo remembers what her teacher Mr. Gono told her-that you need education to make money. Now she doesn’t attend school anymore but she thinks she does not need school to make money- that’s what the Bible says in her understanding.

 

Basta says nasty things about America and this hurts the narrator who dreams of living there. She feels boiling rage and has fantasies about violently accosting him.

 

Later, they are rounded up and taken to the Juvenile correctional centre. The narrator can now read and write. She is now reformed. She will write to Mello to apologise for their misdemeanour to the people of Budapest. She still hopes to go to America after her studies. Chipo who has since delivered, would like to continue with her studies and become a counsellor to guide and help children from Paradise.

 

Apart from basic needs like food, shelter and clothes, children also need love, compassion and guidance. They also need education and protection from predators. Without these, they engage in serious detrimental behaviour. 

NEXT: Missing Out by Leila Aboulela

See analyses of all stories in Memories we Lost here.