The corrupt patriarch
Mehring is a symbolic character, and his story is designed to unravel aspects of what he symbolizes. In his one character, there are hints of corrupted patriarchy which often becomes increasingly firm and conservative, lacking the flexibility that would allow for change. This is a generally universal phenomenon, which is why things move in waves; the circular ebb and flow of human politics gradually brings points of view like Mehring's to full volume, so that the corruption of the status quo can be adjusted.
The rebel son
That brings us to the rebellious son. The son is archetypically significant just like the father, because the personal beef between this obviously angry, abusive man and his son turns his son into an anti-authoritarian, another cycle (generational political oscillation, one might call it). The archetypal son is poignant because he takes his rebellion out of the context of his own home and participates in local progressive political movements. He symbolizes the faults of his father, which he found personally but applied politically.
Racism and hatred
There will never be a time when this lesson is not relevant. This lesson is a useful part of literature, and it is consistently one of the most important reasons to read literature. In daily life, Mehring develops his point of view through community culture and personal experience, along with personal choice along the way. Racism comes under the analysis of this plot, and the theme of the book is that racism is actually just a code word for hatred. By becoming racist, Mehring gives himself permission to tolerate hatred toward others.
The loyalty dilemma
Jacobus was not expecting that his loyalty would become such a dilemma. The reader is not far from some Uncle Tom's Cabin undertones. The apartheid situation resembles American race relations in many important ways, but mostly because racist ideas were perpetuated nearly universally. Jacobus doesn't know where Mehring falls on that spectrum, and when he becomes an arbiter for Mehring's property, he is suddenly asked to betray his own South African community to enforce his boss's racist authority.
Funeral rites
This tension resolves when Mehring is restricted from his employees by a natural event. The water that separates them is a deus ex machina that allows Jacobus to bury the dead worker. That burial symbolizes the humanity of the workers which Mehring tends to ignore. This whole motif has an analog in Antigone which also involves a climactic death and burial. Burial rites are consistently a metaphor for life's value because of natural symbolism. Humans were burying their dead with funeral rites since before written language.
