The journey to the top of the mountain
There is a transcendental image in this book, because the working women from town all voluntarily hike up a mountain, sustaining injury and insult along the way by sexually repressed, aggressive men who live on the mountain. Why do they do it? Because at the top of the mountain, they can get paid for their time in a way that doesn't make them ashamed, although they do get naked for the priest's artistic study.
The archetypal religious figure
Father Claerhout is an archetypal religious figure, because he stands out like a sore thumb in his community. Unlike the racist, misogynistic men in Boer's mountainside, the priest of Boer himself is incredibly kind. He simply paints the women he hires, and then he pays them—no sexual violence. Whatever he offers them by way of emotional encouragement speaks for itself, because the girls keep journeying back to visit him. He represents the hope that not all men are like those guys in town.
The motif of point of view
The same situation ends up being treated from three points of view: Niki is a black African who works in the only profession she can find, which for Niki means prostitution—not a fate she was hoping for, but one she has learned to come to peace with. Her daughter has a blended perspective on being an outsider, because racism prevents both black people and white people from admitting how beautiful she is. Then there is Viliki who sees the tension and conflict from a third-person point of view, and having analyzed it, becomes political. The novel is celebrating the diversity of perspective.
The motif of injustice
When Niki is constantly mistreated, she tends to find a way to be at peace, and typically that doesn't involve pursuing justice. But, then, her son Viliki is born, and he feels way differently about his mother than she feels about himself. The fate she has so gracefully accepted seems wrong to him, and he becomes a voice for political activism. He notices a whole spectrum of injustices in South Africa.
The jail sentence
The author cleverly writes that Niki is thrown in jail for having the audacity to deliver a baby. In apartheid law, it would be technically illegal for Niki to give birth to her own child when it was due. What other option is there for a pregnant mother who is going into labor? It is a way of saying that the value of a half-black child is not worth existence. In other words, the jail sentence is a sign of political injustice and racial hatred against black people.
