By using apostrophe genre in the novel “Mother to Mother” to convey the life story of Mxolisi, who murdered Amy Biehl, Sindiwe Magona shows how complexities of characters are often neglected with dichotomy of good and evil being used as justification. I will employ research from neurology and social psychology in order to highlight the range of factors, the totality of which pushed Mxolisi to take Amy Biehl’s life. I hope that using post-colonial criticism to point at the fact that people of all ethnicities are subject to the same neurological conditions and social influences will provide a foundation for acknowledging that the division into “Us” and “Others” should be eliminated based on genetic similarity of all humans and lead to raising questions about responsibility for crimes.

To begin with, according to Mandisa’s narrative, Mxolisi exhibits the symptoms of PTSD which is a mental disorder acquired during lifetime due to traumatic events and may cause problems for an individual, among which are insomnia; inability to relax, feel safe, and control aggression (NIMH). PTSD in children can be detected by their following behaviors: “wetting the bed after having learned to use the toilet, forgetting how to or being unable to talk” (NIMH). After being the cause and eyewitness of the murder of his friends, Mxolisi lost speech for two years (Magona, 158-159), which according to NIMH is a symptom of PTSD. Furthermore, after birth of Lunga, Mxolisi “who was dry and out of napkins by his first birthday” started bedwetting (Magona, 158). It could be argued that the reason for this behavior was a protest against not having his own father since Mxolisi on the next day after being forced to eat the roasted mouse as punishment pronounced the first words after two years of silence: “Where is my own father?” (Magona, 158). According to NIMH, bedwetting is another symptom of PTSD. An article published on ScienceDaily website points at an increased likelihood of children whose parents unexpectedly die to acquire PTSD (JAMA and Archives Journals). Mxolisi’s father suddenly disappeared which could have a similar impact. As can be seen, in the childhood Mxolisi was subject to PTSD which does not fade away on its own and can be treated only with therapy (National Center for PTSD, 9). This consideration allows to question the validity of perceiving Mxolisi as a flat villain character and reveals a mitigating circumstance behind the committed murder.

Because PTSD does not go away with time, the symptoms should be visible in Mxolisi when he is a young man. Among the signs that are observed in adults, “having difficulty sleeping”, “having angry outbursts” (NIMH), numbness, and violence against others (National Center for PTSD, 8), increased levels of disobedience (NCBI) are noticeable in Mxolisi. The fact that Mxolisi “prides himself on his ability to stay up half the night” (Magona, 6) might be interpreted as insomnia. Furthermore, Mandisa characterizes her firstborn as a pit-bull in contrast to Lunga who is associated with a dalmatian for her (Magona, 38), which points at Mxolisi’s aggressiveness. Mxolisi is also characterized as lazy by his mother: “Lazy boy” (Magona, 10), which might be the manifestation of apathy. Additionally, Mandisa mentions the fact that her oldest son “bullies his brother and the girl” (Magona, 10), which is indicative of cruelty and might be interpreted as a sign of mental disorder acquired due to trauma. Mandisa recurrently describes Mxolisi as disobedient. When he does not arrive home on time on the tragic day, Mandisa complains: “why was he so persistent in being disobedient?” (Magona, 67).  After Mandisa blames Dwadwa for not fulfilling responsibilities of a father towards Mxolisi, she realizes that it was not Dwadwa’s fault “that Mxolisi is so disobedient” (Magona, 71). Furthermore, Mxolisi also shows defiance by refusing to study despite of the future benefits that his mother outlines for him and despite of her admonishments (Magona, 161). This discussion highlights the fact that untreated PTSD placed Mxolisi into a risk group for committing a violent crime, which further underlines ambiguity of the character and the difficulty of judging him.

Prior to the discussion of sociological factors that triggered Mxolisi’s crime, it is necessary to explore the identities that he was developing in himself. He is presented as a complex individual who was trying to overcome acquired psychological trauma that predisposed him to engaging into criminal behavior and become both a caring and responsible family member and a magnanimous citizen. For example, Mandisa testifies that Mxolisi loves his brother and sister and is always ready to help and protect them: “he [Mxolisi] would care about her [Siziwe’s] safety” (Magona, 40). Moreover, he also cares after his parents: starts working because he observes his mother struggling after Lungile has left to train as a freedom-fighter (Magona, 161), goes to buy fruits for Dwadwa (Magona, 162). Besides care after his closest relatives, prior to murder Mxolisi committed generous acts towards unknown people: for example, saved a girl from rape (Magona, 163). In Mandisa’s memories he is also a diligent student: before quitting school Mxolisi was in the top of his class (Magona, 160). Additionally, he is a magnanimous citizen because he never participated in necklacing (Magona, 159). These considerations highlight that Mxolisi was not naturally predisposed to becoming a criminal, but rather there were multiply life paths for him to choose from, and the tragic circumstances, such as being brought up without a father and carrying guilt for his friends’ deaths pushed him towards committing the murder. 

Despite of Mxolisi’s attempts to integrate identity of a caring and responsible person, his acquired neurological features made it impossible for him to resist deindividuation in the crowd of furious people that triggered the murder. Deindividuation is a psychological phenomenon when levels of self-awareness in people decrease due to surrounding environment and cause loss of control over actions (Encyclopedia of Identity). Indeed, the outlined values nourished by Mxolisi during his lifetime, as well as some of Mandisa’s monologues pronounced when she met Mxolisi in hiding, and some of descriptions in the denouement might be interpreted as a proof that he was not self-aware among people who were cheering him on to kill Amy Biehl. According to a psychologist Daniel Goleman’s definition, self-awareness is “knowing one’s internal states, preference, resources and intuitions” (Positive Psychology Program). Taking away the life of another person is in contradiction with Mxolisi’s “preference” since he never participated in necklacing. When Mandisa’s son committed the murder, he acted as if he lost knowledge about his preference. It proves that at that moment he lacked self-awareness. Furthermore, when Amy Biehl asks for mercy, she says: “You don’t want to do this” (Magona, 209), which seems to be a discerning claim. If Mxolisi had wanted to commit murder, there would have been no “pain and terror” (Magona, 197) in his eyes afterwards. So, this observation proves that at the tragic moment Mxolisi did not know his internal state, and thus, was not self-aware. Lastly, when Mandisa meets Mxolisi, she asks him questions, the answers to which are intuitively known: “D’you realize she is never going to come back? <…> Don’t you see that if your knife has her blood, it doesn’t matter if you stabbed her in her thumb?” (Magona, 197). It leaves an impression that when Mxolisi was about to murder Amy Biehl, he did not know the answers to these questions, thus showing lack of intuition and consequently, self-awareness. Mxolisi experienced deindividuation in the crowd that surrounded Amy Biehl’s car, which caused the murder.

The analysis shows that Mxolisi was trying to become a better person, however factors outside of his control: development of PTSD due to childhood traumas and experience of deindividuation in the crowd made his goal impossible to achieve. Close-reading of Magona’s novel offers a ground for thoughts about complexity of life that emphasizes superficiality of dichotomic divisions into good and evil, as well as about the extent to which people are responsible for crimes they commit. The discussion also allows to acknowledge invalidity of racist claims that some ethnic groups are more predisposed to violence then others because the factors that are behind murder originate in neurology, psychology and sociology that are universal among all people.   

Works-Cited List:
Encyclopedia of Identity. SAGE. Jackson R. L., Hogg M. A.. SAGE Publications, Inc. 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412979306.n63

JAMA and Archives Journals. “Sudden Death Of A Parent May Pose Mental Health Risks For Children, Surviving Caregivers.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 May 2008. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505162849.htm

Magona, Sindiwe. Mother to Mother. Beacon Press Books. 1998.  

NIMH. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mental Health Information. February 2016. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml#part_145376

Understanding PTSD and PTSD Treatment. National Center for PTSD. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/publications/print/understandingptsd_booklet.pdf

Zhu, Jessie. “What is Self-Awareness and Why Does it Matter? [Meaning + 5 Tips]”. Positive Psychology Program. 2 January 2017. https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/self-awareness-matters-how-you-can-be-more-self-aware/