Out of Africa Book Four, From an Immigrant's Notebook: From "Kitosch's Story" to "The Parrot" Summary & Analysis

Analysis

The fragmented anecdotal style seen in the last chapters reappears again here. The narrator continues to list anecdotes, memories, and stories in no apparent thematic or chronological structure. Again, some of these segments appear connected to larger themes seen throughout Out of Africa. Others simply stand on their own as ideas that the narrator thought interesting, without necessarily a clear linkage to larger issues.

Perhaps the most substantive anecdote concerns the death of Kitosch and the subsequent trial. The white settler's treatment of Kitosch reflects the often brutal nature of colonial settlers. In comparison, the narrator seems like an altruistic and generous boss. Yet, despite the careful pains that Dinesen takes to expose the abuse, the anecdote ends in a surprisingly puzzling, and perhaps disappointing, way. Logically, the evidence presented at the court suggests that Kitosch died because the flogging was so severe that his body stopped working. For this reason, it seems that the jury failed when they found the settler only guilty of grievous hurt.

Yet, while this may be the case, Dinesen ends the anecdote by praising Kitosch's ability to control his own destiny by dying. This final conclusion is strange because it contradicts Dinesen's exposure of injustice. If she believes that Kitosch died of his own will then she supports, not condemns, the jury. Dinesen's praise of Kitosch for choosing death is consistent with her previously expressed ideas about the Masai dying in prison, and the lion saving the ox from having his spirit broken. By clinging to the belief the natives simply can will themselves to die, Dinesen avoids the reality that most African natives and animals simply suffered under European rule and there was little they could do to avoid it. Dinesen's idea makes her reason for recounting the injustice of Kitosch's slightly puzzling.

The other significant anecdote in this section is the "War Time Safari." Perhaps most interesting in it is the author's revelation that she actually had a husband. Those who know Dinesen's biography already know this to be the case, but in Out of the Africa the narrator appears as a single woman who is independently in charge of her farm. To realize suddenly that she was actually married suggests exactly how little the narrator has revealed about her own self, even though she has already told more than half of her tale.

The episode also testifies to the narrator's strength and zest as a character. During a war time period where other white women contemplated moving into a virtual concentration camp to avoid native men, the narrator headed into the middle of nowhere with only native men. Together they face lions and other animals of the bush. The narrator's behavior is brazenly brave. It is also, as she suggests, quite unusual for the time as well as for when the book was published. Rules of formal propriety at the time dictated that women should not go off wandering with unknown men, especially men who were not white. The narrator, however, appears unafraid and full of life as she heads into the wild. She feels fully in touch with her surroundings and at peace.

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