The White Giraffe

Humans develop intense attachments to their homes and often define their identity by their country of origin, state residency, or neighborhood affiliation. When they migrate to a new place, whether by choice or by force, the journey can become a powerful catalyst for intense personal change and growth. When Martine first learns that she must leave her home in England and move across the world, she thinks it is the end of her life as she knows it. However, her journey to South Africa is just the beginning of a season of profound personal transformation. In The White Giraffe, author Lauren St. John establishes a powerful sense of place in her descriptions of the South African landscape and examines how the setting can facilitate radical change in the protagonist. Martine must change everything about her life to move to South Africa, including her wardrobe, and initially, she feels like an outsider in her new life. As Tendai drives her to her new home, she notices the beauty of the coastline and mountain ranges and appreciates the scenic vistas that are so different from England. Even in her despair and loneliness in her first few days at Sawubona, Martine gazes out at the preserve watering hole and finds solace in the peaceful movements of the animals. Though the vastness and unfamiliarity of the landscape frighten Martine, she admires it from a distance, and its proximity helps her to begin the healing process.

The landscape continues to change Martine as she engages with it through Tendai’s help. By embracing Tendai’s bushcraft lessons and helping him to care for the injured animals, Martine begins to see herself in the context of the natural world that surrounds her. Engaging with nature doesn’t make her losses any smaller, but witnessing the intricate circle of life helps Martine to understand that pain and death are a real part of life for all species. Martine describes her experience of engaging with the land as if she were learning a new language: “Every new bird call, every breath of wind, every new plant, and each fresh encounter she had with the local people or animals was like learning a new word” (84). As she gains confidence in navigating the unfamiliar landscape, she takes a calculated risk and ventures out into the preserve on her own. Living in the preserve provides Martine with the opportunity to explore and face her fears and build her confidence in a vast, unique setting. When Martine meets Jemmy, her instant connection to the elusive creature changes her forever. Although Jemmy is not a pet, Martine’s relationship with him touches on that universal human experience of connecting with an animal. Though their bond is wordless, she feels that he understands her grief, and spending time with him changes her as she grows into a deeper understanding of both the natural world and herself.

Martine’s proximity to wild, untamed nature and her kinship with Jemmy transform her into a more confident and empathetic human; however, her discovery of the Secret Valley and the cave drawings completely reconstruct the way she views herself and the history of all humanity. Martine’s deeper probing into the preserve symbolizes a deeper examination of her place in the world. The Secret Valley symbolizes an Eden, a place where all creatures, both human and animal, are safe from evil, and represents Martine’s lost childhood. When she is with Jemmy in the secret sanctuary, she can return to the joy of being a child riding blissfully on his back through the bush.

Likewise, entering the cave represents a profound rebirth as the light reveals Martine’s destiny written on the rock walls. The drawings also illuminate the history of South Africa, and its story of strife, destruction, and death changes Martine as she understands that she is just a small part of a much larger story of humanity. As the novel states, “[I]t was then that the door opened on the real Africa, the hidden Africa; the Africa that few human beings apart from the Bushmen ever witnessed” (124). Once Martine leaves the cave, what she has witnessed changes her forever. Though it is tempting to stay hidden in the Secret Valley and live in peace with Jemmy, she knows that she must go back out into the world and fulfill her destiny of helping injured animals. Moving to South Africa is therefore a test of Martine’s physical and emotional strength, and thus the landscape and its various sacred places have a profound effect upon her personal growth and development. By learning to navigate South Africa’s rough terrain, dodge its dangerous wildlife, and respect its significance to the Indigenous people who first inhabited it, Martine reconstructs a new life out of the ashes of the old and transforms from a lonely, frightened girl to a bold, confident young woman.