Dr Leinsdorf: Representative of 'White-Chauvinism'

'Town and Country Lovers' by Nadine Gordimer basically deals with racial differences and its impacts in human relationships in then South African settings. It includes two independent but similar stories set in town and country of South Africa. In the first story of town, Dr Franz-Josef von Leinsdorf (white man) is the major character who has relationships with an unnamed black girl. As the title suggests, they love each other. But their love is not so simple like 'pure love', but is complicated that also presents White view toward Black women in particular and whole Black life in general. Dr Leinsdorf's views can be representatives for white's views toward lives of blacks.

The story presents Leinsdorf's character as the white one who has taken all blacks as inferior or uncivilized than them. During his first meeting with the cashier girl, he has negative attitude toward whole class of black cashiers – "…young coloured girls are usually pretty unhelpful, taking money and punching their machines in a manner that asserts with the time-serving obstinacy…".  Even after finding this particular girl quite different than others, he again objectifies her; he wants to see white woman's face into her- "… a very small face was quite delicately hollowed, ad the skin was smooth, the subdued satiny colour of certain yellow wood" .

The girl had only said that she would bring the blades to the pavement – "If you want I can run in and get it." But furthering a step, he asks her to drop it on his own apartment - "Could you drop them by, for me - …" . From this point, it is clear that the man is treating the girl not as a lover, but as a servant. He is "using" her more than "loving". This fact reinforces his white-chauvinism that blacks can do nothing, but to serve whites.  

If he really loved the girl, he wouldn't offer her a tip of mere twenty cents for her support to him. But he does actually so after the girl "served" whatever he "demanded". The fact that he doubled the tip from what he would offer to other blacks doesn't show that he loves her. In this very moment too, he appears very discriminatory toward blacks- "He wondered if he should give her a twenty-cent piece for her trouble – ten cents would be right for a black". After the girl rejects the tip politely, he clearly knows that she wants to be quite close to him. Even then he hesitates to "take her into his study-cum-living-room and offer her a drink". He finds her not well enough to be brought into the room.

In another event, he more explicitly shows his superiority as a civilized man from a civilized geography, and a civilized race. He accuses the ready-made coffee as "not real coffee" but only "synthetic flavouring" and claims that people in Africa don't have access to real coffee. He says so proudly and offending the girl, "In my country, we drink only real coffee, fresh, from the beans…" .

In the final part of the story, his discriminatory acts become more apparent. When he meets her in the court during hearing, he neither greets her, nor talks with. He asks no one what punishments have the girl received, and whether she is acquitted. With this event, it is proved that he never did love her, but only used her services for his purpose. And, since now his purpose is fulfilled, he doesn't need to care about her. He expresses that "he accepted social distinctions between people but didn't think they should be legally imposed" . This expression clearly shows that he is not ready to accept reality, because he still has baggage of racial discrimination on his back, and is finding hard to put it off.

Though the title of this story is '… Lovers', this story is about something else than love. Among them, hierarchical relationship between blacks and whites is one of the most important issues the story raises. And, the first part (set in the town) successfully presents it, through the character of Dr Leinsdorf.