Mrs Curren is the first-person narrator in an epistolary style. Since she addresses her daughter in her letters as "you" the reader feels directly addressed. Coetzee's novel can be interpreted as a coming-of-age novel since it is about Mrs Curren's perspective on the world and coming to terms with that. Therefore, coming-of-age is in this case not growing older but rather about development.
The title is not about the Iron Age but iron represents the rough and brutal way of life Mrs Curren and the people in Cape Town live in. The first part where the term Age of Iron comes up is:
Children of iron, I thought. Florence herself, too, not unlike iron. The age of iron. After which comes the age of bronze. How long, how long before the softer ages return in their cycle, the age of clay, the age of earth? A Spartan matron iron-hearted, bearing warrior sons for the nation..
Mrs Curren does indeed think that the brutality is not something a handful of people partakes in but is a very big part in the nature of the people in Cape Town. However, she does underline that just like every other era in history, this time of brutality and racism will eventually come to an end.
Coetzee brings together important themes in this book: aging, death, the confessor as hero, narrative representation, the meaning of freedom, the unity of man, familial relationships and the position of the white liberal in Apartheid South Africa.
