Salvation
The experience of being saved is arguably the most defining aspect of the Smales family's experience through the novel. The narrative opens with the flashback to the dramatic act of being saved, as they’re transported six hundred miles across the country in the bakkie. The entire proceeding experience at July’s home become an extended experience of salvation. As long as they are in hiding, they are being saved. The notable irony of this comes from the resentment and anguish they feel for their salvation.
Power
The nature of power is explored in the novel most strikingly through the intimate dynamic between July and the Smales family—particularly Maureen. For the fifteen years that he worked for the family, they had the power over him that any boss has over their employee. While they felt themselves to be liberal and progressive, entirely trusting and forgiving of him, they nonetheless always maintained the power to give him orders or take his job away. His livelihood depended on them. As the roles are reversed and they come to depend on him, even more thoroughly than he ever depended on them, the nature of power is illuminated.
Power is not in itself a negative or positive force; it depends on how it’s wielded. July turns out to be as benevolent with them as they were with him, but this does not make them equal. Maureen and July become aware of this connection between their dependency and his power and this awareness forms a rift between them, making it impossible for either to trust the other as a simple friend.
Primitivism
Much of the narrative is constituted by the Smales family’s adaptation to primitive life. Comparisons are drawn between the life in July’s family settlement and the modern life in the city where the Smales had many rooms, cupboards for glasses that they only used for guests, a swimming pool, and a master bedroom where the kids didn’t go. Though they adapt substantially to living all in one room, walking with bare feet, washing in the river, cooking over a fire, and though they often seem comfortable in these circumstances, they cannot let go of their desire for their modern life. The kids, however, never complain, as though primitive life comes easy to them.
Racial Hierarchy
As with other reversals of order in the novel, the arbitrary nature of racial hierarchy is brought to light when the black people ascend to power in South Africa and the whites are at their mercy. Gordimer easily illustrates the emptiness of racial hierarchy, in which there is nothing inevitable or natural to white power. The place that white people hold in South Africa is shown to be established through violence alone.
Propinquity
The experience of living in very close quarters is a defining feature of the characters’ experience in the novel. The propinquity transforms Maureen and Bam’s relationship, bringing an end to any romantic intimacy between them and causing them to see each other as strange partners, almost siblings. The experience of closeness is reflected in the narrative's language, as the point of view bleeds from one character to the other, almost as though each is reading the other's thoughts. Within the novel, this intense psychological propinquity often leads to tension that breaks out in the form of argument. Not only does the new closeness affect the relationship of Bam and Maureen, it also affects that of Maureen and July.
Liberal Hypocrisy
The Smales couple pride themselves on their liberalism and anti-apartheid politics. Their liberalism is challenged on many fronts, however, when July saves their lives and they come to depend on him for their survival. Not only is the nature of the previous imbalance of their relationship called into question by the new circumstance, but the depth of their ideological position is also challenged. To what extent does the liberal couple actually want to see an overthrow of the order that kept them in a position of power and to what extent do they actually support black liberation? As they desperately scan the radio for news that will help them out of their situation—namely news of a white victory—they come off as nothing less than apartheid supporters and their liberal ideals are undermined.
Black Liberation
Written before the end of apartheid, July’s People is a projection of the overthrow of the regime of official segregation that defined South Africa during Gordimer’s life at the time. The violence that engulfs the country in the novel at once feels like a warning to the white oppressors of Gordimer’s audience. With the widespread killing of all white people, the novel also presents a critical challenge to the fantasy of violent revolution.
