The Reactive essay :
“A year after I graduated from Tech, and a week before the sixth anniversary of your death, I infected myself with HIV in the laboratories. That’s how I became reactive. I never had the reactions I need for myself, and I couldn’t react to you when you called to me for help, so I gave my own body something it couldn’t flee from. Now here’s your older brother and murderer, Luthando. His name is Lindanathi and his parents got it from a girl” (The Reactive, 2014, 174).
Contextualise the above quote. Drawing on Kopano Ratele’s theory of “successful’ masculinities”, discuss how the novel both affirms isiXhosa traditions while also challenging hegemonic (i.e. dominant) ideas about what constitutes masculine behaviour.
