Many novels seek to explain life's journey. In the novel, Story of an African Farm, Olive Schreiner gives an explanation of the meaning of truth and the journey of the soul that seeks this truth. In chapter 2 part 2, Schreiner tells a story within a story. A traveler stops and talks to Waldo. He explains the images Waldo has been carving on a staff, and this story is that of the search for truth. All through life, men search for truth. Often, we find not truth, but something beautiful that we wish was truth. Through out the novel, Waldo has been fighting to find his own truth, and to come to terms with his faith. The story the stranger on the road tells him of the hunter who saw Truth touches him deeply. The story draws an interesting parallel to the same search that Waldo has gone through.

In part one of the novel, we see Waldo has a thirst for knowledge. He looks for meaning in things, and he fears what he thinks is God. All through his childhood he questions God. He goes through a stage where he believes only in the good God does, and with the death of his father, looses all faith in God, seeing through the lies, and begins his own journey for truth. The hunter in the story sees a beautiful bird one-day while hunting. The bird can not be caught, and he only sees a glimpse of this bird. Wisdom tells him that it is truth. The first sight is only one small part of truth. Waldo sees truth for the first time when Bonaparte arrives and tries to swindle everyone. On page 160, Wisdom says, " Her name is Truth. He who has once seen her never rests again. Till death he desires her." Waldo experiences this. He throws himself into studying the books he has, and is delighted to read the books that Em has, but Bonaparte takes the books away from him. When Waldo was younger, he clung to the little bits of truth he found in the bible. When he could not find what he was looking for in its text, he made his own truths, much like the hunter. The hunter searched for Truth, tried to catch it, but all he caught were the lies men create to comfort themselves. On page 162 Wisdom says, " The birds you have caught are of the brood of Lies. Lovely and beautiful, but still lies; Truth knows them not." Wisdom tells the hunter that to seek truth, he must leave his home. Waldo experiences much the same thing when he must leave behind his God and teachings to find his own truth. Waldo had to give up every belief he had accepted as truth, no matter how much he wanted to believe in something, in order to find truth.

Waldo goes through a period where nothing matters to him. He removes himself from living and just thinks. This is the stage he is in during most of the first part of the novel. When Bonaparte beats him, he sees nothing, feels nothing. He is indifferent to Bonaparte when he runs, giving him minimal help. During this time Waldo is in what the story of the hunter calls, " the Land of Negation and Denial" on page 164. This time in the dark lasts for a large part of the novel, probably lasting until the stranger tells him the story of the hunter. Waldo starts the path out of this land while talking to the stranger, and continues it while talking with Lyndall. Waldo striking out on his own and leaving the farm is his beginning of the, "… almighty mountains of Dry-facts and Realities " on page 166. Out on his own, Waldo experiences life outside of the farm for the first time, and finds that he does not like not having time to think like he did on the farm. He returned to the farm, and this was his beginning of climbing the steps to the top of the mountains and carving his own steps to truth. In the end, Waldo sees the same thing that the hunter does, that the steps and knowledge he has gained will be the foundation for others to build on.

Many people go through many stages in life, but not all can see the truth that is covered in lies. The story of the hunter that the stranger tells Waldo serves an important point in the novel, not just in Waldo's development. The story maps for us the path that Waldo has walked down, and that he will walk down. It shows the reader the paths in life, and it gives a more abstract look on the life journey Waldo faces.