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Biblical Allusions In Cry, The Beloved Country

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Biblical Allusions in Cry, The Beloved Country People who experience hardship achieve personal growth. For instance, those who lose family members become more empathetic towards others who face loss. In the 20th century novel Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton uses biblical allusions to reveal how through hardship people gain wisdom and strength, which helps them deal with future challenges of their lives in a better way. Afflictions come to test a person’s worldview. Paton illustrates how Kumalo struggles with his faith after the heavy weight of his son’s crime burdens him: When he turned back to look at her, she was smiling at him. He walked on like a man from whom a pain has lifted a little, not altogether, but a little. He remembered too that he had laughed, and that it had pained him physically, as it pains a man who is ill and should not laugh. And he remembered too, with sudden and devastating shock, that Father Vincent had said, I shall …show more content…

Troubles in life sometimes seem to go against everything a person knows about the world, and results in either a stronger or weaker worldview. Paton compares Kumalo’s life to the story of Job in the Bible to show how people can survive misfortunes with their worldviews still intact. Though troubles overtake people’s lives, they can overcome them through faith and love. To elaborate on how people can continue “to believe” even amidst trials, Paton writes, “But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering” (261). The positive actions of others can renew a person’s faith in humankind when one sees the darker parts of human character. To most, one small sign of goodness in a world of heartache and misery can give them hope to carry on. Consequently, Paton uses small acts of kindness throughout the novel to show how although people can doubt the humanity of the world in times of darkness, light always appears to restore

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