Cry The Beloved Country Essay

Writers always have a reason or purpose for writing stories. “The Happiest Refugee”, written by Anh Do, is a memoir describing his family’s journey from Vietnam to Australia, heartbreaking struggles in his life, and how he became such a well-known comedian. He uses comedy to lighten serious issues and shows the best of his life living in a dominant white society. He makes readers more aware of Vietnamese refugees, how they are not taking this country for granted, and breaks the dominant stereotypes. He also uses this book to get more public appearance.

“Being Country” just those two words together come with many discussions, but the book brings another discussion. This book “Being Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason honestly had me thinking and wondering if everybody’s perspective about changes in life is the same. The main outlooks I took from this book was; When your surroundings have changed your identity will also, Sometimes a reflection of the past can help your future, and whoever you are going to be will not change.

In 1999, American author Bobbie Ann Mason wrote the short story “Being Country” to satirize the notion that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Mason, who was the main character and narrator of her own story, was very unhappy with her life on the farm, as demonstrated through the discontented, critical tone of her narration. She insisted a countrywoman could only have an impact on the world if she took initiative and questioned her womanly duties.

In the Dramatic autobiography the Happiest Refugee, book the author Anh Do uses a wide range of Scenes to take audience attention throughout the story with different sort of language effects. A specific form of exploring scenes to audiences is the storytelling, Anh utilises this technique in the book and explores his life experiences. The purpose of the storytelling is to increase the motivation or mental stimulation of reader through entertainment. To do this use range of features including, Narrative voice, setting, sentence structures, Paragraph structures, Figurative language, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia and Characterisation. The two scenes that exemplify all these features are the serious scene when Anh’s family face a massive loss from the farm interest rates and the other scène is when Anh’s mother gets a “biggest” Pig they could find and brought it on Anh and Suzie’s engagement to show how wealthy they are, that they can take care of their daughter and keep her happy.

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash definitely fits the category of “grit lit.” It is a novel about the Hall’s, a family who is wracked with grief, anxiety, and guilt after the ‘mysterious’ death of one of their sons, Christopher or Stump. The story encompasses more than just the story of the family though as it is told from the perspective of Adelaide Lyle, an old wise woman from the town, Jess Hall the youngest son of the family, and Clem Barefield, the sheriff of Marshall who also had heartache of his own that is intertwined with this families story in more ways than one. The novel incorporates most if not all of the features that is “grit lit” including: an element of crime, a focus on the bleakness of life, lyrical language, and a central character who wishes to escape their environment or get peace inside it.

The poem “No Country for Black Boys” by Joy Priest represents the sorrowful incident which happened on February 26, 2012 for Trayvon Martin in Florida. Trayvon Martin was an innocent African-American young boy who bought iced tea and some skittles. On the way back to his father’s home, he got shot by the neighborhood watch and treated as a victim because of his skin color. Guilt was not defined by what Martin did but by what he said, also it determined something deep-rooted in the young age. No weapon was needed to identify him as a victim. He is a young black boy, so he is already guilty enough to be killed. Black people have the same rights as the other people, however in reality, America’s society discriminates against them compared to other nationalities.

In Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton details a gripping story of Stephen Kumalo’s search for his son while conveying significant ideas regarding the social injustice and integrated racism of South Africa during the segregation of apartheid. Paton structures his story around revolving points of view and maintaining a sometimes simplistic or lyrical language specific to varying parts of the novel to express his message of the disintegration of faith coming from new experiences, distinctively hardships, and the lack of effort placed into the overarching purpose of believing in religion, people, or humanity.

The Trail of Tears was a huge turning point seen by Amy Sturgis, as clearly shown in her chapter, “The Trail of Tears as a Turning Point”. Sturgis have separated how the Trail of Tears has affected history into three categories: the world, the US, and for the Cherokee Nation. All three categories intermingle, affecting one another with either a positive or a negative feedback.

Beloved, like many of the other books we have read, has to deal with the theme of isolation. There was the separation of Sethe and Denver from the rest of the world. There was also, the loneliness of each main character throughout the book. There were also other areas of the book where the idea of detachment from something was obvious. People’s opinions about the house made them stay away and there was also the inner detachment of Sethe from herself. The theme that Toni Morrison had in mind when the book was written was isolation.

In the Novel “Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton, two fathers are trying to put the pieces of there families back together while also keeping themselves together. They each go through a variety of struggles, with one learning his sister is a prostitute and his son is a murder while the other deals with his sons death and tries to move passed it. Throughout the novel, racial tension is a theme frequently seen from the beginning of the book til the very end. Paton uses the setting of South Africa to underscore racial tension associated with the apartheid movement to illustrate these themes. The concept of racism is prevalent during the story as it is used by the government to caused both blacks and whites to fear each other which eventually tears apart Kumalo’s family.

The time of the 1940’s in South Africa was defined by racial oppression of the native inhabitants of the country by the Dutch Boers, also known as the Afrikaners. These people were the demographic minority yet also the political majority. They executed almost complete control over the lives of the natives through asinine rules and harsh punishments. The highly esteemed novel Cry, the Beloved Country tells a story of Stephen Kumalo, a black priest dealing with the struggles of living in the South Africa during this time. His son killed a white man and on the day his son is to be hanged for this crime, Kumalo climbs a mountain in order to reflect on the current situation both in his family and in his country. In chapter 36 of Cry, the

Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Patton, is the compelling story of how man-made evils in the city of Johannesburg affect the lives of each member of the Kumalo family. Stephen Kumalo, an old priest of Ndotsheni, finds himself distraught over his distant relationships with his sister, brother and son. To fix this, he travels to Johannesburg in hopes to restore the connection he has between his family. However he is shocked to witness the evils in which they have all partaken in. His brother, a politician and carpenter, has left the Church; and his once decent sister has become a prostitute and an alcoholic. However this is the least to his worries for he learns of his son, a once honest and decent man, is involved in the murder

In book 1 of Cry, the Beloved Country, the main conflict was Kumalo’s loss of faith. In this quote,“But that he should kill a man, a white man! There was nothing that he could remember, nothing, nothing at all, that could make it probable.”(Paton 119). Alon Paton shows how Kumalo could not grasp the reason why Absalom would go away from home to Johannesburg and later decide to murder a white man. He is beginning to lose faith in his search of his son and faith overall since his family is essentially drifting away from the way of life they were raised into.

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, is the timeless novel about South Africa in the 1940’s. As powerful white men use the land for their own benefit, the tribal system of the African natives is broken down and replaced by poverty, homelessness, fear, and violence. A black priest, Stephen Kumalo, ventures to the great city of Johannesburg in search of his lost sister and son. His journey demonstrates the unhealthy lifestyle and mutinous atmosphere of the black people; yet he is the beholder of forgiveness, love, hope, and the restoration of a country overwhelmed with problems.

Arthur, Napoleon, and Msimangu, all characters from Alan Paton’s book, Cry, The Beloved Country, are used to share Paton’s points of view on the future of South Africa and the apartheid. Paton uses these characters to represent specific views; Arthur expresses clearly that the apartheid isn’t the right way to progress as a country, Napoleon exemplifies how Paton thinks people should take the anti-apartheid effort, and Msimangu explicitly expresses Paton’s ideas of an ideal leader.