Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“Good Country People” is a short story written by the Modernist writer Flannery O’Connor. According to The Critics, “Good Country People” is a bildungsroman where the main character, Joy, experiences a brief journey that matures her view of the world. Joy or “Hulga” is a well educated, philosophical woman of thirty-two,but as the story begins, she is portrayed as an immature adult whose maturity level has been stunted due to a childhood accident that left her emotionally scarred and physically disabled. Due to her physical disability ( the loss of her leg), Joy does not have true experience concerning society outside of her home. Her lack of social interaction will become her Achilles’ heel that ultimately teaches her a lesson concerning society and stereotypes. By the end of the story, Joy’s abundance of knowledge is irrelevant when she is conned by Manley Pointer and left immobile in the loft of a barn deep within a forest. Besides being a bildungsroman, O’Connor also incorporates themes of the Modernist movement into this short work such as isolation, alienation, loss of control, and incoherence of the modern world.

“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.

the pain that the readers must feel as they witness as the tribe’s erosion under the influence of the

Stick to the basic script, right? Or maybe, instead of sticking to it, veering off the main script is able to strengthen the piece of writing as a whole. It can breathe fresh air into a work and give it that extra boost that satisfies every writer’s goal of leaving an impact on their reader. Cry, the Beloved Country does this through its intercalary chapters by giving Paton a chance to try out different writing conventions not seen in the rest of the book, setting a space for Paton to really go full throttle in writing directly about an issue or idea, and building a deeper relationship between the reader and setting of the novel. From the outside, this book can look incredibly simple, and in some ways it is – a short novel with simple language and a simple message about the pitfalls of discrimination. But take a moment to look under the surface, and things like the intercalary chapters begin to jump out. There is something more there to this book, and there is meaning buried throughout. The intercalary sections only help to strengthen that meaning, a meaning that would be much more diluted without them. For while Paton preaches all these great things throughout the novel, what greatness would they really hold, if not for the meaning behind them? In the end, it is the meaning that breathes them life, and it is the whole book, intercalary and main plot combined, that make it

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.

South Africa was plagued with problems of poverty, apartheid, and crime. Kumalo realizes that in order to find some solution people must forgive each other for what has already happened and make a joint effort to provide a new life to the country. Mourning about the past helps nobody, it's a better future that peoples should strive for. James Jarvis's son had been murdered by Absalom. Still, he forgave Kumalo and worked to improve the dismal life of the black people in his valley.

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.

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.

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

South Africa felt the influence from a multitude of European nations before finally becoming a colony of England in the early nineteenth century. While the European population remained minute, they controlled a vast share of the wealth after manipulating the black population leaving most in poverty. Consequently, this system led to situations erupting into violence as the black population demanded equality in all aspects. Some of the Europeans were supportive of the black movement, but many lived in segregated areas and were blissfully ignorant of black’s conditions. Despite the violence depicted amongst the whites and blacks of South Africa, in Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton reconciliation and the spirit of unity present

Hope. It is the one thing that people have survived on for centuries. Without hope, the African Americans of the early 1800’s would have just succumbed to the will of the slave owners. This is why Mandela is considered such a great leader. Nelson Mandela’s message through his speeches was one of hope, which is the only thing the people of Ndotshemi have to thrive on (Chokshi). Alan Paton, the author of Cry the Beloved Country, also believed in hope bringing together the land of South Africa. There are many similarities between the novel and the real life occurrences of the South African Apartheid. In the book or in the real life Apartheid, someone came into the scene that was willing to help by assuming a leadership role, whether it is

In both texts language and the stylistic feature of imagery is used to present the impact of the belief of superiority of race to enhance the idea of racism in both texts. In Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton bases the novel around black African people living in South Africa, awakening others to realise the lives of non-whites living in South Africa. Cry, The Beloved Country is set during a period of time of historical racial tension in South Africa which lead to a strict political policy where white people

The novel Cry, the Beloved Country demonstrates a broken nation that needs fixing. In the book it shows many problems in Africa like violence, crime, unstable housing, and more, but the biggest problem is that no one offered a solution. “The tragedy is not that things are broken, the tragedy is that they are not mended again”, (56, Paton). However at the end of the book this starts to change, James Jarvis (although his son just died) makes efforts to fix problems in Africa by providing milk for the children in Johannesburg, by fixing the church, building dams, finding an agricultural teacher, and more. He realizes that the problems in Johannesburg transcends beyond the natives and that it affects everyone who lives there. This mentality is exactly what we need in the country USA, if we want to make a change because it is more than just black or white. Alan Paton’s novel, Cry the Beloved Country shows universality because there are many people in the United States who have Gertrude's sickness, many people hesitate to spark change, and