Summary Of The Broken Tribe And The Beloved War

“Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging”, by Sebastian Junger, is an insightful examination of the flaws of a modernized society. Through scientific evidence and first-hand accounts, the book explores the correlation between a nation’s level of modernness and it’s rates of mental illness. Junger careful choice of words and phrasing shows that he is not arguing that a tribal society is better than a modern society- as “there’s no use arguing that modern society isn’t a kind of paradise” - but is instead proposing a blend of both society’s beneficial qualities (Junger 108). His chronological writing style within “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging” allows for the development of his argument. Particularly focusing upon Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in veterans, Junger utilizes accounts from Vietnam War and World Wars to bring light to the “antihuman society” set forth by our modernized ways (Junger 93).

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

Thesis Statement: Apartheid may have been a horrible era in South African history, but only so because the whites were forced to take action against the outrageous and threatening deeds of the blacks in order to sustain their power.

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a stunning and all too accurate depiction of apartheid in South Africa. Even though the novel centers on John Kumalo and his struggling family, it subtly shows the social going ons of South Africa supposedly in 1948, when the book was written. Strong examples of this come across in the choral chapters of the novel. These chapters give voice to the people of South Africa. Chapter nine shows the struggles of being black during apartheid, chapter 12 shows the white citizens racism and fear, and chapter 23 shows the goals of social movements. The choral chapter that shows the issues that existed in South Africa most effectively was chapter nine. It not only shows the economic and housing struggles of the black population, but it also shows the conditions in the shanty towns, and the treatment of the black population by the white minority with power.

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

In the 1900’s there was zero fairness in South Africa. They were pushed around and had no say in what they did. They were pushed off of their land and everything was taken away from them. They had no say in what they did. But why, why did it take them so long to do something about it. Why did they not stand up before. It took them fifty years to say something and stand up. This essay will speak of some of the things it could of been of why they didn’t do something sooner.

Given the history of apartheid in South Africa where asymmetric power was too great, Du Bois (1990: 8-9) points out that such power imbalance denies the true self-awareness allowing them rather the real sensation, this “double-consciousness”, this sense of always looking at one through the eyes of “others”. Matsinhe (2011: 302) advances this argument by stating that, once the desires of the oppressor become the desires of the weak, the oppressed become a cultural replica of the oppressor. From this suggestion, it can be argued that those who were formerly subjugated in South Africa have now taken on the personality of their former subjugator (Matsinhe, 2011:

The setting used in Alan Patton’s Cry, the Beloved Country is an integral part of the story as much as they are backdrop. In the novel, Patton introduces two main settings: Ndotsheni, the rural hometown of both Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis, as well as the urban metropolis, Johannesburg. Neither Ndotsheni nor Johannesburg provides viable solution to the problems of twentieth century South Africa due to the rancor it has spawned between the races. The broken tribal system of the natives has fostered resentment towards the whites both for oppressing them and for making an inherently malicious society. In addition, the moral decay fueled by the fearfulness that the natives feel has spawned hated between the whites and the blacks in both areas.

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.

In 1948-1949, European and South African societies had a clear difference in opinion based on old traditional values, religion, and race. Alan Paton’s theme in Cry, the Beloved Country is how European and African societies of this time period should evolve from the stand-still position they both stand for. In Arthur Jarvis’s letters he uses diction to describe the state of the South African society, pattern and repetition to emphasize the redundancy of the acts that the societies continue to commit that proves the stalling of evolution. Literary devices like these give Jarvis’s passages and Paton’s work as a whole a deeper understanding and comprehension due to different layers of analysis throughout the

History is known to repeat itself, as evidence by the many groups that have suffered racial and ethnic discrimination. Hitler created prejudice against the Jews during World War II. Southerners discriminated against the Blacks, leading up to the Civil War, and during the Apartheid, the Natives were segregated from the Whites. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved the Country, the main character Stephen Kumalo goes through a journey to restore his tribe. During his journey, he discovers and learns of the injustices in South Africa. Through the parallels and contradictions of biblical allusions, Alan Paton is able to explain the impact of racial inequality in South Africa, but signifies how unconditional love and hope can be used to overcome fear and bring restoration to both the land and it’s inhabitants.

Throughout our existence as a human race, we have each left an everlasting mark on each other that has affected the mental state of every ethnicity and nation. Many times these marks have come to define the very way in which we view our selves in the world society. This is clearly seen in South Africa before, during, and after the apartheid. There we see a group of people who, despite being native to the land, are constantly oppressed by the by a foreign force being the Europeans. In the novel, Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton depicts a stressed South Africa where its people are bent into accepting their place under the rule of their white oppressors. The story revolves primarily around Stephen Kumalo, a priest in a small South African

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

One day,in the far and racialist country, a black man came and changed the country’s destiny. He was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and he was born in 18th July 1918,in South Africa. He was the symbol of human rights and most popular prisoner after the Gandhi.His protests changed an age in the South Africa,but when we look at the background of this story; we see incredible simple,usual beginnig.He was born just like a black member of Thembu clan;and in this years, South Africa was a nightmare for black people because of racialism.Government supported differentiation towards to black people and Africans was having atrocity in their country.They didn’t have their lawyers,presidents or anybody for defencing their rights.All country was managing from white’s; all country againsted to them.And nobody thought that, a baby would change that.