The White Man's Fear Depicted in Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

As horrifying as it is to think about, comparisons can be made between the situations of current workers in third-world countries and the plight of the African slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In many of the current poverty-stricken places seen around the globe, sweatshops are developed in order to employ laborers. Sweatshops are described as places of abysmal working conditions with low pay and tedious hours. In the article, "Black People in a White People's Country," Gary Nash notes that the African slave trade was originally developed to "fill labor shortages in the economies of its European initiators and their commercial partners." This description is similar to the motive behind the employment of third-world sweatshop workers. Both systems, ancient and modern, include the need for more laborers and disregard the vital needs of their employees/slaves as long as the work is getting done. Workers are harmfully exploited in both

He seeks to imply that judgement of a person should be based more on the content

In the blacks’ case, each tribe or village has been given a separate “homeland,” or designated place to live, where they would be “a small community of men, women, and children, self-assured and confident” (Achebe, 159). Unfortunately, just as the blacks misinterpreted the Christians’ intentions in Things Fall Apart, the blacks of South Africa have interpreted Mr. Verwoerd’s intentions differently, and think he is out to hurt them. This misunderstanding has led to a boycott of the homelands, and greater tension between whites and blacks in South Africa. As the blacks have now started to rebel against the government, and create “toyi-toyis,” it is said that Verwoerd is beginning to get frightened. The militant blacks carry AK-47s and machetes at their side. These so-called peaceful people have unwillingly become his own worst enemy, and are “honest in nothing / but in [their] clothes” (Measure, 5.1.300-301). Because of one misunderstanding, the blacks have become unreliable, just as the Duke in “Measure for Measure.” It is sad to think that one man’s caring wishes have brought out violent qualities in the worst of ways. Horrific things have happened. There have been reports of people gathering in the streets in mobs, and resisting any form of peaceful negotiation that the troops try to offer every day. It sadly, troops have had to resort to tear gas and weapons in self-defense. The blacks, however, are no longer rebelling; they are ready to fight a war. It seems

This memoir was in a way Krog’s genuine apology for benefiting from a system that caused so much bloodshed and stripped the humanity from so many thousands of people. Through her reporting of the TRC testimonies, and the publishing of her book she allowed the rest of the world to be informed of the terrible crimes that had taken place, as well as the government and political involvement in the creation of this racial segregation. In her memoir Country of My Skull, while reporting on the direct testimonies of both the victims and perpetrators, Antjie Krog actively emphasizes her strong feelings of guilt, shame, and the emotional weight or burden she carries for benefitting from such a corrupt system. By revealing the true nature of the white South Africans responsible for the apartheid, Krog in a way denounces her race of being a white South African and asks to be accepted into a unified South Africa by the Black South Africans.

In this black man's country, white man's law had broken the tribe, divided the people and corrupted the youth. How could these wounds of hatred be healed, when would the youth realize the immorality of their actions, and when would South Africans achieve unity. Father Vincent said "Fear is a journey, a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an

Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel written by Alan Paton; the novel is filled with biblical allusions referring to II Samuel. Cry, the Beloved Country was first published in 1948 and stands as the single most important novel in twentieth-century South African literature. Cry, the Beloved Country; a work of blazing artistry, is the intensely moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, and how they were set against the background of a land and a people divided by racial injustice. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man. The author, Alan Paton parallels II Samuel and Cry, the Beloved Country which heightens the understanding of the novel.

In Cry, the Beloved Country, the city of Johannesburg enables Gertrude’s desires to control her life, yet the desires that govern her are shamefully careless. Before Gertrude left Ndosheni, she had been surrounded by villagers who essentially knew many or all of their community’s people, including her. With the fear that several people would know of or observe her actions, Gertrude was encouraged to act upon the ethical desires widely accepted by her people. On the other hand, Johannesburg has little to no sense of community—being a heavily populated city and the majority of its inhabitants strangers to one another—which allows Gertrude to pursue the amoral desires within her, and for them to occur unnoticed by relatives. When Stephen Kumalo, her brother, finally receives word of Gertrude’s illness, he leaves for Johannesburg and finds her in a shabby, dirty house, crammed between similar buildings. Anxiously standing in front of his sister’s door, awaiting what would be their first encounter after several months, Kumalo overhears a “laughter in the house, the kind of laughter of which one is afraid… perhaps because it is in truth bad laughter,” (Paton 59 emphasis added). The bad laughter he hears is a product of Gertrude’s careless desires; her undisciplined lust for men. The context in which this laughter comes from is what makes it bad, especially in Kumalo’s mind, for he is not just her family, but a priest as well. Without a close-knit community to direct

Luke 6:35 declares, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and evil” (English Standard Version).Christians should strive to treat others in this way always. Unfortunately, society fails to follow this verse in the present times as well as the past. Not only does racism and prejudice occur in the United States, but South Africa as well. Alan Paton illustrated the unjust in the novel Cry the Beloved Country. James Jarvis is a white, wealthy, Christian farmer that lives on a hill above Ndotsheni, a town where native South Africans reside and are impoverished. Jarvis’s outlook on the natives became negative. Many events occur, and Jarvis experiences a change within himself and starts loving the natives how the Bible says Christians should. Mr. Jarvis sinned against the natives for majority of his life by judging them. It takes a moment of realization to push him to come to a different outlook on those around him.

The Africans, already slaughtered by the white Americans, exhibit a strong bonding yet there are extensive situations when anger or frustration or some other emotion gets better of their sense of unity. For example, Sethe’s own mother slapped her own daughter when the latter inquired as to why she was not marked beneath her breast like her mother. In response, she only receives a slap. She is never able to make out the reason of that slap till she receives her personal mark on her back. The act of slapping was not paved the way by a desire to hurt which is the criteria of judging any gesture to be violent yet it was enveloped in sheer anger and frustration which Sethe’s mother docked against her exploiters and which Sethe’s mother could never give vent to because of her marginalized

First, in “Cry, the Beloved Country”, racism is seen in many different ways, but one example is through political power. The white community is the leading group in South Africa’s government, so they have the ability to write laws and marginalize the black community. Because of this, blacks are treated unfairly, forced to follow unjust laws, and targeted by police. This all started when the white men colonized the country and took over without regards to the black’s way of life. “It suited the white man to break the tribe, [Msimangu] continues gravely. But it has not suited him

"I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things I will do unto them and not forsake them” Isaiah 42:16. God promises to be there for His people as long as one believes in Him. The Kumalo family lives in a poor colored city in South Africa where they are constantly surrounded by the brokenness of the world. Knowing God will not forsake them helps one with building a strong connection with him. It is through this faith that Stephen, a priest, and devoted father, is able to find hope in the dark world he faces. Throughout the book Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton the flawed main character, Stephen Kumalo is able to go through the redemption cycle because of his relationship with God.

Let’s start with the definition of racism. Racism refers to the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities, that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or that individuals should be treated differently based on their ascribed race.

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.

Franz Fanon is one of the many profound voices of black identity during the 1950s. His work in the field of psychology features an unfathomed approach to critical theory, post-colonial studies and Marxism. In Black Skin White Masks, Fanon dives into the Negro psyche through understanding its origin. In studying this, Fanon comes to the argument that the dehumanizing process of colonization renders both Blacks and Whites crazy. In analyzing Africans, specifically, Fanon determines that the “Negro [is] enslaved by his inferiority [and] the white man enslaved by his superiority” and that is why they are both mentally unbalanced. It is this neurotic orientation through which Fanon discusses the process through which Africans become second-class French people. In discussing the Negro neurosis, Fanon begins with this statement: The Negro “becomes whiter as he renounces his blackness.”

Next, I’d like to discuss the ways in which the conditions of “Living, Loving, and Lying Awake at Night,” and the roles that were plagued amongst the women in South Africa and how forced migrations affected their situations. Due to the Apartheid era, and men's non existence in their families life because of forced migration, women began to feel as though they could only do for themselves causing for their acceptance without man's presence. In an early reference to the chapter, leaving, the author shows the ways that apartheid affected the women. For instance, “As year went from the woman had come to