The situation South Africa Caused By The Blind Acceptance Of Both Religious And Social Levels

In both countries, the schism between Africans and their government worsened. To illustrate: “[The Emancipation Proclamation] ended [slavery] . . . , but blacks . . . had more in common with African-American slaves . . . than with the [Caucasian businessmen]” (Bausum 2012, 19). For instance, Congress passed the discriminatory Jim Crow Laws – in order to establish a hierarchy based on “the plantation mentality” (Bausum 2012, 14). For South Africans, the National Party (the Nats) in 1948, made apartheid the official law. Both forms of segregation continued the cycle of poverty for coloured people and “ensured [that Caucasians had better quality education], hospitals, and other public services” (Rose 2011, 12). For example, African-American garbage men’s insufficient salary “was based on their garbage routes” rather than an hourly wage (Bausum 2012, 14). Similarly, black South African staff received inadequate pay and the law outlawed strikes and the formation of unions.

In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country, the author, Alan Paton, writes about the current struggles within South Africa through the eyes of two opposite characters. James Jarvis is a wealthy white man coping with the loss of his son while questioning his feelings towards black citizens. Stephen Kumalo is a native black priest whose life changes when he is summoned to Johannesburg and discovers the vices and reality behind large cities and his home country. Kumalo receives a first-hand view of the issues within his country along the journey and meets various individuals. It is later revealed that his son, Absalom Kumalo, has been corrupted by the city and has murdered a white activist by the name of Arthur Jarvis, who happens to be the son of

Racism, discrimination and degradation faced by Blacks and other ethnic minorities under the apartheid system was not unlike the segregation and intimidation faced by African-Americans in the Jim Crow south. Jim Crow system of segregation that kept Blacks from fully participating in public and civic activities and relegated African-Americans to substandard conditions at work, school and even in the home. Blacks in South Africa were under the clutches of an overt, national policy of racism and segregation implemented by the country’s highest level of government. Civil and human rights abuses of Blacks in South Africa at the hand of the country’s white minority occurred long before apartheid officially began, but the system’s official start brought strict, sweeping laws such as the rule that all persons in South Africa to be categorized as white, Black, colored and Indian, without exception. Like in the U.S. during Jim Crow, Blacks and whites were not allowed to marry and sexual relations between members of different races was a criminal offense.

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

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.

Racial Tension in Cry the Beloved Country is expressed in the book by the restrictions of different races and their beliefs. The book shows potential for healing from forgiveness between the opposing races.

During the 1950’s, oppression of black south africans was a prominent issue ongoing in South Africa. Alan Paton, writer of Cry, The Beloved Country, illustrates the loss of humanity because of apartheid throughout the novel. However, one topic left unaddressed in Cry, The Beloved Country is the underlying issue of gender inequality in apartheid South Africa. Women’s inferiority to men is illustrated through the service-oriented roles that characters such as Ms. Lithebe and Mrs. Kumalo portray throughout the novel, as opposed to the authoritative positions that most men in the novel hold. Women like Absalom’s wife (the pregnant girl) and Gertrude also fall to the superiority of men but on a different level, forced into sexualized-roles for survival after their husbands/boyfriends leave them. Portrayed through the morally-depraved gender stereotypes, the voiceless and nameless women of South Africa, and the homebound women of Johannesburg, Alan Paton’s lack of development of women’s roles in society mirrors the

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 Character Analysis Essay In Alan Paton’s Cry The Beloved Country, Stephen Kumalo contributes to the distressed society of the discrimination in South Africa through his determination and humbleness. The society of the South Africa has been through many complications because of the inequality between the colored and white people. Author Alan Paton experiences the unfairness of the South African society in the novel, Cry The Beloved Country. The main character, Stephen Kumalo, who is a gregarious and tranquil man learns about what is happening outside of his village in South Africa when a takes a long journey in attempt to reunite with his long lost relatives.

Beginning in the mid-1940s, segregation prevailed in South Africa until the late 1990s. In 1948, the National Party gained power and introduced apartheid. This regime ruled until the election of Nelson Mandela as President. Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood tells the story of Mandela’s first presidential term, focusing on his involvement with the national rugby team and its preparation for the 1995 World Cup Championship. Like the film Invictus, Alan Paton’s novel Cry the Beloved Country takes place at a time when racism in South Africa was at its prime.

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.

“The truth is that our Christian civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma. We believe in the brotherhood of man, but we do not want it in South Africa. We believe that God endows men with diverse gifts, and that human life depends for its fullness on their employment and enjoyment, but we are afraid to explore this belief too deeply”(Paton 187). These are some of the words spoken by Arthur Jarvis, one of the key characters in the book “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton. These words exemplify the racial prejudice, hypocrisy, and condemnation discerned by white South Africans. Throughout this novel, Paton unveils the realities of racial prejudice and oppression through the use of literary elements such as irony and symbolism; thus, this allows Paton to strengthen the delineation of hypocrisy, dichotomy, and and prejudice that is instilled in society.

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 aborigines had small farmlands which are arid and dry making it difficult for them to