Themes In Cry, The Beloved Country By Alan Paton

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

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

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

Reading this book is an emotional roller coaster ride. At first there was an hollow feeling in my stomach. This was due to all the family related incidents. “Even as scared as I was by the jail, I wanted to sit on the floor outside the cell bars and hold his hand because he needed me” (Jimmy Santiago Baca 2). The quotation shows the bond between father and son. Baca was being self-sacrificing, willing to endure the pain with Damacio in prison. The hollow feeling continued when learning about the hardship that faced Cecilia. “‘You were so drunk you don’t even remember.’ Tears streamed down her cheeks” (Jimmy Santiago Baca 9). I can sympathize for Cecilia because an associate close to me has been a victim of rape. I have witnessed how the event

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.

Paton’s main character Stephen Kumalo is a Reverend working in a local church. Upon hearing the news that his sister, Gertrude is very ill. He uses the money he and his wife were saving for saving for his missing sons university money to fund his travel fees to Johannesburg. Kumalo decides he wants to try his hardest to get his family, his “tribe” back together.

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 this fictional novel, written by Alan Paton, the author gives light to many different social issues including apartheid, prostitution, alcoholism, and many more. Through these social issues, Paton idolizes many characters throughout this narrative due to their behavior and actions taken during these matters. Beyond conventional issues, this book poses its own issues, some in accordance with the national issues, and some not. Through Paton’s use of expressive diction, graphic imagery, and examples of Arthur’s writings, he constructs a shared attribute of persistent ambition among the Jarvis men, Stephen Kumalo, and Msimangu.

"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.

English Essay In the novel, Cry, The Beloved Country, the protagonist Reverend Stephen Kumalo, who lives in a small valley in South Africa, must decide whether to find his family in Johannesburg. In the second chapter of the book, a lot of his personality is revealed, from when a small child opens the door to give him a letter, to when he decides he must leave to meet his family again. In order to develop the character of Stephen Kumalo, Paton uses simile, imagery, repetition and metaphor to explain his interactions with people, and how he reacts under certain conditions.

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 area of Ndoshenti is known as the “Velds”, which in Zulu means the green grassland. The rural country is what describes Ndotshenti best; on the other side of the town lies the European

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