Use of Title in Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton Essay

Most Americans have at least some vague image of the Trail of Tears, but not very many know of the events that led to that tragic removal of several thousand Indians from their homeland. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government, and Indians had to agree to removal to preserve their identity as tribes. Trail of Tears is an excellent snapshot of a particular situation and will be eye opening to those who are not familiar with the story of the southern tribes and their interactions with the burgeoning American population. The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that signifies the callousness of American policy makers toward American Indians in 1839 and 1839.

The whites tried to colonize the Natives land, and they Natives didn’t know how to handle it. They also couldn’t handle all the diseases, and illnesses that the white people brought with them as said in the background “europeans brought with them measles and smallpox, against which natives americans were not immune”. This started to kill the Native Americans, but not all things that the white’s brought over to the new land, weren't so bad. The Native Americans started running out of food, this lead them to start relying on Europeans goods or food and other necessary items as stated in the background “The Cherokees were losing their self-sufficiency and becoming increasingly dependent on European goods”. In Document 5 it says “your mothers, your sisters ask and beg of you not to of our land, We say ours. You are our descendants; take pity on our request.” This quote emphasises how much the cherokee women didn't want the whites colonizing Their land anymore, because they wanted the land passed down to the next generation for them the thrive and live. This later took a turn when the Native americans and the white started to realize that they couldn't live with the whites anymore, The two different races were to different in culture as said in document 4 “Indians cannot flourish in the neighborhood of the white population”. This later became an issue with the whites and later became the Indian Removal

The Europeans had became greedy and selfish. They had become reliant on the native Americans to do everything for them. They had made them do necessary tasks that they could have done themselves, but chose not too. They had made them carry them when they didn’t want to walk, feed them, fan them,carry their hammocks,etc. They had become conceited, thinking they were too “royal” to do anything for themselves. They had made the Native Americans slaves and servants to their every bidding no matter the circumstance. They had become puppets to the Europeans and they controlled the Natives and forced them to do whatever they wanted. They had made the Natives lose their dignity and sink so low by making them complete their every request. The Natives had been worn down and degraded to be known as nothing to the Europeans but servants and people who they could call to do something for them. Countless Natives had died because of what the Europeans had brought to them

As the natives are forced to adapt to the colonizer’s more civilized lifestyle, the rich and

Native Americans have been forced out of their culture over time, forced into assimilation, lost their rights, and have lost their land due to policies and laws by the whites that can’t bear the Native American way of life. There used to be many Native American tribes all throughout North America, and now these tribes are spread across the country and are blended into the rest of the population. The native ways have changed drastically in the last two centuries due to relocation programs, Indian boarding schools, and the way to classify which tribe each person belongs to. Native Americans have endured so much pain, which results from everything they have lost over time, and they have constantly paid the price for their ethnicity.

Historically, the people of the United States and the Native tribes couldn’t live together, they fought because the two sides competed for superiority. The United States Government sought to put an end to the violent clashes with the American people and the Natives tribes. A resolution was the Indian Removal Act, with this, the United States became safer, wealthier, and stronger; And the Natives, which they saw as inferior, would leave. This Act wasn’t easy for the Native tribes, they left the land their ancestors had built them, and experienced a long road ahead of them to rebuild again.

Erasure. Imagine having almost every detail of your life – your beliefs, your family, your culture, and success – erased by those only focused on their own personal gain. That is what happened to Native Americans over the course of American history. Due to the settler colonialism that laid the foundation of our nation, many Native Americans became the victims of horrific abuse and discrimination. As “whiteness” became the ideal in society, Native Americans lost their voices and the ability to stand up for themselves. Through her memoir, Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda reveals the truth of the horrific pasts of California Native Americans, and gives her ancestors’ stories a chance to finally be heard. In the section “Old News”, Deborah Miranda writes poems from the “white man’s” perspective to show the violent racism committed against Native Americans, as well as the indifference of whites to this violence.

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

“My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain...There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory.,” Chief Seattle Speech of 1854. The culture of the Native American people has been deteriorating ever since the Europeans arrived in the Americas. The impactful and immense loss of lifestyle that they faced is one that can never be recovered, what the United States has given them are generations of trauma and blatant suffering. However, the U.S. did not stop there, a multitude of cultures have been broken to help keep America pure. For instance, one of the most significant cultures that have been dismantled by the U.S. other than the Natives and their music were the languages and music of the African slaves. The apparent likeness of these two cultures in the ways in which their deconstruction impacted them is in more of an abundance, such as the dominating influence of the Christian religion and the gravely vital role of maintaining what little heritage they could through language. In contrast to this, the two groups had an opposing difference pertaining to how the Natives and slaves tried to compensate the immense loss of their culture through the generations.

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

Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.

"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.

When you are young, your parents teach you how to act and what do to do including: what is appropriate to say, such as “please” and “thank you”, as well as how to act in a variety of situations. Your parents teach you many of the socials skills you will need for the rest of your life, from when you get a job to when you start your own family; however, in Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country he suggests that it isn’t the way one is raised that determines the way someone acts, but the environment and the situations they are put in that determines how they act. Through Paton’s use of paradoxes he shows that the environment around someone has a larger impact on the way that person acts rather than how that person is raised.

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.

course of 500 years, there has been little progress in ending the inequity that the Native