Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
As an advocate for the natives, the death of Arthur Jarvis is a blow to the South African community. Although dead, Arthur Jarvis has a significant influence in the book Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
Arthur Jarvis is a white man who believes in equality between the white men and the native men. Before dying Arthur Jarvis was a president for the Africans Boys Club and involved in many other such organizations. (He wholeheartedly believed that all men were created equal, a belief reinforced bye the wall of books on Abraham Lincoln. Jarvis’ passion to read all about Abraham Lincoln, who firmly believed that all men were created equal, reinforces.) Jarvis is placed in the story to symbolize the fight for equality that occurs in South Africa.
With the rise of native crime in South Africa, Arthur Jarvis begins to write a book. In the book Jarvis states that the reason for native crime stems from the fact that the white man oppresses the black. The white man leaves the black uneducated, yet expects him to be civilized. When the natives commit crimes, it shocks the white man, yet the white man does nothing to better the situation. This, states Jarvis, is unacceptable. For as long as the white man does this, there will be native crime in South Africa.
Yet the most significant thing that results from Arthur’s death is the effect it has on his father James Jarvis. James Jarvis is a white farmer who lives near Ndotsheni and notices the poverty, yet does nothing. Nothing, that is, until his son dies. The death of Arthur cases James to rethink some of his beliefs, and in the end results in his helping out the natives of Ndotsheni. For example, when one of the children I the valley falls sick and needs milk to survive, Jarvis sends milk for the child.
After a basketball game, four kids, Andrew Jackson, Tyrone Mills, Robert Washington and B.J. Carson, celebrate a win by going out drinking and driving. Andrew lost control of his car and crashed into a retaining wall on I-75. Andy, Tyrone, and B.J. escaped from the four-door Chevy right after the accident. Teen basketball star and Hazelwood high team captain was sitting in the passenger's side with his feet on the dashboard. When the crash happened, his feet went through the windshield and he was unable to escape. The gas tank then exploded and burned Robbie to death while the three unharmed kids tried to save him.
Homesick is a novel that exposes many different relationships, the strength of relationships, and how they can endure tremendous pain. The various relationships between Alec and Vera, Alec and Daniel, and Vera and Daniel are considerably different because of the variation in generation represented by each character. Each relationship in this family has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the past of the relationships. The relationships in the novel Homesick are seen through all of the character's eyes, so we can see how each character felt about the other characters. These characters do not tend to say what they think, we can see this many times throughout the novel. These relationships can be observed by seeing how they act, speak, and treat one another.
Inês was a very accomplished potioneer. In 1340, before she arrived at the Portuguese court, she brewed the most powerful love potion to be recorded historically. Just a few weeks after the royal wedding, Inês had complete control over Prince Peter of Portugal through the use of the love potion. Muggle records indicate that Prince Peter became increasingly obsessed with Inês de Castro, ignoring his wife completely. Her infl...
In the first four chapters, he explains the currents in modern African-America thought. In chapter one he tells us stories of victimology. The second chap...
Alexander makes an important distinction in this book, too. That is that criminals are the new version of slaves for our country – but they are the black male criminals, not all criminals. The structural racism designed to relegate the black popula...
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
Fear and Redemption in Cry the Beloved Country & nbsp; Fear grips all black societies and is widespread not only among black people but also white people. An unborn child will inherit this fear and will be deprived of loving and relishing his country because the greater he loves his country, the greater will be his pain. Paton shows us this throughout this book, but at the same time he also offers deliverance from this pain. This, I believe, is the greater purpose of this book. & nbsp; When Stephen goes to Johannesburg, he has a childlike fear for "the great city" Johannesburg. Khumalo's fears about his family are exactly the same as every other black person in South Africa.
“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” -Harriet Tubman. There are many African Americans today that are suffering from internalized racism. However they may be oblivious to the fact that they possess self hatred. Deep down inside they do not love who they are. Some African Americans can adopt a white supremacist mindset that can be a reason for their self hatred. Primarily African American women perform actions needed to minimize and invalidate the black features in which they were born with. They feel the need to alter their physical appearance to be accepted in society. They loathe the distinct physical characteristics of blacks such as hair texture or skin color. Others may refuse to associate with those of the same race, negatively stereotype their own or simply identify as white. Internalized racism amongst African Americans effects an individual both physically and mentally.
The structure of a society is based on the concept of superiority and power which both “allocates resources and creates boundaries” between factors such as class, race, and gender (Mendes, Lecture, 09/28/11). This social structure can be seen in Andrea Smith’s framework of the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy.” The first pillar of white supremacy is the logic of slavery and capitalism. In a capitalist system of slavery, “one’s own person becomes a commodity that one must sell in the labor market while the profits of one’s work are taken by someone else” (Smith 67). From this idea of viewing slavery as a means of capitalism, Blacks were subjected to the bottom of a racial hierarchy and were treated nothing more than a property and commodity that is used for someone else’s benefit. The second pillar involves the logic of genocide and colonialism. With genocide, “Non-Native peoples th...
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the story of an African boy, Kek, who loses his father and a brother and flees, leaving his mother to secure his safety. Kek, now in Minnesota, is faced with difficulties of adapting to a new life and of finding his lost mother. He believes that his mother still lives and would soon join him in the new found family. Kek is taken from the airport by a caregiver who takes him to live with his aunt. It is here that Kek meets all that amazed him compared to his home in Sudan, Africa. Home of the brave shows conflicts that Kek faces. He is caught between two worlds, Africa and America. He feels guilty leaving behind his people to live in a distant land especially his mother, who he left in the midst of an attack.
Racism against the Black community though in the past continues to influence the self-esteem of the victimized individual, affecting their thoughts and actions towards themselves. The effects of stratification of skin color in Blacks that existed during slavery linger into today’s society. Preferential treatment was given to lighter pigmented slaves, who were often children of the slave master and an enslaved. Preference to lighter skin by Blacks is given in part because of positive attributes associated with the particular skin tone throughout history. Skin color is of many meanings to Blacks; some wear their skin color with pride, while others see theirs as “mark[s] of oppression. Research on skin color preferences among African Americans indicated that the more satisfied ...
In other words one’s characteristics inclusive of skin color, facial structure and hair texture appears to regularly inspire acts of being degraded. Moreover African Americans have the impossible task ...
Cry, the Beloved Country is such a controversial novel that people tend to forget the true meaning and message being presented. Paton’s aim in writing the novel was to present and create awareness of the ongoing conflict within South Africa through his unbiased and objective view. The importance of the story lies within the title, which sheds light on South Africa’s slowly crumbling society and land, for it is the citizens and the land itself which are “crying” for their beloved country as it collapses under the pressures of racism, broken tribes and native exploitation.
Hope is the strong feeling of desire for something good to happen. Hope is a driving force in the progression of life. The idea of hope is powerful because it can lead to patience, courage, and happiness. Hope is an important concept in Cry, the Beloved Country. Hope is what the main character Stephen Kumalo must use to keep fighting for his beliefs, for his son, and for his tribe. The power of hope is one of the only things that people had to overcome apartheid in South Africa. If hope were not present, Stephen Kumalo may have gave up on restoring himself, his son, and his tribe. Hope is the concept that helps Stephen Kumalo and other characters develop during the span of the novel. Hope is found in the characters, the tribe, and the land.
In John Donne’s sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud” death is closely examined and Donne writes about his views on death and his belief that people should not live in fear of death, but embrace it. “Death, Be Not Proud” is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of three quatrains and one concluding couplet, of which I individually analyzed each quatrain and the couplet to elucidate Donne’s arguments with death. Donne converses with death, and argues that death is not the universal destroyer of life. He elaborates on the conflict with death in each quatrain through the use of imagery, figurative language, and structure. These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death.