Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Cry the beloved country summary
What are themes in cry the beloved country
Cry the beloved country summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Cry the beloved country summary
In Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton uses Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis to show that all human beings are complacent about critical issues until a momentous event occurs that forces them to change their minds. This message is very clear in Cry, The Beloved Country as it is in the world, today and historically. People tend to be optimistic about serious issues rather than confront them and solve them. Historical examples like the Holocaust greatly illustrate this point. Stephen Kumalo is complacent in his village of Ndotesheni and only realizes the extent of the destruction of the tribal structure after he returns from Johannesburg. James Jarvis also is complacent about the condition of the native people; he chooses to ignore the native question rather than to debate it like his son Arthur does. By characterizing Jarvis and Kumalo in this way, Paton is trying to make a very important point: human beings must not pretend problems are not there or assume that problems can fix themselves.
Jarvis and Kumalo are both very complacent about the native question before going to Johannesburg. At the beginning of the novel Kumalo is very complacent; he does not want to fully acknowledge the extent of the destruction of the tribal system. Kumalo’s brother, sister and son all went to Johannesburg and he has not heard from any of them for a long time. However, Kumalo still chooses to believe that they are all like what he thought of them in the past. Kumalo still believes that John is a humble carpenter, Gertrude is a good mother and wife and he stills thinks of Absalom as an innocent little boy. Kumalo still holds the idealistic view that Absalom will one day return to Ndotsheni and pursue an education at St. Chad’s. Kumalo is ...
... middle of paper ...
...n pretending it is not there. By acknowledging the destruction of the tribal system, Kumalo and Jarvis are able to restore at least parts of the tribal system.
By using Jarvis and Kumalo to show how an optimistic approach to a problem is dangerous, Paton advises us to acknowledge a problem when it first starts and find possible solutions immediately. When a problem is ignored, the problem tends to spiral out of control; it is much harder to fix a problem after it has progressed so greatly. Taking the easy way out is not an option when confronting challenging problems. Paton uses the crisis in South Africa as an example of people ignoring a problem and letting it get so out of control that it is very hard, if not impossible to fix. Paton is urging us to fix problems as soon as they happen, so things to do not go out of control like they did in South Africa.
In "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor skillfully presents a story from a third-person point of view, in which the protagonist, Joy-Hulga, believes that she is not one of those good country people. Joy is an intelligent and educated but emotionally troubled young woman, struggling to live in a farm environment deep in the countryside of the southeast United States, where she feels that she does not belong. Considering herself intellectually superior to the story's other characters, she experiences an epiphany that may lead her to reconsider her assumptions. Her experience marks a personal transition for her and constitutes the story's theme--the passage from naïveté to knowledge.
In conclusion, Warriors Don 't Cry shows how fear can turn to bravery. Nowadays, it can still be relevant. The present isn 't as bad as Beals 's past. However, around the world, there is still racism. If people read the memoir, it could change their minds. After all, skin color doesn 't really matter. We all have the rights that everyone else has. Skin color doesn 't matter because what defines us is who we are
Martin Luther King once said, "we must live together as brothers or perish as fools." This statement illuminates the importance of the features of concern, compassion, and knowledge. The color of a person’s skin tone would result in harsh and unfair treatment. Even though they would be alienated by their peers and others, many African Americans chose to stand up for their rights. These truths were revealed when the famous little rock nine took their courageous stand regardless of their odds. In the novel, Warriors don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals and a Roundtable discussion facilitated by NBC news, the disturbing truths behind the struggles of integration are brought to life.
The world today can sometimes be a hard place to live, or at least live in comfort. Whether it be through the fault of bullies, or an even more wide spread problem such as racism, it is nearly impossible to live a day in the world today and feel like it was only full of happiness and good times. Due to this widespread problem of racism, often times we tend to see authors go with the grain and ignore it, continuously writing as if nothing bad happens in the world. Fortunately, Claudia Rankine, is not one of these authors. Rankine manages to paint a vivid picture of a life of hardships in her lyric Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lyric Claudia Rankine shows that she truly has a very interesting and not commonly used approach to some literary
The first tensions began on the Klamath Reservation when the Modocs signed a treaty to quarter alongside their neighboring Klamath tribe in 1864. Issues here included lack of food, poverty, sickness and general unwelcoming attitudes. Kintpuash’s band of Modocs had to travel to different parts of the reservation to avoid hostile matters. Yet there was no place within the reservation borders that had the resources they ...
And though he experiences both sides of the paradox, it is ultimately the uplifting and inspiring effect of hope that pushes him to fight back against his oppression rather than continue to accept his enslavement. Grappling with hope and using it to move himself forward against overwhelming odds shows that even though it can be used to pacify people and keep them in their place, wishing for a rosy future that can never exist, it can also be the fire that motivates them to finally change their
When a native author Greg Sams said that the reservations are just “red ghettos”, the author David disagree with that. He thinks there must be something else beyond that point. After his grandfather died, he somehow changed his mind. Because he could not think anything e...
To achieve win-win outcomes, it is essential to separate the people from the problem. Thus, it is important to "Face the problem, not the people. The basic approach is to deal with the people as human beings and with the problem on its merits" (Fisher,Ury & Patton,1991, p.40-41).
In Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton tells the story of his journey across Africa, his experiences with the colonized Africa, and the destruction of the beautiful, pre-colonialism native land of Africa. Heart of Darkness also tells the story of a man and his experiences with colonialism, but a man who comes from a different time period and a very different background than Alan Paton’s Stephen Kumalo. Although, both Joseph Conrad and Alan Paton portray the colonized areas as very negative, death filled, and sinful places, it is when one analyzes the descriptions of the native lands of Africa that the authors reasons for their disapproval of colonialism are truly revealed. When comparing the writing styles of Alan Paton and Joseph Conrad, their descriptions of the land and the people in both works reveal their different attitudes and views towards colonialism. While Paton and Conrad ultimately oppose colonialism, Paton is concerned with the disappearance of African tribal tradition, whereas Conrad is concerned with the perceived corruption of the white colonists.
By utilizing an unbiased stance in his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe promotes cultural relativity without forcibly steering his audience to a particular mindset. He presents the flaws of the Ibo tribe the same way he presents the assets—without either condescension or pride; he presents the cruelties of the colonizers the same way he presents their open mindedness—without either resentment or sympathy. Because of this balance, readers are able to view the characters as multifaceted human beings instead of simply heroes and victims. Achebe writes with such subtle impartiality that American audiences do not feel guilty for the cruel actions of the colonizers or disgusted by the shocking traditions of the tribesmen. The readers stop differentiating the characters as either “tribesmen” or “colonizers”.
Eventually Kumalo goes home with his new daughter-in-law, and Jarvis gets involved helping him keep his village together; he helps with agricultural techniques and offers to build the congregation a new church. The novel ends as Kumalo weeps over his son’s death on the valley, awaiting his execution.
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.
The colonization of civilizations has changed the world’s history forever. From the French, Spaniard, and down to the English, have changed cultures, traditions, religions, and livelihoods of other societies. The Native Americans, for example, were one of the many civilizations that were conquered by the English. The result was their ways of life based on nature changed into the more “civilized” ways of the colonists of the English people. Many Native Americans have lost their old ways and were pulled into the new “civilized” ways. Today only a small amount of Native American nations or tribes exist in remote areas surviving following their traditions. In the book Ceremony, a story of a man named Tayo, did not know himself and the world around him but in the end found out and opened his eyes to the truth. However the Ceremony’s main message is related not only to one man but also to everything and everyone in the world. It is a book with the message that the realization of oneself will open the eyes to see what is truth and false which will consequently turn to freedom.
...o the bigger picture. Absorbed in their daily routines and petty problems. Like governments, people choose to spend more money on war issues - fix someone else’s problem - rather than staying home and feeding the poor - to fix own problems. Thus like a kettle boiling water, screaming for help, only some major event will finally bring people to their senses. Which is why as a society we should be taught to be more aware of what truly happens around us rather than reacting in the last minute.
Another emphasis is on the learned customs of the people. In court when Kumalo finds that his son will be hanged, he is touched that a white man breaks the custom to help him walk outside. When the white boy raised his cap to Kumalo, he, "felt a strange pride that it should be so, and a strange humility that it should be so, and an astonishment that the small boy should not know the custom." (p. 234). The fact that this small courtesy was taken so heavily is overwhelming from a post-colonial point of view. Kumalo is so accustomed to the way of the land that he does not dare think that he deserves even this respect.