Cry the Beloved Country

606 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay of segregation in south Africa

Cry the Beloved Country

“Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom is gone. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end (Paton, 105).” In Cry, the Beloved Country, it is 1946 and the land reserved for blacks in Ndotsheni, a part of South Africa, is drying up. In the novel written by Alan Paton, young men and women begin to leave Ndotsheni for the new city Johannesburg. One of those gone is John Kumalo, a businessman in Johannesburg and younger brother of Stephen Kumalo, a reverend in Ndotsheni. Stephen and John Kumalo differ in their regards for family, religion, and corruption.

Stephen has a brother, sister, and son that left him years ago, none of which writes to him. Yet, he still misses them and hopes for their return. One day, he receives a letter with news about his sister, Gertrude. After discussing the news with his wife, he leaves for Johannesburg at once to find his long gone sister. Stephen and his wife sacrifice their savings for Stephen to make the anxious trip. While in Johannesburg, he finds Gertrude, John, and eventually his only son, Absalom. With no bitterness, he resolves to bring them all back with him but in the end, none comes with him. However, he gained a nephew, the son of Gertrude, a daughter-in-law, Absalom’s newly wedded wife, and an unborn grandchild.

On the other hand, John is the opposite of his brother Stephen. John is no longer living with Stephen’s family due to his decision long ago. In addition, John’s wife left him because he was unfaithful to her. He is now living with a woman who is not married to him. The book shows that family comes second to John because he does not keep in touch with his son, Matthew, anymore. When Stephen comes for ...

... middle of paper ...

...ndemns the laws that favor white men. Yet, he speaks English instead of Zulu. John is a great speaker that can influence others and can lead riots if he chooses. Nevertheless, every time he riles up the crowd, he backs down for fear of losing his comfortable status. Though he speaks of bad treatment for blacks, he lives contentedly in his home while earning a good pay. He talks and tells speeches of reforms and yet does nothing. As a result, he is just as corrupted as the white man is.

In summary, Stephen and John represent the two clashing cultures of South Africa. Stephen represents the old ways and tries to keep traditional values. John wants the new world and thinks nothing of the old ways. Never could there be two different brothers as Stephen and John. Their regards for family, religion, and corruption clash as a result of the newly rising culture.

Show More
Related

  • Different Points of View and Beliefs in "The Chrysalids"

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just because people within a family are blood related and living together, it does not mean they are identical in their beliefs and actions. In some cases the generations of people in the family have the same way looking at things and understand the same sets of rules and believe in same kind of moral behavior. Unlike that, in the novel, “The Chrysalids”, the protagonist, David Strorm and his father, Joseph, the antagonist have very different characters and conflicting points of view.

    Read More

  • John Ames Relationship

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    A deeply pious man, John considers the Bible a sublime source of moral code, guiding him through the challenges of his life. He proclaims to his kid son, for whom he has written this spiritual memoir, that the “Body of Christ, broken for you. Blood of Christ, shed for you” (81). While John manages to stay strong in the faith and nurture a healthy relationship with his son, his relationship with his own father did not follow the same blueprint. John’s father, also named John Ames, was a preacher and had a powerful effect on John’s upbringing. When John was a child, Father was a man of faith. He executed his role of spiritual advisor and father to John for most of his upbringing, but a shift in perspective disrupted that short-lived harmony. Father was always a man who longed for equanimity and peace. This longing was displayed in his dealings with his other son, Edward: the Prodigal son of their family unit, a man who fell away from faith while at school in Germany. John always felt that he “was the good son, so to speak, the one who never left his father's house” (238). Father always watched over John, examining for any sign of heterodoxy. He argued with John as if John were Edward, as if he were trying to get Edward back into the community. Eventually, John’s father's faith begins to falter. He reads the scholarly books

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Wideman's Essay 'Our Time'

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wideman’s essay is different from the rest between his essay is about him and his brother and the struggle of the dominant discourse and the “other” in their relationship. Wideman is the dominant discourse and his brother Robby is the “other”. The problem is that Wideman is trying to understand his brother but he is having difficulties because him and his brother are two different people and they don’t have a common issues that they share. They are truly like those siblings that is no way are like each other. Wideman is successful and Robby is in prison. Wideman tries to understand Robby because after all they are sibling. How do you make sense of the differences that exist between us, even the differences between family members? Society like to find

    Read More

  • Sarah's Key Social Injustice Quotes

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Paul And Faul

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    When two siblings are born together, and are close in age, many people wonder whether they will be the same or different altogether. A “River Runs through it” shows two brothers who grew up in the same household, and grew up loving to do the same activity fly fishing. Both brothers were raised in a very strict presbyterian household. Norman is the older brother, and he is much more responsible and family orientated. Paul is the irresponsible younger brother; Paul as an adult was not at home much anymore. Both brothers were loved equally as children, but how they view and use love is what separates them. Paul and Norman differ in behavior and character.

    Read More

  • Genie Wiley Case Study

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    Susan is the youngest of four children, of which only she and her older brother, John, were the only to survive. It is believed that her father, Clark, is responsible for his first two children’s deaths. John was also severely physically abused by Clark and was often given notes to excuse him from gym at school. John and Susan had limited interactions together and John was beaten when he tried to give her food. At the age of eighteen, John ran away to escape his father’s callous abuse, thus leaving Susan to endure

    Read More

  • Go Tell It On The Mountain

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Grimes, the eldest son of Gabrial Grimes whom was a former well-respected and dynamic preacher, is in search of answers to his unhappiness. John wants to find his place within the church, define his relationship with god, and wants to flush the dislike he has for his father out. His father favors John’s younger brother Roy over himself. Although Roy is a bad seed and has an impeccable ability for getting into trouble he undoubtedly remains the apple of his father’s eye. John has been compared to another young man named Elisha, whom is a member of the church. Elisha is a few years older than John and has the respect of all the congregation members because he showed great intere...

    Read More

  • John Updike's A&P

    1488 Words  | 3 Pages

    Simon and Jeremy’s relationship took many shapes. For one moment, Jeremy would treat Simon as though any brother would by exchanging baseball cards rummaging through unknown mysteries down in the basement. Jeremy would tell frightening stories of ghosts, Indian burial grounds, and psychopathic murderers just as a normal brother would, but the desperate attempts of frightening Simon drove his brother mad. Simon was never good enough for his parents and was always half the boy Jeremy was. His mother spoke of him as “the changeling” speaking of him as if he generated from somebody else’s gene pool. Simon spoke of himself as “scrawny, an unlovely kid, and forever peering out at the world through a pair of thick glasses that Jeremy used to light ants on fire” and looked upon his brother as “blond, handsome, broad shouldered, friendly, and the kid everyone wanted to sit with in the lunch room.

    Read More

  • Fear and Redemption in Cry the Beloved Country

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Stephen goes to Johannesburg he has a childlike fear for "the great city" Johannesburg. Khumalo's fears of his family are exactly the same as every other black person in South Africa. In the train he is afraid of living in a world not made for him. He opens his bible and starts reading it, this is one of Khumalo's great sources of alleviation. Gertrude is frightened that her life will now be exposed to her brother who is a priest. She is redeemed from this fear when she prays with Stephen. Stephen experiences great pain and fear during his search for Absalom, Msimangu comforts him, he gains comfort when plays with Gertrude's son, when he thinks of Ndotsheni, his wife and of rebuilding his home it consoles him.

    Read More

  • Racism Exposed in Cry, the Beloved Country

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    On the train he is aware of the respect that other blacks hold for him, because he is a man of God, though, in the city, his. social standing demonstrates little significance.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Dbq Cry The Beloved Country

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Would you believe that a theme in a book could relate to every single person in some way? The book Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Patton can be relatable to today’s society in numerous ways. The themes of the book can relate to people in other situations. One theme that relates to people in today’s society, is inequality. On page 1 with the prompt and document examples, there are different pieces of evidence to back this claim up. The theme inequality in Cry The Beloved Country shows universality and its relation to the world through quotes from the novel and its relation to documents B, D, and E.

    Read More

  • Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier and Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room

    2723 Words  | 6 Pages

    Rebecca West and Virginia Woolf give great significance to the families of their respective main characters in The Return of the Soldier and Jacob’s Room because it gives the reader a greater insight to the formation of and reasoning for both Chris and Jacob’s nature. Each of these characters have multiple families to deal with: Chris has Kitty and Jenny on the one hand, and Margaret on the other, while Jacob deals with his mother and brother as well as his connections to society and academia. The distinctions between each character’s multiple families cause them to behave differently in various situations, and provide reasons for their actions. It is said that we are shaped by our surroundings and molded by our families, and Woolf and West’s male protagonists prove to be no exception to this rule.

    Read More

  • Cry , the Beloved Country: Post-Colonial Literary Theory

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bibliography w/4 sources          Cry , the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a perfect example of post-colonial literature. South Africa is a colonized country, which is, in many ways, still living under oppression. Though no longer living under apartheid, the indigenous Africans are treated as a minority, as they were when Paton wrote the book. This novel provides the political view of the author in both subtle and evident ways. Looking at the skeleton of the novel, it is extremely evident that relationship of the colonized vs. colonizers, in this case the blacks vs. the whites, rules the plot. Every character’s race is provided and has association with his/her place in life. A black man kills a white man, therefore that black man must die. A black umfundisi lives in a valley of desolation, while a white farmer dwells above on a rich plot of land. White men are even taken to court for the simple gesture of giving a black man a ride. This is not a subtle point, the reader is immediately stricken by the diversities in the lives of the South Africans.

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    When St. John is first introduced in the book, he finds Jane completely destitute with nowhere to go and no one to rely on for help. Despite her refusal to reveal her true identity, St. John takes Jane in to live with him and his two sisters, Diana and Mary. Once she has been nursed to health, St. John gives Jane a job as a school teacher at a girls school as well as a small cottage in which to live (339). At this point in the novel, word reaches the Rivers family of their Uncle's death. Unfortunately, another relative was favored for the large inheritance over them.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    2504 Words  | 6 Pages

    Stephen's relationship with the opposite sex begins to develop early in his life. Within the first few pages of the novel lie hints of the different roles women will...

    Read More

More about Cry the Beloved Country

Open Document