Theme Of Fear In Cry The Beloved Country

Alan Paton uses fear as a recurring motif in Cry, The Beloved Country. Throughout the book, Paton uses examples of fear to define the lives of the black and white people in South Africa during the time of apartheid. The destructive fear caused by apartheid has torn the country apart, and Stephen Kumalo is fearful of losing his family and tribe to the sinful city of Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, the whites fear violent acts brought against them by the blacks that are revolting against apartheid.
When Stephen plans on going to Johannesburg, he fears "when people go to Johannesburg, they do not come back" (39). As Stephen begins to prepare for his departure to Johannesburg, he begins to fear "of the unknown” (44). Once arriving in Johannesburg, Stephen is afraid of Gertrude’s sickness. After being exposed to Johannesburg and seeing all the wrong doings in the city, Stephen

begins to wonder and fears of what the city might have done to his son Absalom. Stephen finds his son and grieves of what he has done. Stephen fears of what the tribe will say when returning to Ndotsheni. He is afraid of “their questions" (254) because "they talk like children" (254) fearing for the worst of how the people will judge him. Stephen is not the only character that is affected by the role of fear, but it is also the whites that are affected.
As the book progresses we learn that it is not only the blacks that are affected by fear, but the whites as well.

The whites have a meeting about the issue of native crime to see what they can do to prevent it. The voices of the whites have “no doubt that it is fear in the land” (106). Mr. McLaren proclaims that “we shall always have native crime to fear” (107) because of all the injustice of apartheid in the land. Others proclaim that the laws should be enforced more due to the increase in fear caused by the increase in native crime. Others are lost and confused noting that “we do not know, we do not know … we shall be careful, and knock this off our lives, and knock that off our lives … we shall live with fear” (110-111).
In Cry, The Beloved Country, Stephen Kumalo along with the whites live in fear. These fears come from apartheid and the social injustice found in South Africa. The two races live in fear with one another, thinking the other will do wrong to the other. Overall Paton depicts the representation of fear during the time of apartheid through Stephen Kumalo and the white

population.

Work Cited
Paton, Alan. Cry, The Beloved Country. New York: Scribner, 1948. Print.