Cry The Beloved Country

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Recommended: Effects of racial segregation

If you were racially discriminated during a time where you couldn’t voice, do, or even express your thoughts on the topic, what would you do? In the book ‘Cry the Beloved Country’ the readers follow the journey of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo whose vision of all he knew about the black man’s land soon turn divided by the racial discrimination and the push on racial injustice by higher officials; by the white men who weren’t higher. The racial apprehension was enforced, taught, and acted upon. Jobs were limited based on one’s skin. The prompted racial tension brought on crime and violence throughout the book. Higher officials ruling that only the Europeans got the chance to live in the beautiful parts of places that people thought blacks were …show more content…

For one, the character Arthur is a prime example. Arthur wanted to help the people that he knew were being broken down by his own race. Arthur knew he needed to help and not sit by on the sidelines complaining about it. “It was at the Phillipsons, three doors down, that a gang of these roughs broke in; they knocked old Phillipson unconscious, and beat up his. […] I asked Arthur about that, but he reckoned we were to blame somehow.” (Chapter 19, page 173) The iconicity of his death is saddening, but that’s just a small foreshadowing that this cycle of death is going to continue if the disputes aren’t settled. People are going to die; People are going to suffer. Is it fair? No, but it’s the cycle. Will the cycle continue forever? No, because dawn will come. There will still be racial disputes between black and whites, but there will be justice for the ones who suffered. “Yes, it is the dawn that has come. The titihoya wakes from sleep, and goes about its work of forlorn crying. The sun tips with light the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand. The great valley of the Umzimkulu is still in darkness, but the light will come there. Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing.” (Chapter 36, page 312) In other words, despite the hardships so many have faced thanks to the corrupted system that judges them racially, there will be light. Light will come, as it always does

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