Themes In Cry The Beloved Country

1700 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial tension in South Africa

Hope for the Oppressed
In the novel Cry the Beloved Country, author Alan Paton tells the story of the breakdown that is occurring in his native country of South Africa and ways in which to fix it. In the novel, the main character Reverend Stephen Kumalo embarks on a mission to the city of Johannesburg in order to find his missing son Absalom. Throughout his journey Kumalo sees and experiences many injustices that clearly illustrate the growing divide between blacks and whites in the country. Paton incorporates his diagnosis of the racial divide that occurs within the country and the reasons behind it. Along with his diagnosis, Paton in the novel Cry the Beloved Country uses the setting of the land of South Africa to illustrate hope for the oppressed groups, even when all hope seems to be lost.
Alan Paton describes how all hope seems lost because of the destruction of the native South African land. He makes it extremely clear from the beginning of the novel that the people must respect and care for the land because it is so beautiful and sacred. Since there is so much racial tension and both races are fighting each other in order to take power, no one is thinking about taking care of the land that is so valuable to the country. Paton stresses the land’s importance by stating, "Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps
In Cry the Beloved Country, Paton proves through the conflict of the races that the land of South Africa is in grave danger of being lost. However, Paton does have a vision of what can help the country and that is when the different racial groups in the land can coexist in peace. In the novel Cry the Beloved Country, Paton shows that no matter how bad life and relationships can get, there is always a way to make it

Show More
Related

  • Warriors Don´t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Good Country People by Flannery OConnor Characterization as Theme

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Characterization is the most prevalent component used for the development of themes in Flannery O?Connor?s satirical short story ?Good Country People.? O?Connor artistically cultivates character development throughout her story as a means of creating multi-level themes that culminate in allegory. Although the themes are independent of each other, the characters are not; the development of one character is dependent upon the development of another. Each character?s feelings and behavior are influenced by the behavior of the others.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Blackness In The Fire Next Time By James Baldwin

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    The themes that are addressed in the novel, including the psychological effects of racism on Black people and the denial of white people to address the issue of race reinforce the idea that psychological inferiority, just like the white and Black identity, are creations that perpetuate a society that will benefit one group and work to the destroy the other. Without the moral consciousness and accountability of the rulers of America’s society, the relationship of African Americans to the United States will continue to be spiritually, psychologically, and physically

    Read More

  • Whiteness In Zimbabwe Essay

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Images of whiteness in Zimbabwe projected in the media have been of white population as victims being disposed of land and exposed to violence. In the award-winning documentary, Mugabe and the White African, the film focuses on white Zimbabwean family who challenges the Fast Track land redistribution program. David McDermott Hughes’ interprets the perspectives of land and landscape and its origins. In Whiteness in Zimbabwe, David McDermott Hughes principal argument is that European settlers identified themselves with the African landscape rather than with the social characteristics of the native Africans. The importance of landscape to white identity led to the engineering and structural development of the landscape. Hughes contends that the white colonizers used the land, nature and ecology to escape the social problems, to avoid ‘the other’ which in this case was the black Zimbabweans that were sharing the same living space. Through such landscape engineering, the white Zimbabweans believed that they would belong to Zimbabwe and Africa. However, Hugh argues that “by writing themselves to single-mindedly into the landscape, many whites wrote themselves out of society (p. 25).” Furthermore, Hughes argues that this was not a form of racism, but rather escaping the social surrounding to avoid conflict. This concept has led to Hughes to wanting to stop romanticizing of land in order to avoid social issues.

    Read More

  • Fear and Redemption in Cry the Beloved Country

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • James Jarvis: A Changed Man

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1930’s and 1940’s South Africa, many people suffered through traumatic events, whether it be a robbery, a loss of livelihood, a beating, or the ultimate tragedy, the loss of a loved one. In his novel Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton makes sure that this is not left out of his true-to-life, albeit fictional, account of life in South Africa. James Jarvis is the recipient of this tragedy in the novel. His son, Arthur Jarvis, is murdered in his home by Absalom Kumalo during a botched robbery attempt. This sudden loss breaks Jarvis’ heart and sends him reeling. He goes to Johannesburg for the trial and ends up realizing that he really didn’t know his son at all. Reading his son’s writings causes him to have a moral conversion, and he begins his new life when he returns to Ndotsheni. Even though James Jarvis is a man of few words, he has much to say after his son’s death and he speaks through his actions.

    Read More

  • Injustices Exposed in Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    The partied society in place when Paton wrote Cry the Beloved Country was one of extreme racial inequality and injustice. Paton wrote the first book of his story as a protest to this injustice. This book begins with the description of Ndotsheni and the land that surrounds it.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Hope In Cry, The Beloved Country, By Alan Paton

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    “But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings. That there will be a place with no more suffering.” These are lyrics from a song by Jeremy Camp and describe the story of the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Kumalo and his tribe in Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Throughout the novels, the characters are faced with many difficult situations. They rely on their hopes to get them through. Like the lyrics say, they hold on to hope that there will come a time of no more suffering. A sense of hope in difficult times gives people the strength and courage to keep going.

    Read More

  • Parallelism In Cry The Beloved Country By Alan Paton

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many boundaries present themselves in everyday life. Perhaps one of the largest boundaries that lead to conflict is race. The mere color of a person’s skin can isolate an individual from the rest of the world. In the 20th century contemporary novel, Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton uses parallelism to show how the boundaries of racism present themselves in the lives of the South Africans and how the differences in people make for a split society.

    Read More

  • John Locke's Belief That People Are Born with Rights

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...f South African language and culture, acknowledgement of the racial oppression in South Africa, past and present, that it was wrong and positive action is required to make it right, and finally that all South Africans are legitimate and enjoy full moral equality (“About – DA”). In order for all this to be possible, the state must ensure it does not compromise the freedom of the individual (“About – DA”).

    Read More

  • Comparison of Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country and Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

    1836 Words  | 4 Pages

    J. M. Coetzee' novel, "Disgrace," takes place in post-apartheid South Africa. The times swing chaotically in the great upheaval as South Africa's political power arm swings from a white ruling minority, to black majority rule. The power shift is anything but smooth; victims become victors and, likewise, oppressors become the oppressed.

    Read More

  • Racism Exposed in Cry, the Beloved Country

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism Exposed in Cry, the Beloved Country. The purpose of Cry, the Beloved Country, is to awaken the population of South Africa to the racism that is slowly disintegrating the society and its people. The. Alan Paton designs his work to express his views on the injustices and racial hatred that plagues South Africa, in an attempt to bring about change and.

    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

  • The True Meaning of Cry, the Beloved Country

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many debates have been sparked by Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country.  Even the essence of the book's title examines South Africa and declares the presence of the inner conflict of its citizens. The importance and meaning of the title of Cry, the Beloved Country is visible in Paton's efforts to link the reader to forthcoming ideas in the novel, Paton's description of South Africa's problems, and Paton's prayer for the solution of South Africa's difficulties with race and racial oppression.

    Read More

More about Themes In Cry The Beloved Country

Open Document