Cry The Beloved Country

Families, like countries, experience successes and failures all the time. Both entities can and do experience wide variations in economic and social issues. These instances can either strengthen or weaken them to the point of collapse. In order to demonstrate the synonymous nature of both the rise and fall of family and country, Alex Paton's contemporary novel, Cry, The Beloved Country, uses an extended metaphor to reveal the importance of a strong family because often one's family unit reflects one's country.

Many factors influence whether a family develops into a strong one or a weak one. The location where the family lives provides them with multiple opportunities that may lead each family member down a different path. Opportunities, such as those embedded in economic and social issues, can lead to positive or negative effects on the family unit. Through a small tale within the larger story we learn more about Kumalo's relationship with his family, "There is a man sleeping in the grass," and in that statement he reveals what he thinks causes his family to become weak, "People hurry

The lack of a family bond can cause further rifts among the family and divide each other more than before. In an undesirable situation, a lack of support leaves an individual "anxious at first" which eventually leads to "anxiety turn to fear" and progresses to "this fear grew deeper step by step" as demonstrated by Kumalo discovering his son's crime (138). Paton reveals that families need to stay together to support each other emotionally. Without the support, it leaves the family member weakened, prone to depression, anxious, and even to succumb to fear. When the bond breaks because of separation, the individuals affected can often follow a path that leads to a darker situation that they cannot pull themselves out of. The struggle of a family unit can reflect the situation of their