Category: Cry the Beloved Country

Alan Paton’s, Cry, the Beloved Country, is a compelling novel that really puts the reader in the perspective of South Africa during the early 1900’s. It is a story of discrimination, determination, and forgiveness. It tells the story of a brave father and leader who is willing to risk it all for his family. The novel is consistent of two main themes throughout: the breakdown of traditional family and society structures within the black African population and the economic inequalities between black and whites in South Africa. Both themes are equally important, but both also have a different meaning behind them besides the issue of segregation. This essay will break down and take a deeper look into each theme throughout the chapters of the novel and discuss the importance behind each one.

Cry, The Beloved Country begins with Reverend Stephen Kumalo receiving a letter asking him to go to Johannesburg, a city in South Africa. He is asked to come to help his sister, Gertrude, who has become sick. After some convincing, Kumalo makes the expensive and difficult journey to the city to help Gertrude and to find his son, Absalom who traveled to Johannesburg and never returned. Upon arriving in Johannesburg, Kumalo is welcomed by Msimangu, the priest who sent the letter. Kumalo soon finds out that Gertrude is a prostitute and sells liquor. He persuades her to come back to their village of Ndotsheni with her son. Kumalo and Msimangu then begin the difficult search in Johannesburg for Absalom. They visit John, Kumalo’s brother, who they found out is a successful businessman and politician. They direct them off on a series of one clue after the other to find Absalom. Kumalo eventually comes to find out that Absalom has gotten a girl pregnant and has spent time in a reformatory. While this is all taking place, news is going around announcing the death of a white crusader for racial justice named Arthur Jarvis. He has been murdered in his home by a group of burglars. At the same time, Kumalo and Msimangu come to realize that the police are searching for Absalom. Confirming their worst suspicions, Absalom is arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis. Absalom confesses to being at the crime scene, but also states that Matthew, John Kumalo’s son, was there as well and they did not intend to murder Jarvis. John and Kumalo are soon in battle on finding the best lawyer for their sons, even though they will worsen each other’s cases. Absalom’s pregnant girlfriend is saddened by the news, but agrees to move to Ndotsheni with Kumalo as his daughter-in-law. The police eventually bring the news to Jarvis’s father, James Jarvis, about his son’s death. He leaves immediately for Johannesburg and reads Arthur’s articles and speeches about social inequality. James begins to question his own prejudice judgements as he grieves the loss of his son. Kumalo and James meet unexpectedly and both attend Absalom’s trial. The trail is straight to the point and Absalom is sentenced to the death penalty. Before Kumalo leaves his son, he arranges a marriage for Absalom and his pregnant girlfriend and says goodbye. However, upon leaving in the morning, Kumalo comes to terms that Gertrued disappeared. He leaves with his new family and brings them to Ndotsheni. Kumalo is shaken up from the whole situation and realizes how his people have lost the structure he once taught them. James Jarvis is too having similar thoughts and reconsiders the prejudice around him. He begins to help out the village of Ndotsheni by sending them milk. He then constructs a plan to build a dam for them and hires an agricultural expert to help with their farming struggles. In return, Kumalo sends Jarvis a sympathy wreath to express sorrow when his wife dies. Jarvis sends a thank you back and offers to help build a new church for the congregation that was on the verge of transferring. Before the time of the Arthur’s death, the Jarvis and Kumalo run into each other where they express their feelings about the village and Jarvis’s grandson. They both speak and weep of Arthur before returning home.

The novel focuses on two main settings, the South African province of Natal and the town of Johannesburg. Natal is full of lush hills and valleys and is where Kumalo is originally from. The first chapter explains it’s hills’ beauty and how it overlooks the fairest valleys of Africa (pg. ). It goes on to describe its lush grass that holds water for the streams and provides food for the cattle. As the hills drift down to valleys, the landscape begins to change. The grass is destroyed from cattle grazing and fires and look red and bare. The crops are ruined and the streams have run dry. Johannesburg is quite different than Natal for a variety of reasons. It is a much larger city with crowds of people everywhere. There are traffic lights and paved roads unlike in Natal. The dominant language in Johannesburg is Afrikaans, a Dutch based language. This is first main concept of economic difference between the black and whites. The contrast between the settings, the valleys and hills in Natal and between Natal and Johannesburg, directly relates to the inhabitants lives. The opposition between the areas in Natal represent the different ways the people are able to be productive where they live. The green grass is not only good for the cattle, but supports human life, whereas the valleys are ugly and not suitable for daily living. The contrast also depicts the underlying segregated society. The rich white rulers symbolically live at the top of the hills where living is easy and comfortable. Black South Africans are inconveniently placed in the valleys were the land is poor. The other comparison happens between the town of Natal and the city of Johannesburg. The comfort Kumalo lives in Natal is entirely different than the chaos in Johannesburg. Natal is lived in order and comfort with organization and cooperation among the people. Johannesburg is quite different. Kumalo is powerful in Natal, but as soon as he arrives in Johannesburg he is looked at as very small and weak.

Overall, a large theme for Alan Paton’s novel is that inequality leads to injustice. Black South Africans are put on a very limited amount of land compared to the white community. This land is often low on natural resources and has poor soil due to the lack of water and overuse of planting and grazing. This diminishes the land and makes it hard to live off of. For this reason, many of the inhabitants leave Ndotsheni in hopes of finding work in the cities, like Gertrude and Absalom. Johannesburg, however, provides them with only limited opportunities and a disconnection with their family that eventually leave Gertrude and Absalom to rely on an income through crime. Their lives only reflect on the rest of Johannesburg as the city is only a collection of run down neighborhoods full of black gangs that are directed towards whites. The poor burglarize and soon are caught with little sympathy. Both sides of the segregation blame the other side for the violence they created among the city. There is little understanding from either side of the segregation and the theme of inequality leading to injustice seems as if it will go on forever.

Starting off in the book Things Fall Apart Okonkwo did not have anything and had to build everything up himself. He really hated his father for being weak and was afraid of being his father. While in the film Cry, the Beloved Country the character James Jarvis is somewhat similar at the beginning he despises what his son for starting a African boys club. Their stories are the same but their journeys are different. In both novels we discover a deeper level of chaos in both novels Okonkwo and James Jarvis refuse to accept reality. In the film Cry, the Beloved Country Focuses on family separation as Things Fall Apart focuses on separation of society that is changed from tradition. The devastation brings a significance to the communication in the context. James and Okonkwo go through many changes that makes them rethink their perceptions they come to this by awakening the truths about their lives. James goes through revelations through pain. After James son dies he is Shattered then later goes to Johannesburg Where he learns that his son Arthur Became a popular figure among all groups because of his speeches he did on social justice James comes to realize that Arthur became a stranger to him.

James tries to understand his son better by reading his writings about injustices in south africa and is moved by their ideas and undergoes a moral change. He returns back to Ndotsheni and works hard to be able to make things better than they were for the village people. He Donates supplies and orders there to be a dam built for fresh irrigation. At some point he gets an agriculture expert to be able to teach the village farmers how to maintain the farm land. James ends up helping to build a new church for Kumalo. In Okonkwo’s story he is always seen by others as a Strong,confident Warrior giving the signs of an alpha male But all of this is an act to be different than his father. His father had good traits he liked music but Okonkwo thought pity for that and the fact that his father didn’t like blood so okonkwo hated him for not being strong. Okonkwo is a heavy follower of the laws and scriptures in the village. He reads the Scripts over again daily to make sure that he doesn’t break any of the laws But when he does break the laws he respectable expects the punishment he does this to maintain his respect. Okonkwo is a really stubborn person he barely stops and thinks but he is always think of what others think of him. When Ikemefuna goes to Okonkwo the get help Okonkwo kills him in fear of being weak. Okonkwo hates change and when the British came and changed their culture and lifestyle Okonkwo starts to make rational decisions. He doesn’t let go of the past and makes a decision to kill a messenger which became his undoing knowing what he as done he hangs himself in shame of what he did and then a Britsh man comes over and says he could put this in his book and write a paragraph or less then a paragraph.

Decisions aren’t made in space. For example, when thinking about choosing a career, a person considers the education and aptitude needed for the field, and perhaps the income potential of the choice. But there’s more that goes into decision-making than personal benefit, particularly when injustice is in play. Sometimes the choices we make in that situations are not someone is happy about or think of.

If we look around ourselves we see that we are in a peaceful society. But, sometimes the scenario is not the same for everyone. Before us or even now many people are victims of injustice in their own countries in which they are born or are living for ages. Inequalities affect most of the citizens. Some people make a profit out of it and have thier ways, some people choose different paths and lifestyles that they are usually compelled to choose, while some fight against the injustice that is happening for the betterment of others. While others just go along with and make ways to live life for themselves only. Our world has a long history of intense events happened because of social inequalities and the list is getting bigger each year. Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country also highlights the events of a country that the people faced which lead them to some steps they took because of what they felt was happening with them or with others. The characters are fictional but the novel themes and events is a reality check about our world. As I dived deep into the characters and the country situations and imageries and paid close attention to their surroundings and activities, it made me question, to what extent do social inequalities or living in an unjust society affect the decisions people make to live?

Injustice can lead people to many decisions that they do not want to make and take and follow them. One of them includes the decision of changing the lifestyle of a self. I believe that the decisions took by those who live in an injustice society can affect the people way of living into something worse that they have never imagined. When injustice happens, only those in power or money can live with enjoyment without any fear of life.

In the novel, the whole theme was social injustice and the lives of people living in that system because not only one society or group but almost all the non-Europeans in the whole country were politically and racially targeted but there were many incidents that were beyond our imagination.

One of the most brutal ways in my opinion of treating people was to give them labour and not providing them with their rightful wages. Which later made them into making a lot of choices that they were usually opposed to.

In the novel, Jarvis addresses how things that the Europeans did when they first came to South Africa made sense at the time. They brought in unskilled workers from the tribes to help dig for gold. I think there is nothing wrong with that. It became wrong when they continued to keep men unskilled for the sake of unskilled work. I believe that the reason native Africans turned to the crime was that they had no goals and nothing to work toward. After all, regardless of how hard they worked, they would never improve their situation. So why try?

“ The white man has broken the tribe. And it is my belief and again I ask your pardon that it cannot be mended again. But the house that is broken, and the man that falls apart when the house is broken, these are the tragic things. That is why children break the law, and old white people are robbed and beaten.” (Paton 49)

It all started when the Europeans came and not only keep Africans away from their rights, but they also kept them away from their families. They built compounds to keep the children and women away from the towns as they were living in villages while their men were working in mines. In all this, people had to come across some decisions for living that many of us I think would not accept as a lifestyle.

What happened to Gertrude is an example. Her husband went away to work in the mines, but when he didn’t return, she went looking for him. Then, she got caught up in liquor selling and prostitution and didn’t return. I believe the reason Gertrude got into all of this was, that not only African women were kept away from their father, brothers and husbands but they were not even allowed to work respectively anywhere unlike the European women. This proves my point how the unjustice made Gertrude life hell because as a priest’s sister and wife she would never want to go in that profession but in order to feed her child and support herself she had to take that step even knowing the fact, her family and society would never forgive her.

Another example that I believed that relates to my point would be the lifestyle and actions of Absalom. Absalom is introduced in the story as a killer but he was not always a killer, in fact, he was a well obedient child of Stephen. However, the law of the town and the injustice and discrimination that happened with him turned him into a monster he could never imagine.

This started all when Gertrude went missing. Absalom was living with his father in the village but an image of a better life and also the search for his aunt took him to the city.

“What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? What broke when he could bring himself to thrust down the knife into the warm flesh, to bring down the axe on the living head, to cleave down between the seeing eyes, to shoot the gun that would drive death into the beating heart?” (Paton,87)

In this quote, Kumalo talks about his son’s actions and crimes. And think how much he has changed since he moved to Johannesburg. Kumalo himself could not imagine killing another person and I believe this is not because he is a priest but because even for us it is a very big decision that we could never imagine taking. And that is why he is questioning his son’s state of mind and trying to understand what could have been the point that took his son to this stop. And then he realizes it by analysing the situations in Johannesburg. The lifestyle of the city and his village can not relate as the rights were taken away by Africans. But Kumalo still believed that whatever his son chose to do was wrong because he had taught him rightfully. This further proves how the city corrupted Absalom. Which is a prove to my point that how the cycle of injustice and inequality has an impact on black criminal’s life.

If you believe this was past and nothing this much happens today where people are politically targeted especially in developed countries then I would consider you wrong because of my research.

America is a country that has a very ideal image in the news. We all know how strong and independent is America but sadly it is very politically influenced. People are still battling to live in poverty because the government does not provide them with their rights. And that is why they came to a point by hurting other’s so they could support their families.

“Exorbitant fines and fees designed to make up for revenue shortfalls are now a staple throughout most of the country. Meanwhile, white-collar criminals get slaps on the wrist for financial crimes that ruin millions of lives. Though wealthy scofflaws owe a cumulative $450bn in back taxes, fines and fees from the justice system hit lower-income people – especially people of colour – the hardest.” (How it became a crime to be poor in America, Peter Edelman)

The country’s strong income does not usually come from its resources but because of the labours and middle-class workers that work there selfs and pays off heavy taxes while white billionaires are still in depths of taxes without any law and action taken against them. This turn people to commit crimes like drugs smuggling robberies and joining gangs. We know the amount of discrimination that happens in America even today and this also proves why many of the criminals there are black. It is because the government and their unjust law are what that made them today. Because these people do not have enough money to live so they had to take these short steps so they could help and feed themselves.

Injustice affects people in all ways but what I believe if they adopt a life because of the injustice it does not only affect them but it affects there, families and friends, as well. Sometimes it is influential to those who are still developing to adopt the society, and I believe that should not happen because this further adds into the crimes and even those are affective who does innocent.

Injustice sometimes results as a weapon to those who have some sort of power in their hands. Where it changes people into criminals without there will, it also creates monsters that are the reasons that injustice spreads. And their decisions are highly made upon their own benefits without realizing how it would affect the people around them.

The novel has shown me how the blacks are living under the orders of the whites because they do not have any power to fight their orders, while the other party have the power to order them around.

“Because the white man has power, we too want power, he said. But when a black man gets power, when he gets money, he is a great man if he is not corrupted. I have seen it often. He seeks power and money to put right what is wrong, and when he gets them, why, he enjoys the power and the money.” (Paton,57)

Msimangu discloses to Kumalo why power may not really be an alluring quality. Despite the fact that black people wish they had more influence, Msimangu accepts that power and money effectively degenerate individuals, transforming great individuals into awful people. However, I know from the laws in South Africa that the corrupted impact of power rises above race, age, and sexual orientation. Black individuals would almost certainly utilize power to make things very equivalent, Msimangu calls attention to everybody who accomplishes control that results as loss of someone else. So I believe that power should not usually consider as an attractive quality because it leads people to make decisions that would usually benefit them and favour them whether it destroys the life someone or not.

Something that happened because of power and lack of it in real life was very horrible to witness and experience. A couple in India was harassed and threatened by a group of people at the order of a builder who wanted to take over their land. On the day of the incident, the couple had reached Surir police station in Mathura. After pouring kerosene on their bodies, they set themselves on fire there. A purported video of the incident surfaced on social media.

“The case was related to an August 23 incident in which an FIR with names of accused was registered. The couple claimed there was no action by the police,’ Mathura’s Senior Superintendent of Police Shalabh Mathur had said. All the pieces of evidence prove that the couple was helpless and in the end, the police behaviour led them to take the decision of burning themselves down.” (Woman, who set herself ablaze at police station, succumbs to burn injuries, Mathura)

After the incident, three people were suspended because the matter was spread on social media but I think that if the video would not have gone viral on media these people would still not have justice even after them taking their lives. The powerful builder would have tried to keep the matter down as he controlled the police before. Although the justice was provided to the couple later I believe there was no big use of it because the damage was done and they were not gonna come back.

Power is a very potent thing it can change the lives of people but can also destroy them. It would result in a benefit of someone while it can also be life destroyer. However, if you expect decisions of those in power in an unjust society you should expect decisions that would be highly in favour of them.

Where people make decisions of benefiting themselves there are people who fight for others in this unjust society even when they have gone through a great loss. These people do not want to be heroes or anything but just wanted to bring change so others do not have to go through the same that they went through.

In my opinion, the great decision that could ever make by someone is the decision to accept their child’s fault when they know their child has to go through the punishment of that crime that they have performed and Stephen Kumalo proved that he is non-other than a hero who wanted his son to pay the price of crimes he had done even though he knows that his son was compelled to.

“The parson was old, and his black clothes were green with age, and his collar was brown with age or dirt. He took off his hat, showing the whiteness of his head, and he looked startled and afraid and he was trembling.” (Paton)

This describes the situation after the execution of his son, that he was deeply destroyed and he was very weak because he not only lost his son but later his family too. But despite knowing all of the situations that could happen with him in future he still went with what is right. Because he believed that it is people that can bring change.

Another great father in the story whose son was South African’s rights crusader, in my opinion, was James Jarvis because he also lost his son by Absalom’s committed murder. In the beginning, he was devasted with the news so much that he thought of revenge but then he sorted out himself and realize the situation. He learned about his son’s motive to have an equal system for all South Africans and after that, he realized that what his son was doing was something that he never really cared about because he was not a non-European.

“Jarvis sat, deeply moved. Whether because this was his son, whether because this was almost the last act of his son, he could not say. Whether because there was some quality in the words that too he could not say, for he had given little time in his life to the savouring and judging of words.” (Paton,112)

James reads some of his son’s journals and realizes the depth and meaning of those words. He could not believe that this was something that his son would write. He feels amazed that his son was capable of writing about such powerful ideas. Like Kumalo, James realizes he barely knew his son, which he finds both concerning and impressive. I also got the idea that James has not given much thought to the inequality in South Africa, as the ideas Arthur has expressed seem new to him. This is a prove to my point that how inequality awoke the human inside of James and he later decide to spend his life and property in order to give these non-Europeans a place to live and survive after the same injustice happened with his son.

Spending the rest of your life in order to keep equality and accepting your son’s fault and turning him to the law so people can value the importance of justice shows how many humans can awake by injustice. Sometimes they just have to realize the situation but most of the time they had to go through it and come to a point for making the decision.

I believe injustice affects those in the worst ways who try to go along with it. It destroys families, children and lives. It creates a gap between an individual and society as I realized the Gertrude situation that why she could not go back to her village because she was doing in the city. Sometimes, it takes the lives of innocent people who do not have enough power to fight against it or sometimes when the victims of injustice have power in their hands they try to take revenge in which every person is affected. A few people realize situations at last and try to change the system the best they can. But in conclusion, it depends on people and what situations they are going with the state of their minds to make the following decisions. As a human rights activist said,

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Martin Luther King Jr.

MLA References

1. Digital, India Today. “Mathura: Woman, Who Set Herself Ablaze at Police Station, Succumbs to Burn Injuries.” India Today, 7 Sept. 2019, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/mathura-woman-who-set-herself-ablaze-at-police-station-succumbs-to-burn-injuries-1596699-2019-09-07.
2. Edelman, Peter. “How Poverty Became a Crime in America | Peter Edelman.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Nov. 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/how-poverty-became-crime-america.
3. Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. Vintage, 2002.