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Cry, The Beloved Country

355 Words2 Pages
In Alan Paton’s book Cry, The Beloved Country The age of the characters is emphasized to greater illustrate the problems of the current generation and how they will effect the next generation. In the book Kumalo expresses his frustration to a fellow priest on the little he accomplished when he was young and strong, and how in his old age he's unable to fix anything. — At my age? asked Kumalo. Look what has happened to the house I built when I was young and strong. What kind of house shall I build now?(pg 140) This statement reflects all of the problems the past generation has made for the future generation and the weak foundation the current society has been built on. Another character's age that is highlighted in the book is Absalom's
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320 Words | 2 Pages

In Cry, the Beloved Country, Stephen Kumalo is a good example of being a truthful man, who is constantly transforming his life in different ways throughout the book. You may ask, “how is he a man who represents truth, he has lied a few times?” Yes, he has told a few lies, who hasn’t, but he still is a truthful man who values the truth. He values the ultimate truth, being the Word of God, and he values what the truth is and how he should live it. He is not perfect, he sometimes can lie and he knows it, but he does what we all should do when we mess up, pray, and ask for forgiveness.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

Because of this internal conflict, alienation from peers is constantly brought up in the novel as well as the topic of societal pressure. Childhood is a stage that numerous people neglect or belittle for the sake

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859 Words | 4 Pages

In conclusion, coming of age has developed even more than is known in the story from quotes, events and the physical traits of all characters. It has affected mostly everything in their life and has created a more mature

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865 Words | 4 Pages

The characters and conflicts reinforce the idea that if you do not learn from the mistakes you have made in the past, you can repeat them. To

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958 Words | 4 Pages

The result shows that 46 or 92% of the elderlies wished that they had more respect to themselves. Forty or 80% of them said that they sometimes pity themselves while 34 or 68% of them perceived that they have little or sometimes nothing to help their family and friends. In addition, 33 or 66% of elderlies said that they are not happy with their accomplishments in life while 32 or 64% of them perceived that they do not have capabilities and good qualities that they can be proud of and shared that they find it difficult to accept the changes happening in themselves at the present moment. Moreover, 28 or 56% of the elderlies shared that they often think and wish that they are in other people’s condition while half of them (50%) think and feel that they are useless. Further, despite of the adversities experienced in later life, 32 or 64% of elderlies didn’t think that they

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932 Words | 4 Pages

Maturity is the feeling of needing to prove that one is sophisticated and old enough to do certain things. In the short story “Growing Up,” Maria’s family went on a vacation while she stayed at home, but when she heard there was a car crash that happened near where her family was staying, she gets worried and thinks it is all her fault for trying to act mature and angering her father. Society wants to prove how mature they are and they do so by trying to do things that older people do and the symbols, conflict, and metaphors in the text support this theme. First and foremost, in “Growing Up,” Gary Soto’s theme is how society acts older than they are and that they just want to prove they are mature. Maria wants to stay home instead of going

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1386 Words | 6 Pages

Similarly, it is the reflection of the world we are living in today. The novel examines the distress, and behaviours of our society in the past, present, and possibly an unpredictable future due to our current actions. Before the story begins, their society was originated after a cold nuclear war where it wiped out most of the human population. “ the

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449 Words | 2 Pages

A generation can be educated from another generation about life lessons that will be important to them. One generation can learn many things from another because they can learn strength, they can learn being grateful, and they can learn understanding. One generation can learn from another because they can learn strength. In the two kinds memoir, the mother quotes”you can be genius if you want to. This shows that the mother is showing her daughter strength and if she tries she can do it.

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952 Words | 4 Pages

The famous English poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense”. Although voice is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and versatile assets humans possess, simply having a good voice does not ensure power. This idea is well illustrated in Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country where Paton creates characters that have powerful voices but lack other essential qualities necessary to become powerful leaders. Set in a time where racial tensions between the blacks and the whites are at their highest, Africa is in desperate need of a gifted leader who can step up and guide the people to glory.

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398 Words | 2 Pages

Adolescence can be a hazardous and perplexing time and for teens, girls especially, and they do not deserve to have their authority figures teach them that their bodies and their natural human desires are things that are shameful. No adult should teach a child that they should cover or hide their bodies in disgrace. For preteens and young adults, living in one 's own skin is already hard enough, the added disrespect is not at all necessary or helpful. Abstinence only curriculums often promote sexism and can leave young people, especially girls, with the impressions that doing something that is very natural somehow degrades them, lessens their worth, or makes them dirty. This is detrimental to not only the way women view themselves but also to the way that men perceive female sexuality.

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1857 Words | 8 Pages

To conquer fear people must learn to love the things that they are scared of. In learning love and compassion, fear is demolished allowing room for the evolution of a society. In Cry, the Beloved Country, Alon Paton depicts how acts love overpowers fears of the characters with perspectives of both white and african characters. They are depicted in the pre apartheid era where there is tension on both the sides of the Whites living in South Africa and the African Natives. Living in the countryside, one of the main characters utilizes all forms of love to help him get through the fear of unknown and unexpected.

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161 Words | 1 Pages

One article of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” that was violated in the novel Cry, the Beloved Country is article seventeen part two. Article seventeen part two states  “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property” (“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”). However, in this novel native south Africans are being deprived of land. This becomes evident to the audience through Arthur Jarvis's last note where he states the following “we set aside one-tenth of the land for four-fifths of the people”(Paton,179). This violates article seventeen part two of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” because native south Africans are being arbitrarily deprived of their land.

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508 Words | 3 Pages

The biblical allusion made, by Alan Paton, of the biblical figure John the Baptist to John Kumalo, in Cry the Beloved Country, is used to develop his character while describing how fear can make one power hungry and limit one's full potential in society. The compare and contrast of John Kumalo’s voice and John the Baptist’s voice shows that fear can have a great impact on how and why they act. They both have a majestic voice when addressing people. “Here is the moment, John Kumalo, for the great voice to reach even to the gates of Heaven.” (219).

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963 Words | 4 Pages

On that note it is of great importance that authors should give attention to the adult characters in as much as they give to the heroine/protagonist as the adult characters many a time represent the culture and embodiment of the people of older and past generations which are of paramount importance to the development of the child

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1811 Words | 8 Pages

With the novel being read from a ‘twelve’ year old whose history motivates his understanding, perception and interpretation of the events he encounters and interprets to the reader,

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