Allegory In Cry The Beloved Country

In Cry, The Beloved Country, Paton writes about Stephen Kumalo 's brother John Kumalo who moves to Johannesburg to start a business. He soon becomes the mouthpiece for a black rights ' movement, but he is then revealed to be corrupted and to have committed adultery. He is presented as an allegory for the corrosive effect of Johannesburg, signifying that no matter how powerful you are, its vices will eventually affect you.

John is not important as he has abandoned his morals in the pursuit of affluence. John is ready to sacrifice Absalom, his nephew 's life to save his son, who is not innocent. John is ready to forgo his blood relations for himself. It may be argued that John 's actions are justified, that his son is of a closer blood relation

John has forsaken his religion as, according to him, "the Church is too like the chief," and the priests are "white man 's [dogs]". He believes that even though the Church is sweet with its words and stands for noble things such as peace and equality, they do very little to actually bring about any change, as John observes, "things seem to be getting worse, not better,". The actual fact is that John is correct in his observations, but his opinion does not make much of an impact on his character as it is revealed that John embodies some of the flaws he attributes to the Church and other authorities. During John 's speech, there are white policemen in disguise monitoring him. The police are alert, making sure that his meeting is "quiet and orderly", and at the "first sign of disorder", they plan to arrest John. John is well aware of this, and hence never suggests something that the whites will feel is outrageous. This shows that clearly, the white policemen have made John slave to their law and their threat. This is because even the whites are aware that John is not like Dubula, that he is merely a voice, has no heart or brains and knows that "there is no applause in prison". It is ironic that he curses the priests for being slaves to the whites, while he is, knowingly, a slave to the law that the whites impose on him, as he is afraid of losing his reputation and his money. That makes him a hypocrite as he does not embody his

John, meanwhile, is too attached to his material possessions, and lives in constant fear of the whites, who threaten to take it away. Later in the novel, John betrays his family, while Stephen goes back to his village and works with Jarvis to bring advancement to the village. This further highlights the theme by proving that only someone motivated by love can do good, not someone propelled by