Racism And Paternalism In Cry The Beloved Country

548 Words3 Pages

Both critiques add valuable comments to the novel that readers were likely to overlook before. Many of the points appeal to the logic of the reader. Even though both critiques recognise racism as a point of discussion in Cry, the Beloved Country, Liberalism focuses more on white supremacy and Paternalism focuses on the breakdown a racism by age group. The Paternalism critique is more successful in convincing the audience of its points against the novel because of the use of examples in the characters and well developed points of argument.
Paternalism criticises Cry, the Beloved Country through straightforward critiques of its flaws, such as racism. Racism is expressed through three different categories in the Paternalism critique, juvenile, puerile, and adolescent. The points made are very …show more content…

The first point is that all of the good characters are religious black people and white people who help blacks. This is pretty much undeniable. This point really makes the reader think about the novel differently. Racism is very apparent as all of the white characters are truthful, knowledgeable, and religious. Meanwhile, the black characters are criminals, violent, and corrupt. This critique was very convincing. The points that were made were undeniable. The use of logic and reason in the essay made it more compelling to believe. The examples in the characters of the novel also made the argument much more convincing. The adolescent stereotype presented in the critique was the most beneficial towards the argument. Black adolescents are seen as sexually irresponsible, morally confused, and violent, which is perfectly depicted in the young couple of Absalom and his girlfriend. Proving the first point, they are not married, but his girlfriend is pregnant. To prove the second point, they both look towards Kumalo for guidance and support to get their