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Racism In Cry The Beloved Country

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In the Novel “Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton, two fathers are trying to put the pieces of there families back together while also keeping themselves together. Paton uses the racial tension in South Africa to illustrate many themes. The story is written before the apartheid in South Africa. There are many major themes in cry the beloved country but racism is definitely the biggest one it is used in political power, caused whites to fear blacks, and it destroys Kumalo’s family. In Cry the Beloved Country Racism is used in many different ways but one big way is the political power. Blacks have no true leader and they are constantly being held down by the white men. The white men came in and took over but did not do it in a nice way. “It …show more content…

The europeans who came in and messed everything up now think that blacks cause all of the bad things in South Africa and think they need to protect themselves from it. “We shall live from day to day, and put more locks on the doors, and get a fine fierce dog when the fine fierce bitch next door has pups, and hold on to our handbags more tenaciously”(135). This shows what the white people think the black people in South Africa. They think that they must use multiple locks to be safe from the blacks in South Africa They also believe that the will attack them and steal all there stuff as they walk through the city. “They are murderers, thieves, bootleggers, and prostitutes. And the novel repeatedly tells us that these crimes--not the casual brutalization of black men and women, not the denial of political and economic rights to the overwhelming majority of the population-are the big problems in South Africa” (AUTHOR NAME AND PAGE NUMBER?). This shows that Europeans are titling blacks as thieves, prostitutes, and murders. They are pretty much titling them as their downfall to society. They are blaming all of the bad stuff that happens in there everyday life on the Blacks of South Africa. They are not seeing the big picture which is that the white forced themselves into their land and caused them to become poor and are forcing them to scramble for money. The blacks really did nothing to be

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