Voice In Cry The Beloved Country

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. Throughout the novel, the reader

For it was not only a voice of gold, but it was the voice of a man whose heart is golden, reading from a book of golden words”(Paton123). Through this passage, Paton showcases the full power of Msimangu’s voice and the reader cannot help but wonder if Msimangu with his healing voice can be the one to bridge the rift that divides Africa. Unfortunately, the reader slowly learn that Msimangu is a spiritual man and is more concerned in helping others live a spiritual life then helping them to win their rights. One passage in Cry the Beloved Country reads, “yet he is despised by some, for his golden voice that could raise a nation speaks always thus”. They say he preaches of a world not made by hands, while in the streets about him mean suffer and struggle and die”(Paton 124). Thus the reader is once again let down, and left wondering whether there is anyone in Africa who can fit the mold of the leader required. Midway throughout Stephen Kumalo’s journey, the reader is told about a young man named Arthur Jarvis, a staunch opponent of South Africa’s racial injustices who was shot and killed. Much to the reader’s dismay, the more they learn about Arthur Jarvis, the more they mourn his death as Arthur Jarvis embodies all the qualities needed for a