Cry, The Beloved Country Essays

  • Cry The Beloved Country Essay

    710 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book Cry, The Beloved Country tells the story of Stephen Kumalo, a priest from Ndtoshemi, in search for his son. It describes the despair of characters and shows how our choices can affect others other than ourselves. In his novel Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton uses the metaphor of a phoenix to emphasize the destruction of the tribe but also Stephen Kumalo 's intention to mend the tribe and the metaphor of the storm to show Stephen Kumalo 's struggle throughout the story. Stephen Kumalo

  • Voice In Cry The Beloved Country

    952 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

  • Cry, The Beloved Country

    355 Words  | 2 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

  • Cry The Beloved Country

    679 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton tries to highlight the similarities that tie together two different individuals, namely Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis on the issues of their journey through life, their connected destiny, and the differences in racial practices. James Jarvis is a grieving white man struggling to understand and appreciate his dead son's feelings for the majority non-white population, whereas Stephen Kumalo is a native black man wondering when all his sorrows will come eventually

  • Cry The Beloved Country Theme

    1150 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton is a novel about Stephen Kumalo’s journey to reunite his family. Kumalo is from the small village in South Africa and most of his imediate family has left in order to move to the big city of Johannesburg. One day, Kumalo gets a letter from a priest in Johannesburg saying that Kumalo needs to come to Johannesburg because his sister is sick. But when he arrives, he finds out that not only his sister is suffering, but his son and brother are also suffering. Along

  • Cry The Beloved Country Essay

    866 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mario Balotelli, black Italian professional soccer player, accurately claims that, “Racism springs from ignorance.” Ignorance, lack of understanding, or lack of desire to understand others is the nature of racism. Alan Paton, author of Cry, the Beloved Country, shows this root of racism throughout the book. He also uses rhetorical devices, such as juxtaposition, imagery, and irony, to elicit sympathy for racism’s victims. Paton opens the story with juxtaposition. In chapter one he describes the

  • Themes In Cry The Beloved Country

    1889 Words  | 8 Pages

    1. Cry, the Beloved Country is part story because it tells a fictional story about a black man’s country under white man’s country. It’s part prophecy because the story takes place before the apartheid, which Kumalo sees coming. “We really need to do something to change this before it all comes to pass” (Paton 54). This expresses how Kumalo believes that this is the beginning of something terrible. The significance of Absalom’s name is in a biblical story of a son who turned against his own

  • Racism In Cry The Beloved Country

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

  • Injustice In Cry The Beloved Country

    591 Words  | 3 Pages

    isn’t something that has just started, it has been happening and is still happening today. In the documentary Southern Rites, Justin Patterson was shot and killed Norman Neesmith only got one year in a detention center. However, in the book “Cry, The Beloved Country” Absalom Kumalo killed a man and was sentenced to execution. Two men committed the same crime, but received different sentencing, which both should have received the same amount of time. The only difference between Absalom and Norman were

  • Allegory In Cry The Beloved Country

    930 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

  • Loss In Cry The Beloved Country

    836 Words  | 4 Pages

    person’s life their family means everything. Whether or not a family member becomes lost, missing, or dies, the absence of that person creates a hole. Family members mean a tremendous amount to most people. Similarly, in the 20th century novel, Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton utilizes polysyndetons to say, even though life continues to revolve around people, people must search for their family because in the absence of a family an empty feeling builds. Life constantly moves on around people. Paton

  • Cry The Beloved Country Essay

    940 Words  | 4 Pages

    Cry, the Beloved Country Essay Post World War II South Africa was a country torn by inequality, greed, and conflict between the two cultures of Europeans and Native Africans. In his novel Cry, the Beloved Country, the author, Alan Paton, proposes the only way to mend the tear in South Africa is for the two conflicting cultures to abandon their fears of each other. They must also learn to understand the one another and reconcile their differences to bring the possibility of positive change. This

  • Katniss In Cry The Beloved Country

    1670 Words  | 7 Pages

    eyes. Because Katniss so bravely volunteered, it seems she is the main protagonist, but that does not mean Prim, a minor character, cannot do great things too. The relationship between major and minor characters is also seen in Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country.

  • Forgiveness In Cry The Beloved Country

    1070 Words  | 5 Pages

    blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7) People confess their sins to God is the reason why they get redemption from God. The world knows that, South Africa also knows that. The novel “Cry, the Beloved Country” is written by Alan Paton, a South African writer in 1948. It talks about the apartheid problem that happened in South Africa in 20’s century and how God saved and redeemed people from their strong faith. Stephen Kumalo, the main character

  • Cry The Beloved Country Essay

    723 Words  | 3 Pages

    during WWII all the way to the African Americans in South Africa. Discrimination is a horrible event that has caused pain and suffering to even good people just based on the different ways people do things and the way some look. In the novel Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, Paton talks about two fathers and sons whom are African Americans living in South Africa during the time after WWII. Racial discrimination in the city of Johannesburg at the time was at an all time high, “The tragedy is not

  • Allusion In Cry The Beloved Country

    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

  • Fear In Cry The Beloved Country

    943 Words  | 4 Pages

    belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” Fear gets inside of a person and slowly takes over their body. There is such a wide variety of fears that you almost always are scared of something. The book Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is about an African priest that goes to the city of Johannesburg to look for his sister and his son. He also struggles getting used to the ways that life is in the big city that is Johannesburg. This plot is somewhat simple

  • Cry The Beloved Country Essay

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    across the world. It is unbelievable how much one's opinion could change an entire country. Although it is easy to blame something that may seem to be superficial to some, it is apparent in Cry, the Beloved Country that inequality is oppressed through the roles and opinions of others. In this passage, Africa's culture, people, and landscape are negatively impacted by the unforgiving inequality expressed throughout the country. The beginning chapter is distinguished by the contrasting imagery, suggestive

  • Ignorance In Cry The Beloved Country

    634 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Enlighten my ignorance.” This request is sometimes used by a person who is lacking information. In Cry, the Beloved Country, the author Alan Paton describes many situations that show the problems that arise because of unjust conditions in the country of South Africa. One of the major problems is ignorance. Some people are lacking formal educations, some are lacking an understanding of other cultures, and some are lacking understanding of members of their own family. One of the main characters

  • Cry The Beloved Country Analysis

    1168 Words  | 5 Pages

    How can one make so many mistakes in life and still be forgiven as if they did not do anything wrong? In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton, religion was an important point throughout the whole novel. The main character, Stephen Kumalo, who simply goes by Kumalo, was a black South African priest who revolved his life around his family and God. There had been many times in Kumalo’s life where his feelings and actions had been the results of devoting his life to God. Paton continually