Cry, the Beloved Country

It is the Judge's job to uphold the law, and when he does, justice has been served. It is not up to him to determine whether the law itself is just or fair; the law is made by the society, and if...

Ezenzeleni provides Stephen Kumalo a moment to reflect. The chaos of Johannesburg has confused the unfundisi and without the hopeful environment of Ezenzeleni, Stephen's epiphany would not have...

While many may argue that the foils are obvious (James/Stephen and John/Msimangu), another argument could be that the sons are foils of the fathers. Absalom Kumalo is a foil to Stephen Kumalo, and...

Chapter 13 when Kumalo accompanies his friend, Msimangu, to Ezenzeleni, the colony for the blind where whites work and help blacks who are blind or are going blind, is a turning point for Kumalo in...

In this novel it is very clear from the start that "all roads lead to Johannesburg." Unfortunately, it is not a very easy road to travel and the final destination ends up being a misfortune to...

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter Eight of this excellent novel. Msimangu and Kumalo have been just been persuaded to observe the boycott of transport, in spite of the distance...

The mountain called Emoyeni is a place of inspiration for Kumalo. He goes to the mountain in times of great crisis in his life. Three times he has gone to Emoyeni - once when his son Absalom was...

The major difference between James and Arthur at the beginning of the story lies in how they view the native population. James was a very liberal man who felt very strongly that the underlying...

Paton is using the laughter of Gertrude and Absalom's girlfriend to symbolize the kind of lifestyle of which these two women had been a part. It represents their loose morals and lifestyle. When...

This topic touches on the very title of the novel, "Cry, the Beloved Country." The cry from the title and the opening chapter illustrate the beauty of the country and what is being lost by those...

Ndotsheni is a small, remote village, one of many such villages in South Africa where the vast majority of the country's black population lives. Paton describes it as a beautiful village, a place...

Father Vincent gives the gifts of friendship, consolation, and hope to Kumalo. He also secures a good lawyer who will defend Kumalo's son Absalom without pay. Father Vincent is an English priest...

When Gertrude first sees Kumalo, there "is fear in her eyes," and she "draws back a step, and makes no move towards him." Gertrude lives in the squalid town of Claremont, which is "the garbage-heap...

Absalom Kumalo has gone off the rails in a big way. His father, the Reverend Stephen Kumalo, is shocked to discover that he's become a serial criminal, regularly committing robberies with his...

The murder of Arthur Jarvis is an especially tragic blow for the native people of Johannesburg because he was sympathetic to their situation and had been prepared to work actively to improve it. In...

Cry the Beloved Country, written in 1948, is about the changes in South Africa after Black South African tribes were largely broken up and many people moved to the cities. The characters represent...

The contrast between the hills, where Jarvis lives at High Place, and the valley, where Stephen lives in Ndotsheni, is both stark and symbolic. The hills are lush and green, well nourished and...

You have asked a fascinating question, and tracing the development of this key character casts light on some of the main themes of the novel and the author´s hope for South Africa, in spite of all...

Absalom, a black South African, is the son of Reverend Stephen Kumalo. When he moves to the city, he gets entangled in all the vices it has to offer. Refusing to see the value of helping others and...

Dubula is a political organizer who fights for the rights of the black people in South Africa. He discourages Kumalo and Msimangu from taking the bus to Alexandra because there is a boycott of the...

The first inkling the community gets that a dam is going to be built is when sticks appear in the ground, with the chief being given strict instructions that these sticks are not to be touched....

The three natives accused of murder in Cry, the Beloved Country are angry and disillusioned young men, whose lot in life reduce them to the act of violent robbery. Absalom Kumalo is the only one of...

I would argue that Johannesburg actually operates as more of a symbol than a metaphor. Throughout the novel, in the way that both Kumalo and Arthur Jarvis travel to Johannesburg, it seems to...

In Cry, The Beloved Country, Kumalo is grieved when he finds out that it was his son Absalom who was responsible for Arthur Jarvis' death. Absalom tells the court that he was afraid when he fired...

I must admit that there isn't much to add to the first answer in that this is one of the first things that happens to Stephen Kumalo in the book (and we are not very far along in the plot when this...

From his journey to Johannesburg, Stephen Kumalo learns that there are great changes taking place in South Africa, and that they are represented, for better or for worse, in the city of...

Msimangu plans to retire "into a community" where he will be able to live the life of an ascetic. He will "forswear the world and all possessions;" it is "the first time that a black man (has) done...

This is a fascinating question. The part of the story you relate occurs in Chapter 32, when Jarvis inquires of Kumalo if there is mercy for Absalom. However, when I first read this question I...

This is an interesting question to consider, because in some ways the novel seems to offer little hope for social justice compared to the many different examples that we are given of racial...

Kumalo is reunited with his sister, Gertrude, and her son, in Chapter 6 of this novel that is focussed on pre-apartheid South Africa. When he comes to where Gertrude is working, it is clear that...

In the title of Alan Paton's work Cry, the Beloved Country, the land is personified. Paton urges the reader not to be misled by the "fields and hedges" or the beauty of the land. Instead, Paton...

The character of Jarvis is shown before Chapter 24 to be a character who is typically white and South African in terms of his prejudices against black South Africans and his view of what is wrong...

Above all else, Cry the Beloved Country is a book about the hope that is found in reconciliation. Reconciliation begins between men and then extends to reconciling with the land so that all people...

This is an excellent question. Of course, when we refer to tone, we think about the attitude of the author towards his subject matter. What is distinctive about this novel is the simplicity of its...

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a novel that explores the issues of family and faith in the midst of the racially-tense backdrop of South Africa. Throughout the novel, Paton gives several...

Absalom, a cousin, and a friend were attempting to rob Arthur Jarvis, and unfortunately, Absalom was carrying a gun for protection. When Jarvis returned home unexpectedly, Absalom shot and killed...

This is a very interesting question. I would want to focus on the journey of the two central characters, Kumalo and Jarvis, and the way that their parallel journeys to the city of Johannesburg and...

The novel Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton takes place in the era just before official apartheid in South Africa. It tells of Reverend Stephen Kumalo, a black minister in a remote village, who...

Refer to the early portions of the text referring to the color of the hills. (This is wonderful imagery describing the correlation between the death of the land and the death of the tribe. Hint:...

I think the clearest example of a character who experiences an epiphany is in Chapter Thirteen, when Kumalo goes to Ezenzeleni with Msimangu and is given time to think, reflect and take stock of...

During a conversation between brothers Stephen and John Kumalo (in Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country), they discuss the differences between being a nobody in Ndotsheni (their home growing up)...

Msimangu believes that the only hope for South Africa lies in the power of love. He says, "...there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he...

Although she claims that the reason she is trembling is because she is cold, the landlady, Mrs. Mkize, is actually trembling because she is afraid. Mrs. Mkize had housed Absalom Kumalo and his...

The "great duty" of a Judge in South Africa is "to judge and to pronounce sentence, even sentence of death." The Judge does not make the Law; the People make the Law, and if the Law is not fair, it...

Only Alan Paton could really explain his reasons for the rather abrupt break in his narrative represented by Chapter Nine, but the author of Cry, The Beloved Country died in 1988. We can,...

The central moral character in Cry, the Beloved Country, Stephen Kumalo, is one character who undergoes a person journey from ignorance to enlightenment. In the beginning, he is confident that he...