Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country provides readers with obvious similarities and differences between the two characters of Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. Both men live in South Africa. By the...

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...

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...

Stephen and John are brothers, so they share a common upbringing in addition to both being black men living during apartheid in South Africa. Beyond that, they are quite different people. John is a...

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...

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...

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...

An important aspect of the way that the rural/urban divide is presented in this amazing novel is the way that both settings are linked to the overwhelming theme of inequality and the vicious cycle...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The quotation in this question comes from Chapter 11, which indicates a shift in the novel as the narrator urges the reader not to focus on the lovely African landscape and beautiful nature that it...

Dawn is often a symbol for a new beginning. The dawn at the end of the book symbolizes the reconciliation between the two fathers, one white and one black. They are the ones who represent a new...

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...

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...

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...

Paton's strategies to characterize many of the main characters in this book do not differ from standard author strategies. Paton uses a combination of direct and indirect characterization to build...

This is a very interesting question, because before Kumalo finds out for certain that his son killed Jarvis, he definitely has a foreboding that it was his son. Consider Chapter 13, which follows a...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I think that Paton constructs his settings in a very complex manner. Certainly, Johannesburg is shown to be an urban setting where there is much in way of moral depravity. It is a setting that is...

Msimangu's sermon lifts Kumalo's spirits and he is at peace once again. Kumalo has come to Johannesburg, where he has found his sister living as a prostitute. He has also learned that his long-lost...

The famous novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton tells the story of a black pastor in South Africa, Reverend Stephen Kumalo, who journeys from a remote village to the city of Johannesburg to...

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...

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...

Chapter Thirteen of this amazing book presents us with Kumalo's feelings as he accompanies Msimangu to Ezenzeleni, where the blind are cared for. As he is left by himself to contemplate a beautiful...

Throughout this novel, the settings seem to mirror the characters and the tribe. The decay of the land parallels the decay of tribal life. The business and chaos of the city parallels the...

Alan Paton was an activist from his early years at university to his founding work as the principal at Johannesburg's Diepkloof Reformatory for African boys. He was moved and concerned about what...

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...

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...

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...

One of the most important quotations from this excellent novel comes from the final words written by Arthur Jarvis and which are read by his father in Chapter 21. In this document, Arthur Jarvis...

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...

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...

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 is uncomfortable at his first reunion with his father. He stands before Kumalo "unhappy, there is no gladness in his eyes. He twists his head from side to side, as though the loose...

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...

The irony of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is that its most famous passage, the part where he relates his "dream," was actually extemporaneous. However, it is the most relevant...

Chapter 9 of Cry, the Beloved Country is mainly concerned with the construction of a squatter settlement called Shanty Town in the Orlando neighborhood outside Johannesburg. Because of a severe...

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)...

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...

At the beginning of Chapter 13, Kumalo fears that what he has heard is true, that his son Absalom might indeed have killed a man. He knows without question that his son has "gone astray in the...

It looks like you need to trace Stephen Kumalo's movements in the novel. I'll provide brief notes about this. Please refer to the novel for further textual evidence regarding Stephen's movements....