Cry The Beloved Country Book Review Essay

Cry The Beloved Country: Book Review Essay, Research Paper

Cry The Beloved Country: Book Review

Lee Brown

Tina Winings

Acc. Lit. & A ; Comp.

Sept. 25, 1997

& # 8220 ; Cry, the darling state, for the unborn kid that is the heir of it all.

Let him non love the Earth to deeply. Let him non be excessively moved when the birds of

his land are singing, nor give to much of his bosom to a mountain or a vale.

For fright will rob him of all if he lives excessively much. Yes call, call, the dear

state & # 8221 ; & # 8220 ; Cry The Beloved Country & # 8221 ; by Alan Paton. & # 8220 ; Cry The Beloved Country & # 8221 ; was

a brilliant work of art and my words entirely would make it an unfairness. Its pages

reverberation with the coronach of a beat-up state that has suffered far to much for far

to long.

The book takes you to South Africa, where the land itself is the kernel of a

adult male. It as if the mountains, surging high above the clouds, are the high minutes

in life, and the vales are those low and enduring times. Following, you will take

a journey to a topographic point called Johannesburg. While reading the pages, Begin to

envision Johannesburg being a polluted, really unkind, and rushed metropolis. The

scene is more of a emotional scene than a physical scene. As I stated it

takes topographic point in South Africa, 1946. This is a clip where racial favoritism is

at an all clip high. The black community of this land is seeking to interrupt free

from the white people, but holding small success. ? It is this so called racism

that is indispensable to the scene of the narrative. Without it, the book would non

hold every bit much of an impact as it does.

The narrative begins, as many great narratives have begun, with a lone adult male taking a

long and unsafe journey to a distant land. The adult male is an Anglican Zulu priest,

Rev. Stephen Kumalo, and the journey is to the white-ran Johannesburg in 1946.

Like a weary prophesier taking a scriptural visit to Sodom, Kumalo is seeking out

lost members of his household who have left the townships for the visible radiations of the large

metropolis. He is looking for his sister Gertrude, who has become a cocotte: and

largely, his boy Absalom, who has disappeared into the darkness every bit certainly as the

original Absalom of the Old Testament was lost to King David. Once he arrives,

the nave Kumalo is instantly robbed, and it isnt until he finds the puzzling

but helpful Father Msimangu that he is able to get down his hunt, a hunt that

will alter his life everlastingly

He finds his sister, who is non anticipating his arrivial, so, he tells her that

she and her kid will travel back with him. Next he wanted to happen his boy, but he

had no thought where to get down, so Kumalo had told Msimangu that his brother lives

in Johannesburg. Msimangu instantly knows who he is, for Kumalos brother was a

large clip politician who has no demand for the church. After speaking to his brother

Kumalo learns the location of his boies girlfriend, and goes to run into her. Upon

geting he finds that his boy has gotten this miss pregnant and has left her.

The miss knew where he was supposed to be traveling. Making a small excavation Kumalo

finds his boy has killed a adult male. Ironically, Arthur Jarvis, killed by Absalom,

had dedicated his life to contending apartheid.

Upon happening this Kumalo searches out for James Jarvis, white affluent land-owner,

male parent of Arthur, to apologise and give him money for his boies incorrect making.

Jarvis so co

Maines to a realisation and decides to construct Kumalo a church because

he now understands what Kumalos people were traveling through.

Rev. Stephen Kumalo was a adult male of great moral value. He was really steadfast in his

beliefs, yet really nave when it came to the & # 8220 ; existent world. & # 8221 ; Kumalo could non

imagine why his boy did what he did nor did he desire to demur the fact that it

was entirely his boies mistake for killing a adult male. The same goes for his sister, the

cocotte, ? he thought that she did what she did because she enjoyed it, but in

all actuality she was a cocotte so her boy could hold a better life. Kumalo

was a really emotional adult male, who dealt with his job to the best of his

cognition. At the beginning you can state he is a really caring person for he

allowed a kid to eat at his place when she had nil to eat at hers. Kumalo

was a chief component in the secret plan. The ground he was so of import, through out all

the tests that he faced he ne’er one time buckled and he ne’er one time inquiry why it

was him and non person else.

Mr. James Jarvis was a to-proud land proprietor that suffered non merely for the loss

of his boy, but besides the tardy realisation that his boy spent all of his clip

contending against everything his he stood for. He was a lively adult male, and had no

compassion for the black, until the terminal. Surprisingly he was really much like

Kumalo. They both had strong beliefs, were set in their ways, and neither one

understood their boies. Jarvis was a cardinal component in the secret plan because he was

about precisely similar Kumalo.

Kumalo and Jarvis both changed enormously in this narrative. They both came to a

realisation of the universe around them. It was dry that at the very terminal of the

narrative, when Kumalo went to the mountain to pray for his boy ( who was being

executed that twenty-four hours ) , that Jarvis said that he excessively would believe about Absalom, and

that he would construct a new church for Kumalo. It was like the realisation that

Doug had in & # 8220 ; Dandelion Wine & # 8221 ; but much more complex.

I stated at the beginning that my words entirely would make an unfairness on this book.

I steadfastly believe that because this book was a life experience, that it is to

complex and to profound to set into words. It was a great book, Paton took a

calamity and made it into a lesson on life that every person can associate to. I

like the position he took on it, it was as if you became the character and

you felt the same emotions thathe does. I besides like how he divided the book into

two different books. That event gave the reader a experiencing a segregation which

was what the black people felt in that twenty-four hours and age.

The lone thing that I did non like about the book was some of his diction was a

small confusing and I had to read it several times. Besides he was a complex

author. I thought that sometimes he took the & # 8220 ; round about manner & # 8221 ; of acquiring to his

point.

I think that the subject that Paton was seeking to acquire people to see to forgive

people for something they have no control over. He shows this when Kumalo goes

to Jarvis house to apologise? for what his boy did. Besides, he shows the subject

when Jarvis tells Kumalo that he will construct him a church. When he decides to

construct the church it is his manner of apologising to all the black people for his

incorrect making.

This books power comes non from detonations of natural choler or unexpected secret plan

turns, but from the tragic simpleness of its narrative.