Cry, the Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country conveys the idea that prejudice causes violence. Throughout the book Dan Witcher shows how the biased laws of the white man caused the black man to resort to stealing and other forms of crime including murder, simply to survive and raise a family. As white men founded more mining sites, the requirements for workers grew, thus, so did the cities. The white men hired up the black men as to keep the wages low. The black men worked hard for the white men in hopes for an increase in pay but to no avail. Eventually, the black men needed more than what the discriminatory white men would give and turned to crime to compensate for the inadequate wages. Crime was an apparent result of this prejudice. The story begins with a child bringing a letter to the Reverend Stephen Kumalo from a "brother in Christ" (Paton 37). Evidently the letter concerned the welfare of Stephen Kumalo's sister, Gertrude Kumalo who had become a prostitute. As the story goes, Gertrude Kumalo's husband went to Johannesburg to earn money for his family by being employed at the mines. He never wrote back and could not be found by his pursuing wife, who left to find her husband. She, herself, became engulfe
Mr. Jarvis didn't always get along with his son. His son believed that all blacks were innocent because the white race had caused blacks to resort to violence. After the death of Arthur, Mr. Jarvis became more stubborn about his views of blacks until he read something his son had been writing. This changed the beliefs of Mr. Jarvis-he now understood what his son Arthur was fighting for this whole time. He began to see the injustice of the white mans laws. After his son's sentence, Stephen Kumalo returned to Ndotsheni and promised to pray for his son on the day of his hanging. Before the sentence day came, there was a strong rain. Because the church in Ndotsheni wasn't prepared for a heavy rain due to a leaking roof, Stephen Kumalo ran to it and did what he could to save it. Mr. Jarvis arrived seeking shelter and encountered Stephen Kumalo. These men had met once before in Johannesburg discovering their common basis of the situation their sons had been caught up in. In the church Stephen consoles Mr. Jarvis, who then offers to give money to help repair the church under the agreement that a stone be places with the name Arthur Jarvis. Through his narration, Alan Paton describes the adversity and turmoil that filled many Africans lives that caused much violence. In this case, a man was murdered because another man was afraid. Alan Paton proved that something bad could yield something good. In the beginning, Mr. Jarvis believed black and white should be isolated however the whole situation turned his beliefs around which illustrated that pea
Some common words found in the essay are:
Stephen Kumalo, Arthur Jarvis, Dan Witcher, Alan Paton, Stephen Msimangu, Ndotsheni Absolom, Gertrude Kumalo's, Stephen John, ARRESTED Paton, Theophilus Msimangu, stephen kumalo, arthur jarvis, cry beloved country, cry beloved, beloved country, stephen john, john son, alan paton, white mans, son absolom, mans laws, white mans laws,
Approximate Word count = 1056
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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