FREE ESSAY ON USE OF TITLE IN CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY

USE OF TITLE IN CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, takes place in1946 near the small rural town of
Ixopo in the smaller village of Ndotsheni. The main character is Stephen Kumalo, a native
priest who sets out on a mission to find his family. He receives a letter from a fellow
priest, Msimangu, telling him his younger sister is ill. Kumalo decides he must go to
Johannesburg to help his sister. He also hopes to find his only son and see if his
brother is well because they too have gone away to Johannesburg. He arrives and with his
new friend, Msimangu, searches for his sister and his son. He finds his sister and
decides to take her and her son with him to Ndotsheni. He then speaks to his brother who
has changed and forgotten his family. His brother helps get them started on their mission
to find his son, Absalom. He eventually finds his son, but finds him in prison. Absalom
murdered the only son of James Jarvis, a white man. A trial is held and Absalom is
sentenced to death. Kumalo returns to his village and has suffered great pain but is
welcomed. Through the tragedy he has made a connection with James Jarvis despite the fact
his son murdered his. Jarvis is understanding and the two begin to rebuild the Ndotsheni
community. 
In Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, one of the major themes is white destruction
of South African's native tribes. In the novel, whites come to South Africa in search of
gold and use natives as their source of labor. They break apart the tribe and offer
nothing to replace the broken homes. The title of the novel supports the pain that the
white man's destruction of the tribe is causing to the beloved country of Africa. 
The title of the novel tells of the pain the natives of South Africa experience. 
They cry on behalf of their country that they are watching go to waste. From the very
beginning of the novel, the reader reads of a beautiful and rich valley. Then Paton goes
on to describe the valley where the main character, Kumalo, lives. It is barren and
"cannot hold the rain." It is a valley of "old men and old women" that is deteriorating
because the young people are not there to help take care of it (33-34). They all leave
and go to the mines and the big cities, for the white man has convinced them this is
where they belong. 
The natives move to the cities to look for opportunities, but are only suppressed by the
white man. The whites keep the natives stupid and do not want them to have more money or
become smarter. They push the natives down for they fear " a better-paid labour will also
read more, think more, ask more, and will not be content to be forever voiceless and
inferior" (110). The whites feel threatened by the possibility of equality with the
natives. Therefore they deny them money, education and power so there will be no chance
of equality.
The natives mostly cry because the whites split their tribes apart and their traditions
are dying. The first time the title appears in the novel it reads: 
Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for
the man who is dead [the natives predominant advocate], for these women and children
bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours
down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of
his heart. (104-105)
The natives are realizing they have lost many of the things that they hold dear. The
white man is breaking their tribes and customs but there is nothing offered to replace
it. There are few links between the white man and the black man and when one of them is
broken, it is a great loss. The man who was killed was a link and a defender of the
natives' rights. He was murdered and this has caused the whites to fear and suppress the
natives further. The natives have fear in their hearts because they see their families
falling apart and fear it will only continue. The natives see the things around them
falling apart and can do little to prevent it from continuing.
The people of South Africa are beginning to realize that not only is the tribe
deteriorating, but also the people in general are beginning to deteriorate. The white man
fears the crimes the natives are committing, but in fact, they are the ones responsible.
When the white man takes away the tribal system, he is taking away the moral system of
the natives. The reason the natives turn to crime is because their "simple system of
order and tradition and convention has been destroyed" by the white man (179). Whites rob
natives of their traditional moral system and replace it with nothing. This leaves the
natives with no foundation for their morals and leads them towards a dishonest life. A
priest in the novel says, "The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that
they are not mended again…It suited the white man to break the tribe, but it has
not suited him to build something in the place of what is broken" (56). The white man
fears the natives will become smart and powerful and overcome the superiority of the
white race. However, because the white man exploits the natives for their personal gain
instead of helping them, not just a tribal system declines, but a "whole people
deteriorates" (179).
The natives turn to crime because their moral system has been destroyed and there is no
where else to turn. Therefore, the whites simply blame the natives for their problems
instead of looking for a solution to help them all.
Another thing the people of South Africa cry for is fear. They cannot enjoy the land when
there is fear living inside all of them. They mostly fear the growing lawlessness of the
country, yet they do not understand how to restore the law. Not all the white men are
ignorant to the problems of the country and one of them says, "We shall always have
native crime to fear until the native people of this country have worthy purposes to
inspire them and worthy goals to work for" (107). However, the white man fears the
industrious native almost as much as he fears the idle one. Because the white man can not
make up his mind, nothing is done and the quality of life of the native is what is
suffering. The native families are split up so they can work in the mines for the white
man and their purposes in life are clouded. They have no worthy purposes because the
white man will not allow them any.
The natives of South Africa are crying for their beloved country. They see it is in
trouble and they cry out to help it. They continue working and praying for the dawn of a
new Africa. They hope for a dawn of "emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the
bondage of fear" (312).
This novel should be included in a list of works of high literary merit because of the
impact it had on its readers. Paton wrote this book for enjoyment but also to prove a
point. Through his novel, he told the story of South African natives that were in need of
help. He has moving characters that give the reader a sense of compassion toward the
natives. The events that unfold were important during the time that the novel was
written, but will always apply to issues that unfold in our world today.
Bibliography
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country