Cry, The Beloved Country Totally Explained

Cry, The Beloved Country is a novel by South African author Alan Paton. It was first published in New York in 1948 by Charles Scribner's Sons and in London by Jonathan Cape. The protagonist is Stephen Kumalo, a black Anglican priest from a rural Natal town, and his search for his son Absalom in the city of Johannesburg. Two motion-picture adaptations of the book have been made, the first in 1951 and the second in 1995.

Plot summary

The novel opens in the village of Ixopo, where the black pastor, Stephen Kumalo, receives a letter from the priest Theophilus Msimangu in Johannesburg. Msimangu urges Kumalo to come to the city to help his sister, Gertrude, because she's "ill". Kumalo goes to Johannesburg to help Gertrude and to find his son, Absalom, who had gone to the city to look for Gertrude but never came home. When he gets to the city, Kumalo learns that Gertrude has taken up a life of prostitution, and is now drinking heavily. She agrees to return to the village with her young son.
   Kumalo embarks on the search for his son, first seeing his brother John, a carpenter who has become involved in the politics of South Africa. Kumalo and Msimangu follow Absalom's trail only to learn that Absalom has been in a reformatory and impregnated a young woman. Shortly thereafter, Kumalo learns that his son has been arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis, a white fighter for racial justice and son of Kumalo's neighbour James Jarvis.
   Jarvis learns of his son's death and comes with his family to Johannesburg. Jarvis and his son had been distant, and now the father begins to know his son through his writings. Through reading his son's essays, Jarvis decides to take up his son's work on behalf of South Africa's blacks.
   Absalom is sentenced to death for the murder of Arthur Jarvis. Before his father returns to Ixopo, Absalom marries the girl he's impregnated, and she joins Kumalo's family. Kumalo returns to his village with his daughter-in-law and nephew, finding that Gertrude ran away on the night before their departure.
   Back in Ixopo, Kumalo makes a futile visit to the tribe's chief in order to discuss changes that must be made to help the barren village. Help arrives, however, when Jarvis becomes involved in the work. He arranges to have a dam built and hires an agricultural demonstrator to implement new farming methods.
   The novel ends on the night of Absalom's execution, which finds Kumalo praying on a mountainside as dawn breaks over the valley. The book ends with a tone of rejuvenation and hope for the country.

Characters in Cry, The Beloved Country

Stephen Kumalo
Theophilus Msimangu
John Kumalo
Absalom Kumalo
Gertrude
James Jarvis
Arthur Jarvis
Mr. Carmichael

Main themes

Cry, the Beloved Country is a social protest against the structures of the society that would later give rise to apartheid. Paton attempts to create an unbiased and objective view of the dichotomies this entails: he depicts the Whites as affected by 'native crime', while the Blacks suffer from social instability and moral issues due to the breakdown of the tribal system. It shows many of the problems with South Africa such as the degrading of the land reserved for the natives, which is sometimes considered to be the main theme, the disintegration of the tribal community, native crime and the flight to the urban areas. The quote below shows another recurring theme, which is how fear affects the characters and society of South Africa.
Paton makes frequent use of literary devices such as microcosms, intercalary chapters, dashes instead of quotation marks for dialogue, and a number of other things to show the state of South Africa. A microcosm is a form of symbolism that uses a small thing to depict something on a larger scale. Intercalary chapters are literally chapters that are 'in between': they've almost nothing to do with the story, but often are microcosms. There are no double quotes in the whole book; instead Paton uses dashes (—) to indicate the start of speech acts. This may not seem like a literary device at first, but soon it becomes evident that they do a lot more than would be expected. Because phrases such as "he said" or "she said" are rare, it's faster to read and, especially in the intercalary chapters, adds a feeling of desperation and rapid progress towards the novel's final catastrophe.

Background

Cry, The Beloved Country was written just before the passage of the legislation that's often historically seen as initialising the official formalisation of the apartheid regime in South Africa, in 1948. It is nonetheless in many respects a direct attack on the intolerant ideas behind apartheid.
   It has long enjoyed critical success around the world, except in South Africa itself, where it was initially banned, due to its politically dangerous material, and has since been criticised in some quarters as having an "Uncle Tom" bias. The book sold over 15 million copies around the world before Paton's death.
   The book is studied currently by many schools around the world.
   The style of writing often crosses the line between prose and poetry — and is often compared to the King James Bible. Paton was in fact a devout Anglican Christian — and the hero of the novel is an Anglican priest. The dignity and simplicity of the prose may also be connected with a conscious or unconscious process of composing passages in Zulu and mentally translating them into English.

Allusions/references to other works

There are many biblical references throughout the novel. The most evident is found from the names Paton gives to the characters. Absalom, the son of Stephen Kumalo, shares his name with the son of King David, who rose up against his father in rebellion. Also, in the New Testament Book of Acts, Saint Stephen was a martyr who died rather than give up his beliefs. Another biblical allusion is seen when Absalom requests that his son's name be Peter. In the Bible, Peter refused to listen to God. After all those denials, he later on repented for all the sins he's committed. Like in the book, Absalom "murdered" Jarvis' son and later on repented under a tree for the "murder" he's committed. Arthur Jarvis is described as having a large collection of books on Abraham Lincoln, and the writings of Lincoln figure heavily in the novel.

Film, television and theatrical adaptations

In 1949 a musical adaptation called Lost in the Stars, with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, was based on the novel.
In 1951, the novel was adapted into a motion picture, directed by Zoltan Korda. Paton himself wrote the screenplay. Kumalo was played by Canada Lee, Jarvis by Charles Carson, and Msimangu by Sidney Poitier. Another film version was released in 1995, directed by Darrell Roodt. James Earl Jones played the Reverend Kumalo and Richard Harris filled the role of Jarvis.
A stage version, by South African playwright Roy Sargeant, was developed in early 2003, and was first staged at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape on 27 June 2003 and at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on 8 July 2003. The director was Heinrich Reisenhofer. The script, together with notes and activities for school use, was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press Southern Africa.

Braai, the Beloved Country

In recent years the humorous term Braai, the Beloved Country has come into use among South Africans, as a reference to the central role that the braai (or barbecue) plays in South African culture. This lighthearted pun is a reflection of South African humour, that to the rest of the world it's characterised by bitterness and is self-deprecating and sometimes irreverent (and quite politically incorrect), but in South Africa, people of all races accept and enjoy such lighthearted humour.

Release details

1948, USA, Charles Scribner's Sons ?, Pub date ? December 1948, hardback

1949, UK, Jonathan Cape ISBN 0-224-60578-X, Pub date ? ? 1949, hardback

1970, UK Penguin Modern Classics ISBN 0-14-001274-5, Pub date 28 May 1970, paperback

2000, UK Penguin Modern Classics ISBN 0-14-118312-8, Pub date 27 April 2000, paperback

2003, USA, Charles Scribner's Sons ISBN 0-7432-6217-4, Charles Scribner's Sons, Pub date ? November 2003, paperback

Footnotes

External results

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