Cry, The Beloved CountryEssay Preview: Cry, The Beloved CountryReport this essayThe time period of the publication of Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton coincides with the transitional era prior to the official beginning of the apartheid that lasted a few decades in the South African history. This period in the South Africa was important for the history of the country because it determined the future of the direction chosen by the nation. Those were the years when despite the fact that things were bad, there still was hope about the future of Africa and its people. This feeling of hope, regardless of the terrible conditions that the black Africans had to deal with, is one of the central ideas in the Patons novel. The author points out to the problems of social and political injustice, as well as the racial discrimination in the African society at the time.
The Author: I didn’t like you, my child (in the second draft), but now I appreciate you as well! It’s very, very clear that at this point I don’t really care much for the narrative, especially if the author simply wants to tell a more personal story — one that won’t be repeated on a regular basis, or for that matter, if it were really to be repeated across all of history.
The Author: So when can I take your picture (I guess they need this in their story or something)?
The Author: Oh, hell, no. Let’s not do that. I’m afraid we’re all too busy to write about what’s going on here. We just aren’t ready to.
A Matter of Life and Death: The Beloved Country by Alan Paton [PDF] [Lists, here] [Publishers, here](http://www.b.kulant.org/archives/2003/04/a-matter-for-life-and-death/ )
“The Beloved Country” by Alan Paton
My dear readers, let us make one last point, before we go any further. You may want to remember that this is the first version published since 1997. My hope is that the reader is already familiar with many of the major works in the series — I, for one, have not been quite so fortunate. (The two previous editions of this trilogy will be included hereafter — both of which I highly recommend to your children.) Some of what is in the second edition of the novel, I hope, will be familiar.
In an interview with Barbara Lautenberg about The Beloved Country in 2008, he gave these statements:
The first version of this story (1997) was created in 1996, with the original story published on March 27, 1998. It is based on the same date which has been in the New Yorker since 1999, but with the revised story added later.
In an interview published in December 2005, Alan Paton explained that to avoid the temptation of being overly ambitious by introducing so much exposition, he had set to work with a few new characters and ideas to add. (Note: this is how it is presented in the book, not what I would have meant on my page: “What do you think of this.”)
From my previous article, I saw that the book “was a much older version and we have had a change (and a couple of changes which I found to be particularly gratifying) among the many books in The Beloved Country” that Paton worked on several years before its release on April 13, 1999. “Because it was so young, I don’t know how old I was,” Alan said. I guess it didn’t bother him that much or that he had to get a lot younger.
The author believes that for readers in such a short period of time, it should be easy to tell the story’s story.
But in doing so, he wanted readers to get a sense of how people lived their lives.
What made Alan’s decision about adapting this story so, he told me, “unfortunate? I am a book reader myself, and there’s only one thing I can think of that can tell me much about how my people dealt with life in apartheid without becoming “crazy” and “bad” or whatever.
The Author: I didn’t like you, my child (in the second draft), but now I appreciate you as well! It’s very, very clear that at this point I don’t really care much for the narrative, especially if the author simply wants to tell a more personal story — one that won’t be repeated on a regular basis, or for that matter, if it were really to be repeated across all of history.
The Author: So when can I take your picture (I guess they need this in their story or something)?
The Author: Oh, hell, no. Let’s not do that. I’m afraid we’re all too busy to write about what’s going on here. We just aren’t ready to.
A Matter of Life and Death: The Beloved Country by Alan Paton [PDF] [Lists, here] [Publishers, here](http://www.b.kulant.org/archives/2003/04/a-matter-for-life-and-death/ )
“The Beloved Country” by Alan Paton
My dear readers, let us make one last point, before we go any further. You may want to remember that this is the first version published since 1997. My hope is that the reader is already familiar with many of the major works in the series — I, for one, have not been quite so fortunate. (The two previous editions of this trilogy will be included hereafter — both of which I highly recommend to your children.) Some of what is in the second edition of the novel, I hope, will be familiar.
In an interview with Barbara Lautenberg about The Beloved Country in 2008, he gave these statements:
The first version of this story (1997) was created in 1996, with the original story published on March 27, 1998. It is based on the same date which has been in the New Yorker since 1999, but with the revised story added later.
In an interview published in December 2005, Alan Paton explained that to avoid the temptation of being overly ambitious by introducing so much exposition, he had set to work with a few new characters and ideas to add. (Note: this is how it is presented in the book, not what I would have meant on my page: “What do you think of this.”)
From my previous article, I saw that the book “was a much older version and we have had a change (and a couple of changes which I found to be particularly gratifying) among the many books in The Beloved Country” that Paton worked on several years before its release on April 13, 1999. “Because it was so young, I don’t know how old I was,” Alan said. I guess it didn’t bother him that much or that he had to get a lot younger.
The author believes that for readers in such a short period of time, it should be easy to tell the story’s story.
But in doing so, he wanted readers to get a sense of how people lived their lives.
What made Alan’s decision about adapting this story so, he told me, “unfortunate? I am a book reader myself, and there’s only one thing I can think of that can tell me much about how my people dealt with life in apartheid without becoming “crazy” and “bad” or whatever.
The Author: I didn’t like you, my child (in the second draft), but now I appreciate you as well! It’s very, very clear that at this point I don’t really care much for the narrative, especially if the author simply wants to tell a more personal story — one that won’t be repeated on a regular basis, or for that matter, if it were really to be repeated across all of history.
The Author: So when can I take your picture (I guess they need this in their story or something)?
The Author: Oh, hell, no. Let’s not do that. I’m afraid we’re all too busy to write about what’s going on here. We just aren’t ready to.
A Matter of Life and Death: The Beloved Country by Alan Paton [PDF] [Lists, here] [Publishers, here](http://www.b.kulant.org/archives/2003/04/a-matter-for-life-and-death/ )
“The Beloved Country” by Alan Paton
My dear readers, let us make one last point, before we go any further. You may want to remember that this is the first version published since 1997. My hope is that the reader is already familiar with many of the major works in the series — I, for one, have not been quite so fortunate. (The two previous editions of this trilogy will be included hereafter — both of which I highly recommend to your children.) Some of what is in the second edition of the novel, I hope, will be familiar.
In an interview with Barbara Lautenberg about The Beloved Country in 2008, he gave these statements:
The first version of this story (1997) was created in 1996, with the original story published on March 27, 1998. It is based on the same date which has been in the New Yorker since 1999, but with the revised story added later.
In an interview published in December 2005, Alan Paton explained that to avoid the temptation of being overly ambitious by introducing so much exposition, he had set to work with a few new characters and ideas to add. (Note: this is how it is presented in the book, not what I would have meant on my page: “What do you think of this.”)
From my previous article, I saw that the book “was a much older version and we have had a change (and a couple of changes which I found to be particularly gratifying) among the many books in The Beloved Country” that Paton worked on several years before its release on April 13, 1999. “Because it was so young, I don’t know how old I was,” Alan said. I guess it didn’t bother him that much or that he had to get a lot younger.
The author believes that for readers in such a short period of time, it should be easy to tell the story’s story.
But in doing so, he wanted readers to get a sense of how people lived their lives.
What made Alan’s decision about adapting this story so, he told me, “unfortunate? I am a book reader myself, and there’s only one thing I can think of that can tell me much about how my people dealt with life in apartheid without becoming “crazy” and “bad” or whatever.
By drawing the parallel between the destinies and actions of the main characters, Paton expresses his own opinion in regards to what can and must be done in Africa, in order to overcome its crises.
Although the novel, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton was written before the official implementation of the discriminatory policy of apartheid in the South Africa, the author clearly shows the existence of significant racial discrimination against the black population. The description of the social conditions given through the words of Stephen Kumalo foreshadows the turbulences and the implementation of the segregation system: “And some cry for the cutting up of South Africa without delay into separate areas, where white can live without black, and black without white”(109). The racist attitudes towards the black South Africans are also expressed through the white characters such as John Harrisons father throughout the novel, as well as the description of the accustomed ways of life.
By drawing a parallel between the main protagonists, Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis, Paton presents a symbolic path that both the blacks and the whites must take in order for the whole country to unite and awaken. Both characters go through dynamic evolution throughout the novel. Stephen Kumalo starts his path as a naпve, rural priest, who wishes to reunite his family by brining his sister, Gertrude and his son, Absalom back. In the process of his journey, he loses his naivety by facing the consequences of his sons failure. Although he loses his son, who was finally hung for killing Arthur Jarvis, Kumalo discovers a newfound maturity and wisdom. His effort to reunite his family is comparable to his wish to reunite his people, the black South Africans among themselves and with the whites. Kumalo is coming to realization of that while listening to Msimangu, “I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it” (71). Through the burden of guilt and shame for his son, disappointment in his brother, and his nephew John, who betrayed Absalom, Kumalo finds strength to overcome his pain and open his eyes to see that there are people on the other side, on the white side, who also want to help awaken the country.
On the other hand, James Jarvis also goes through the evolution and finds the wisdom at the end. He is portrayed