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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Cry, the Beloved Country was published just months before South Africa’s National Party instituted apartheid. Its engagement with the historical context surrounding apartheid marks it as a work of political fiction. The political urgencies that influenced apartheid run throughout Paton’s work, which navigates the landscape of South African racial oppression throughout a Black parson’s search for his relatives. Stephen Kumalo’s journey to Johannesburg makes him witness to—and a victim of—the nation’s colonial past and dark institutions. As the protagonist crosses paths with stark inequality and experiences personal tragedies of his own, the novel peels back racial injustice in its layers of grief, hope, and shame.
As a vocal anti-apartheid activist, Paton portrays the struggle of South Africa’s natives in the face of deep prejudice and equally entrenched exploitation. Cry, the Beloved Country takes its reader through parched countryside to gold mines and Shanty Towns, panoramically cataloguing the many forms in which power and oppression can take. The country’s post-colonial realities come to the fore as Stephen suffers degrading hardship and watches the lives of his loved ones trace devastating arcs. The novel—through politicians, church parishioners, and marginalized members—examines the many sides to South Africa’s deep-rooted problems.
For its merits, Cry, the Beloved Country isn’t without its own potential controversies. Alan Paton—a white man—inserts himself into the shoes of a Black protagonist, prompting just as many questions about voice and narrative ownership. At points, it is vulnerable to simplistic portraits of Black characters and a romanticized view of interracial relations. Stephen’s village, for instance, benefits only from Jarvis’s generosity, and resists assertions of Black autonomy. Despite its plea for humanity and powerful appeals to empathy, the novel’s guiding vision falls slightly short. Paton’s work strikes a stance as complicated as its subject matter.
