Cry, The Beloved Country Journal 6

The Kumalo family parallels the valley that they are native to because both the family and the land are in a position of depravity.  The Kumalo family has lost three of it's members to the beast of Johannesburg.  Although Stephan was able to bring back a new daughter and a newborn boy, his sister has disappeared back into the gloom and his son faces the gallows.  His brother is also lost, but in a more figurative way.  Disposing of family traditions, Stephan's brother has traded his families values in favor of a political position of power.   Ndotsheni has also lost some of it's glory.  Just like the Kumalo family, the valley is breaking down and becoming weary.  The land "is not kept, or guarded, or cared for," (34) just like the family it bears.  Both the land in Ndotsheni and the Kumalo family are fused in representing the same lower class of South African society.  One symbol to represent the oppressed and dying culture of native South Africa.

Ashoka Fellows Journal

Bernard Amadei leads an organization called Engineers Without Borders (EWB) that helps people around the world get training in  engineering so they can deal with problems that require the expertise of a trained and practiced engineer.

Carlo Petrini runs an organization called Slow Food that allows producers of crops around the globe connect with each other and influence how and where their food is produced.

Martina Justova is helping provide outside educators to better prepare prisoners in Slovakia for life in the outside world.  She also works to reduce the corruption in the current Slovakian system of dealing with prisoners.

Cry, The Beloved Country Journal 5

In his novel Cry, The Beloved Country Alan Paton uses several characters that go unnamed throughout the book.  This has an effect on both how the reader responds to those characters, and the overarching theme of the novel.  The characters that go unnamed mostly include native women and children, and white people that actively try to assist the native population.  I think Paton does this to both make the reader feel distant from these characters, and to emphasize the growing prejudice against natives in South Africa as a whole.  Not naming these characters isolates them from the rest of the population; therefore, it distances them from the reader.  Lacking names makes these characters feel unimportant and insignificant.  It makes them feel awkward and out of place as well.  This segregation of people that are oriented with the native populace connects directly to the poor treatment of natives in the entirety of South Africa.  Nameless characters is an effective method of punctuating the increasing prejudice against natives.  In addition, it foreshadows that more oppression is to come.

Cry, The Beloved Country Journal 4

I think that Alan Patton uses two books to show the different perspectives that were present in South Africa at the time of the novel.  The first book is from the point of view of a black priest that has lost a son to the crime underworld of Johannesburg.  The second book is from the perspective of a white man who has also lost a son to crime, if in a different way.  Having these stories separated helps the reader compare the different views that are apparent in the story.  It also emphasises how the degrading of native society has affected both the white and black citizens that live in Johannesburg.

Opression Articles

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/05/wudunn.women.oppression/index.html

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/04/mayor-arsonist-torch-mosque-west-bank-village/

Cry, The Beloved Country Journal 3

A line that repeats in Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country is the dialogue in the ninth chapter saying "Have you a room for me to let?  No I have no room to let" (85).  I believe that the author repeats these lines because it emphasises the determination and desperation of the people living in overcrowded Johannesburg.  It makes the reader feel empathetic towards the people living there. 

He also repeats the concept that all roads lead to Johannesburg.  This shows both that European Johannesburg has become a major hub in South Africa and that everybody is going to Johannesburg.  The city has become a melting pot of different people and this repetition highlights the idea that Johannesburg is the center of South African life.

One other thing that Paton notes multiple times is the image of the white man as both a force for good and ill in the eyes of the black majority.  It is said by Stephen's brother that the white man is oppressive and needs to be stood up against.  Yet there are white people who attempt to assist the ailing black population and this is confusing to some of the black members of society.  This conflict is emphasised as Paton repeats this image of the white man in Johannesburg.