Cry, the Beloved Country 865has spent time in a reform school and has recently
disappeared. During his disappearance, it is revealed
that Absalom, John Kumalo Jr., and another friend
were involved in a burglary that ended in the death
of a white man, Arthur Jarvis. Absalom and his
cohorts are in jail, awaiting their sentences. One of
Kumalo’s first acts is to wed Absalom to his girl-
friend. As a result, the girlfriend officially becomes
family and receives Kumalo’s protection and care.
He eventually allows the girl and her future child to
stay at Ndotsheni with him and treats them like his
own children.
Absalom, however, is beyond saving; Despite the
efforts of a skilled lawyer, he is sentenced to death.
The greatest disappointment during the course of
the trial is that Absalom is betrayed by his cousin
and friend, who say that they are blameless in the
crime. John Kumalo hires a separate, high-powered
lawyer to represent his son and incriminate Absa-
lom. John and John Jr.’s betrayal of Absalom counter
all the noble characteristics of family that Kumalo
embodies. While Kumalo is able to undergo suf-
fering and inconvenience for his family members,
John is willing to betray them in order to preserve
his own interests.
Of course, a full treatment of family in the
novel would not be complete without examining
the relationship between Jarvis and his son, Arthur.
Jarvis, the rich white planter, is somewhat of a foil to
Kumalo. Like Kumalo, Jarvis loses a son—ironically,
killed at the hands of Absalom. Also, like Kumalo,
Jarvis is willing to adopt and care for his son’s wife
and child. Both characters are put in a similar posi-
tion in which they must care for the offspring of
their deceased or estranged kin. This parallel situa-
tion eventually allows for friendship and respect to
emerge between the two characters, leading to Jar-
vis’s acts of philanthropy to Kumalo’s village.
The notion of family is a central theme of Cry,
the Beloved Country. Throughout the novel, the
family is threatened by migration to the city, crime,
and self-centered aims. As a character, Kumalo
embodies the traditional familial notions of loyalty,
respect, sacrifice, and love and rejects those newer
notions that threaten the traditional incarnation of
the family. It can even be argued that the erosion of
the family mirrors the breakdown of the traditional
small-village tribal structure to which Kumalo is
accustomed. More than anything, it appears to be
the corruption of the city that challenges the very
existence of the family.
Kevin Fitzgeraldrace in Cry, the Beloved Country
Of all the themes illuminated and treated in Alan
Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, race is unquestion-
ably at the heart of the novel. It is discussed openly
and publicly by activists and political figures like
John Kumalo and Arthur Jarvis, and talked about
privately by almost every character in the novel.
Whether it is the constant turmoil regarding South
Africa’s unstable and inequitable economic system
or the racial contexts and dialogue provoked by the
murder of Arthur Jarvis, almost every occurrence
and action in the book has race at its center.
The novel takes place before the institution of
apartheid formalized and required segregation in
South Africa in 1948. However, in the absence of
state-imposed apartheid, Paton presents an informal
and cultural segregation that divides the country.
In the countryside, Stephen Kumalo’s village is
inhabited almost entirely by black South Africans,
whereas the wealthy whites live in grand houses on
hills, overlooking the impoverished and drought-
ruined town. In the city, the rich white areas are
almost absent, the focus resting on the poor shanty
towns and crime-ridden neighborhoods inhabited
by black residents. Rarely, with a few notable excep-
tions, is there any real, tangible interaction between
white and black South Africans.
Of course, the most apparent and explosive racial
issue is Absalom Kumalo’s murder of Arthur Jarvis.
The crime is not simply referred to as a “murder” or
a killing, but rather the “killing of a white man.” Its
heinousness is not in the act of ending a person’s
life; rather, the real issue is the murder of a white
man by a black man. The problem is further agi-
tated due to the fact that Jarvis is a famous activist
and spokesman for sympathy and reform in racial
policies. Jarvis preached tolerance and social reform,
often sympathizing with the poor black majority
of the population. In his writings, Jarvis targets
imperialism and the imposition of European social
systems as the key factor in the prevalence of native