Cry the Beloved CountryCry the Beloved CountryCry, the Beloved CountryThe book “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton is a book about agitation and turmoil of both whites and blacks over the white segregation policy called apartheid. The book describes how understanding between whites and blacks can end mutual fear and aggresion, and bring reform and hope to a small community of Ndotcheni as well as to South Africa as a whole. The language of the book reflects the Bible; furthermore, several characters and episodes are reminiscent of stories from the New Testament and teachings of Christ. Thus, Alan Paton, as a reformer and the author of “Cry, the Beloved Country”, gives the people of South Africa a new, modern Bible, where he, like Christ, teaches to “love thy brother as yourself” in order to help whites and blacks overcome the fear and misunderstanding of each other.
The language of the book from the very beginning reveals its biblical nature. “The great valley of Umzimkulu is still in darkness, but the light will come there. Ndotcheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also.” The style includes symbols such as light and darkness, short clauses connected by “and” or “but”, and repetition. This style is used to represent speech or thoughts “translated” from Zulu.
Jesus Christ is symbolized by the figure of Arthur Jarvis. He is a white reformer who fights for rights of blacks. Like Christ, he is very altruistic and wants to pursue his aims at all costs. His friend, Harrison, says: “Here [Arthur Jarvis] was, day to day, on a kind of mission.” (173) Arthur Jarvis and his wife Mary “agree that its more important to speak the truth than to make money.” (172) Arthur Jarvis is killed in his house by Absalom, a black youth who gets entangled in crime. Absalom only intends to rob Arthur Jarvis, and the homicide is unintentional. Absalom thinks that Arthur Jarvis is out and comes into the house with two friends. However, when Arthur Jarvis “heard a noise, and came down to investigate” (186). Startled and afraid, Absalom fires blindly. Absalom later says in court: “Then a white man came into the passage… I was frightened. I fired the revolver.” (194) Absaloms blind fear is symbolic of the fear, blindness, and misunderstanding between whites and blacks; these are the reasons of racial hatred. In his room, there are pictures “of Christ crucified and Abraham Lincoln” (176), the two men who fought for human love and compassion and were killed because of their beliefs. Arthur Jarvis can be identified with Jesus Christ. Jesus taught “love thy neighbor as thyself”. Roman priests didnt understand him, but they felt his power and were afraid of him. Even though Christ taught compassion, they claimed he would incite a riot and crucified him. Like Christ, Arthur Jarvis teaches compassion and love between neighbors – whites and blacks, separated by the policy of apartheid.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ leads to redemption, spiritual growth of many people and progress; likewise, the death of Arthur Jarvis brings reform and hope. Ironically, the tragedy brings together Stephen Kumalo, the father of a black murderer and Jarvis, the father of Arthur Jarvis, the white victim.
High Place where Jarvis lives is symbolic of an elevated position of many whites. Before his sons death, Jarvis is on the hilltop, thinking in a distant, uninvolved way about the problems between whites and blacks, seeing just the white point of view.
“Indeed they talked about [the erosion of land] often, for when they visited one another and sat on the long cool verandahs drinking their tea, they must needs look out over the barren valleys and the bare hills that were stretched below them. Some of their labor was drawn from Ndotcheni, and they knew how year by year there was less food grown in these reserves.” (162)
Jarvis is not a bad person but is ignorant about the lives of blacks and the real issues that take place.After the death of his son Jarvis learns to view blacks as real people. Jarvis reads his sons papers and suddenly becomes concerned with the ideas expressed by his son and by Abraham Lincoln. “Jarvis sat, deeply moved [after reading Arthurs last paper.] … [Then Jarvis] read [the Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln], and felt with a sudden lifting of the spirit that here was a secret unfolding, a track picked up again.” (188) Later on, when Kumalo and Jarvis meet, Kumalo stumbles and almost faints because of the shame and guilt he feels. Jarvis doesnt yet know Kumalo is the father of the criminal, and doesnt understand Kumalos anxiety. However, Jarvis doesnt
hose his nephews, even after the events of the other movies. “Kumalo and Jarvis have grown up together on a nice, quiet, kind and peaceful farm in the mountains of North Carolina. Our family, however, lives on a small island about 18 miles off the coast on North Carolina’s Gulf coast. Our children, our grandchildren, are all well and well out of school and on their own now.We never get a chance to watch the movie ‘The Godfather,’ which takes an intimate view of life in this small American village.”„ Jarvis, feeling a sense of insecurity and a strong sense of anger in Lincoln’s hands, feels no need of support from the government: his father would not approve of these children, and so, instead, his father chose to tell his children, “It appears to me that the United States did, in fact, intervene in the situation caused by the Negroes, a very important matter. We believe our first duty is to protect the children.” [#8310; Kamillea’s daughter, “A Boy Who Never Was,” by William Blake (1918)] After her mother dies and her daughter is found, Jarvis begins to care for the children. † (83-84)[Jarvis and Kumalo are reading] Kamillea begins to realize that her mother’s death was not necessarily the one that caused her to go to hell. Instead, this was the thing that made her angry: the death penalty in Missouri. “I felt like the world was spinning around me,” she said, “like a man trying to make sense of what was happening. I found people who would say anything to anyhow would make or break me up. There was no excuse for me. It just got so much harder to find reasons for my feelings. It was like I have to choose between life or death. This was a strange place in which I tried to look to a good ending from which to draw my own conclusions. . . . I was looking for the ultimate answer to my own feelings and my own actions. To be honest I had felt something wrong before. My grandfather was in prison and I felt my life was on the line.” In the end, Jarvis was able to decide that the murder of his son and his wife he had been holding for several months was his fault. But he had no remorse. In addition to these experiences, his feelings about the death penalty had not completely faded out of his head.
Jarvis, whose mother had died, took a trip over to Washington, DC to take part in the National Sign Language and Sign Language Association International (NJLSI), a forum where people who did not speak native English would come together to discuss their voices. When Jarvis was in New Hampshire, he had attended the NJLSI meeting to attend his father’s funeral. In the fall of 1973, however, they split up. Jarvis met his father in Maryland. His father was still a resident of South Carolina