Cry, the Beloved Country

          

          Alan Paton’s great description of the land of South Africa deeply reflects his pride towards South Africa. The first book starts with rolling grass and flowing water; in which Paton abruptly stops and emphasizes death in the land. Alan wants to his readers to see the pain he is feeling for his land. The white men come and push them down this symbolic hill, which as the people cry in agony. In Book II we just see the rolling grass with flowing streams.

          In the beginning of Book I, Paton’s choice of words incorporates good from evil, life from death, light from dark. Paton describes the hills as “Green-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. If there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa. On its journey from Drakensburg to the sea; and beyond great hill.” From the text, there is a sense of paradise and everlasting happiness; but Paton halts this happiness with, “The great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is the left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. They are valleys of old men and old women.” (13) Paton’s use of the color red symbolizes death in the land. The blacks of South Africa are the ones in the desolate red hills. Paton shows that they are not wealthy where they are under the white man; as the German philosopher Karl Marx said” The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

          Book II is similar with the “grass- covered and rolling” but doesn’t go into the dead streams and earth torn land. Paton doesn’t go into those details to demonstrate the white man’s view. The white men that are foreign to the country, see the land that is the blacks, and take it. They sit on top of it not seeing the bottom or just not choosing to. Paton poured his heart into those paragraphs, to put emphasis on that he lost something that was his. Paton cherished his land, he cherished his wealth, he cherished in life knowing that he would be well; but it was taken from him.

          “We know that we do not get enough, kumalo says. We ask only for those things that laboring men fight for in every country in the world; the right to sell our labour for what it is worth, the right to bring up our families as decent men should.”(218) Even though Paton uses john kumalo as the voice, Patons indulges himself into the voice of john with compassion. Paton uses the words like “laboring men” and “fight” to show his benevolence for the freedom of all of Africa, not just South Africa.

          Alan Paton’s pride for South Africa is shown throughout the book in several passages. Paton shows us his feelings toward the white man. As the country of South Africa once said “Cry, the beloved country”