Cry, the Beloved Country

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
—Nelson Mandela

Beginning Paragraph Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton unflinchingly portrays the deep societal divisions in 1948 South Africa, divisions that would lead to apartheid. One key figure, Absalom, comes to represent the disintegration of tribal structure and the urban plight of black South Africans. His rootless existence in the city away from his tribe leads to impregnating a young woman and being involved in a botched robbery that results in the death of the victim. Absalom confesses to these transgressions, and he bears the penalty for them. But his dilemma rises from larger-scale societal ills that are eroding traditional life for black South Africans while denying them upward mobility in white South African culture. Thesis Statement Absalom is simultaneously murderer and murdered, the criminal and the victim, and his story portrays the complex predicament of all South Africans leading up to apartheid.

Topic Sentence Absalom is a study in contradictions. He begins his life lost and fearful but ends it in resolution and love. Transition On the one hand, the Hebrew name Absalom means “Father of Peace,” but on the other hand, Absalom in the Bible is King David’s beloved son who mounts a civil war against him and is slain for his actions. In Cry, the Beloved Country, Absalom is a murderer but also a man who believes in love: Source Quotation “There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. For when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power” (71). During his dissolute days, Absalom impregnates a young woman. Later, even as he faces execution for his crimes, he marries her, making his son legitimate. In the face of death, he embraces love and thereby passes on a son. Though Absalom cannot escape his doom, his son can, a symbol of hope. As Absalom’s father, Stephen, waits in agony on the night of his execution, dread mixes with hope: “But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret” (312). Stephen has lost his own son but has gained a “bright little boy” in Absalom’s son. Though Absalom and his father suffer terrible loss, the next generation provides hope for the future.

Middle Paragraphs Absalom’s victim, Arthur Jarvis, is also a study in contradictions. He is a white man slain by a black man, and yet he has spent his life advocating for freedom and justice for black South Africans. Arthur’s father, James, is devastated by the loss of his son and travels to Johannesburg to seek justice. In the end, Theme his quest leads to forgiveness and reconciliation. In fact, James studies his son’s writings and comes to the realization that white South Africans have created the untenable situation that has forced their countrymen into desperate acts such as the robbery attempt. Arthur Jarvis is the victim but also the advocate for his killer. James is the bereaved father who befriends the father of his son’s killer. These contradictions embody the interconnected web of guilt and hope for all South Africans.

Paton uses the valley home of Stephen’s tribe as a powerful symbol of the plight of black South Africans. At the beginning of the book, the valley is shrouded in darkness: “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” (34). In 1948, Paton could not have known how deep that darkness would become with the institution of apartheid. Historical Context He could not have known that a man much like Absalom—Nelson Mandela—would be sentenced to life in prison, serve 27 years, and emerge to seek reconciliation rather than retribution. Near the end of the book, Absalom’s father keeps vigil on the mountains above their village. As the sun rises the next morning, the village still lies in deep shadow: “Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing” (312). A shadow dwells over traditional culture in South Africa, but the sunrise will come. This quotation prefigures the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Cry, the Beloved Country shows how Paton not only understood his own times but also anticipated the darkness, sacrifice, and hope coming to South Africa.

As with King and Mandela, the sacrifice of Absalom helps to redeem his nation. The crucifix symbolizes this sacrifice. His father, a priest, reflects on this sacrifice: “Why was it given to one man to have his pain transmuted into gladness? Why was it given to one man to have such an awareness of God? And might not another, having no such awareness, live with pain that never ended” (309). By facing his wrongs and enduring the punishment that they brought, the rebel son Absalom has brought love and compassion into his father’s life. Absalom’s son, Stephen’s grandson, will continue this hope for the future.

Absalom’s attitude toward his coming death evolves dramatically over the course of the novel. At first, he is hysterical: “The boy reared up on his haunches. He hid nothing, his face was distorted by his cries. Au! Au! I am afraid of the hanging, he sobbed, I am afraid of the hanging” (241). But toward the end of the book, Absalom faces his end with resolve: “I am hoping you are all in health even as I am. They told me this morning there will be no mercy for the thing that I have done. So I shall not see you or Ndotsheni again. This is a good place. I am locked in, and no one may come and talk to me” (274). Absalom’s family gives him strength, but so does the kindness of strangers, whether the lawyer working pro bono or Arthur writing about equality of races or James restoring the land. These acts in the end bring Absalom peace: “Then he turned to thanksgiving, and remembered, with profound awareness, that he had great cause for thanksgiving, and that for many things. He took them one by one, giving thanks for each, and praying for each person he remembered” (309). As Msimángu states, the problems of South Africa will be solved only by whites and blacks coming together. Absalom creates this unity between Stephen and James. They represent the hope of healing for South Africa.

Ending Paragraph Cry, the Beloved Country captures a moment in time before apartheid descended like an iron curtain on South Africa. It also has lessons to teach the United States about its own struggle for Civil Rights. The moral reconciliation of Absalom may be dismissed as wishful thinking from Alan Paton in a country that was doomed to apartheid, but it does demonstrate the cycle of wrong, sacrifice, and redemption that society must endure to arise.