The Breakdown And Rebuilding Of South African Society Within The Novel :: essays research papers

The Breakdown and Rebuilding of South African Society within the overbold Cry, The Beloved Country...what God has not done for South Africa small-arm moldiness do. (25)In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country, written by Alan Paton, close to major conflicts follow the story from beginning to end. Two of these conflicts would be as follows the breakdown of the tribal community and the big businessman fancy and faith pocesses to make broken relationships. Kumalo, as an indivigual, demostrates the power of this hope which mends the broken relationships of his friends and his fallen tribal community. Throughout the novel one aquires the perfect perspective about the hardships the natives went with as a society. Cry is a story about a Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and how he sets out to bring his family back to the community in which he resides. Kumalo, dealing with his family and congregation straying away from the church, does show the power of hope and faith and how it can rebuild br oken relationships throughout the novel.The tribal breakdown starts to show in book 1, with the land that the tribe must use and how the poeple of Ndotsheni have used up the ingrained resourses that used to aim within the community. The whites pushed the tribe out of where the community used to reside. The land was so rich that it was decribed as holy, being even as it came from the creator(3). In the rural areas much of this decay came as a result of the clenched confinned living areas that the blacks were forced to live upon. With such a mass universe of discourse and such a small place to occupy it is only a matter of time before the land is no longer commensurate to be farmed. The decay of the tribe was not only confined to the natural resources of the land but also resulted in a moral and personal decline of the entire population. In result of these conditions, many people left over(p)-hand(a) the tribe to go to Johannesburg where theres a false hope for a new start in purport. A hope that almost vanished when Komalo left. Without his strong moral belief in God the people where left with nothing but a decaying landscape. Even though it may calculate as if all hope is lost for a decent life in the tribal community, it is within this time that the relationships between others are tried and drawn closer through the power of hope and faith.