The Theme Of Reuniting Nation In ÐŽoCry, The Beloved CountryÐŽ±

When the western powers moved forward to South Africa, they cast a forceful impact on South AfricaЎЇs tribal system, and caused the tribal system to disintegrate. The tribal system relied on the family as the basic unit for survival. The mass exodus of young people left their agricultural communities and immigrating to Johannesburg to seek low paid jobs, likes miners, etc. These people pulled their family apart, forgot their customs and never came back to their home. When families were broken, the tribal system broke as well. In 1948, the Nationalist Party won the election and created the system of strict racial segregation known as apartheid. Under this oppression, many natives resorted to a life of crime in order to try and improve their social position. Some white people thought apartheid was not a long-term solution for nativesЎЇ problem. So, they stood out and helped the black people to solve their problems. In the novel, ÐŽoCry, The Beloved Country,ÐŽ± Alan Paton showed the way those white and black people struggled for justice, and their dreams of reuniting families and their nation by comparing the stories of Kumalo and Jarvis. Kumalo was a poor black priest whose sorrows and family tragedies symbolized the suffering natives in South Africa, and Jarvis was a conservative rich landowner who symbolized those rich white people that had sympathy to the blacks and hoped to improve things in South Africa. Paton portrayed a picture of human relationships that showed how pain, suffering and love can bring people together to improve the nativesЎЇ lives, to regain their social equality and to reunite their broken families and their nation.

First of all, Kumalo and Jarvis both suffered the loss of their sons. Kumalo went all the way from Ixopo to Johannesburg to look for his separated relatives in order to bring them back to recreate the tribal system. When Kumalo finally saw his son, Absalom, in prison, he found out his son was guilty of murdering a renowned white man. The person his son murdered, Arthur Jarvis, was a devotee to finding a solution to the nativesЎЇ problems. At the end, Absalom was executed because of the crime. This horrible incident shattered KumaloЎЇs dream of reuniting the family. Also, Jarvis went all the way from Ixopo to Johannesburg to join his sonЎЇs funeral. The horrible tragedy tied the two fathers together, forced them to confront the reality and reassessed their social values.

Secondary, Kumalo and Jarvis found strength from this terrible journey and changed their social values. Originally, Kmalo clung to his old ways, and simply tried to bring his family together once more and recreate the tribal system. As he traveled to Johannesburg and witnessed the destruction of the tribal system, he realized it was impossible, for he lost all three members of his family who could not make the transition back to the way things were. Msimangu inspired Kumalo to confront the problems of this society. For example, Msimangu told Kumalo that the real problem was not what the white man had done to the natives, but the fact that the natives had not been able to recover. Msimangu believed that the answer lied not in rebuilding the tribe, but in deciding what to do now that the tribe was gone (55-56). Also, MsimanguЎЇs sermon at Ezenzeleni healed KumaloЎЇs broken heart. For instance, he said: ÐŽoÐŽ­And I will bring the blind by a way they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things I will do unto them and not forsake them...ÐŽ± Kumalo understood that Msimangu had spoken to him and let him know that we were not forsaken (123). Kumalo then realized that human beings existed not in isolation but were connected. And that helped him to understand that love and compassion could wipe out pain and suffering. Likewise, Jarvis was inspired by his sonЎЇs work to bring justice to all the people. Before his sonЎЇs death, he had never thought much about the nativesЎЇ problems. For example, in ArthurЎЇs ÐŽoPrivate Essay on the Evolution of a South African,ÐŽ± he said: ÐŽoI am born on a farm, bring up by honorable parents, given all that a child can need or desire. They are upright and kind and law-abiding; they teach me my prayers and take me regularly to church; they have no trouble with servants and my father is never short of labor. From them I learn all that a child should learn of honor and charity and generosity. But of South Africa I learn nothing at all (207).ÐŽ± After studying his sonЎЇs books and writings, Jarvis underwent an ÐŽoeducation of the heartÐŽ±. He found strength in his sonЎЇs work and no longer felt anguished over his sonЎЇs death. For example, when Jarvis left the house by the back door, he turned and walked towards the front door. He was not afraid of the passage and the stain on the floor; he was not going that way any more, that was all (209). It seemed that he was now walking a new path in his life which his son found but couldnЎЇt finish.

Third, Kumalo and Jarvis found hope in the younger generation, and they saw a brighter future. Kumalo returned home with a new family that consisted of his sisterЎЇs son and his sonЎЇs pregnant wife. They were the new hope for the future. Kumalo was going to make sure that they did not follow the path of their parents. He was going to do his best to help solve the problems they faced and not just blamed everything on the whites. For example, Kumalo confronted the chief to do something constructive to solve the drought problem and requested teaching people in school how to care for the land (265-267). Kumalo moved from concern for his family to the larger concern for the progress of South Africa. In the same way, Jarvis poured his heart into helping the natives. One example, at the station Jarvis gave