Beginning of Essay
Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, is the timeless novel about South Africa in the 1940’s. As powerful white men use the land for their own benefit, the tribal system of the African natives is broken down and replaced by poverty, homelessness, fear, and vi ....

Middle of Essay
.... afraid.’”(Pg. 46-47) The woman, Mrs. Mkize, is one of the many blacks who are terrified by the whites. She doesn’t want the police to come to her house, and does not know if she can trust Msimangu and Kumalo. This constant apprehension causes people to act in ways that they normally would not. It is this same panic that caused Absolom Kumalo to shoot Arthur Jarvis. Absolom, being a criminal, had reason to fear authority figures; and because Arthur was white, Absolom automatically associated him with supremacy and command. “‘I told them I was frightened when the white man came. So I shot him. I did not mean to kill him.’”(Pg. 98) When s ....