Cry The Beloved Country Essay

Mario Balotelli, black Italian professional soccer player, accurately claims that, “Racism springs from ignorance.” Ignorance, lack of understanding, or lack of desire to understand others is the nature of racism. Alan Paton, author of Cry, the Beloved Country, shows this root of racism throughout the book. He also uses rhetorical devices, such as juxtaposition, imagery, and irony, to elicit sympathy for racism’s victims. Paton opens the story with juxtaposition. In chapter one he describes the white man’s land as having “grass [that] is rich and matted”(33). The grass “holds in the rain and the mist” (33). However the natives land in the valley “grow red and bare; [the hills] can not hold the rain and the mist”(33). Even though the black natives were in charge of these lands before the white europeans, the blacks are still now the lower race in the eye of society. Paton’s use of juxtaposition in chapter one shows that the white man took all the best lands and left the struggling lands for the tribes. This leaves the reader feeling bad for the tribes as their prime soil was

Which is shown by John Jarvis’ grandson and Kumalo’s conversation:

--You will soon talk Zulu, he said

--Zulu is easy. What’s the time, umfundisi?

--Twelve o’clock, inkosana.

-- Jeepers creepers, it’s time I was off. Thank you for the water, umfundisi.

The small boy went to his horse. Help me up, he cried. Kumalo helped him up, and the small boy said, I’ll come to see you again, umfundisi. I’ll talk more Zulu to you.(270)

The young child being accepting to Zulu culture shows progress and hope. Racism can be crippling yet the good of heart of the young and the masses can beat it out. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader, said, “darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do