Cry the Beloved

"The most famous and important novel in South Africa's History," reads the back of Paton's book. Cry, the Beloved Country is a powerful novel in the literary canon and the political sector. The book is not only one of artistic merit and beauty, but also one that carries deep messages about the past and for the future. It follows the heartache of two men who live in the same nation but different worlds. Their stories reflect the pain, turmoil and disconnection of the nation in the time just before apartheid. As one of Paton's masterpiece, this narrative reads like a novel but with a powerful yet subtle undercurrent of deeper meaning that is echoed in the motif of Abraham Lincoln and politics and in the significance of land.
The novel's story exists on many levels, all of which are linked by the themes of the opening chapter. Switching between perspectives throughout, the book opens up the world of South Africa though Paton's vision. The book speaks with lyrical language from the very start enrapturing the reader with a descriptive scene of the Ixopo. The beginning frames the story with a poetic discussion of love of land, references to the creator, sorrow over the destruction of land, and devastation. These themes become a carrying current throughout the book which links the two sections.

The first section follows the painful story of an elderly Zulu man following his familial struggles into the tense, petulant heart of South Africa. Kumalo is a reverend living in Ixopo in South Africa. Ixopo is all he knows and has seen, but he chooses to set out on a journey to face their family's "greatest fear." That fear is worry over the fate of their son Absalom who went to Johannesburg and, "when people go to Johannesburg, they do not come back" (Paton 38). Through his journey, the racism, devastation and poverty of many natives in South Africa at the time are depicted. From the very beginning, Kumalo is tricked and mugged. Fortunately, he makes a friend in Mr. Mafolo,