Cry the Beloved Country
Cry the Beloved Country
When the earth’s humans were endowed with that spark of life, that intelligence that enabled them to plan ahead for the future generations of all of the creatures inhabiting the earth, and indeed even the very earth itself, only a few took up the challenge—they have since the “beginning” been the “People of the Earth”. Cry the Beloved Country is the story of some of those people who found themselves born to Africa. Alan Paton became their spokesperson the minute he wrote these words:
Cry the beloved country, for the unborn child who is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, not stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. Cry the Beloved Country , page 8
This book touched me deeply for two reasons: Paton’s mastery of the beauty of the written word and because my grandmother was a “Person of the Earth”. She was born on a different continent to a different piece of earth, but no less a part of the earth. She often quoted her own grandmother who first settled the little farm my grandparents bought when my grandfather came home from WWII, “This 62 acres is too much to starve on and not enough to make a living.” Yet five generations have persisted, careful stewards of this little piece of earth—our little piece of earth—and its many inhabitants: the little brown earthworms in the soil, the ancient pear tree, the owl nesting in the pine tree…. They say that my grandmother was afraid to die, but I knew her to be incredibly emotionally and physically brave. Now I think I know the origin of her fear. She loved the earth too deeply to leave it to the stewardship of others. She said to me as I was pushing her wheelchair on a particularly lovely
When the earth’s humans were endowed with that spark of life, that intelligence that enabled them to plan ahead for the future generations of all of the creatures inhabiting the earth, and indeed even the very earth itself, only a few took up the challenge—they have since the “beginning” been the “People of the Earth”. Cry the Beloved Country is the story of some of those people who found themselves born to Africa. Alan Paton became their spokesperson the minute he wrote these words:
Cry the beloved country, for the unborn child who is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, not stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. Cry the Beloved Country , page 8
This book touched me deeply for two reasons: Paton’s mastery of the beauty of the written word and because my grandmother was a “Person of the Earth”. She was born on a different continent to a different piece of earth, but no less a part of the earth. She often quoted her own grandmother who first settled the little farm my grandparents bought when my grandfather came home from WWII, “This 62 acres is too much to starve on and not enough to make a living.” Yet five generations have persisted, careful stewards of this little piece of earth—our little piece of earth—and its many inhabitants: the little brown earthworms in the soil, the ancient pear tree, the owl nesting in the pine tree…. They say that my grandmother was afraid to die, but I knew her to be incredibly emotionally and physically brave. Now I think I know the origin of her fear. She loved the earth too deeply to leave it to the stewardship of others. She said to me as I was pushing her wheelchair on a particularly lovely
Bibliography: Callan, Edward. Cry, the Beloved Country: A Novel of South Africa : [a Study]. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991. Giliomee Et.all. "The Dutch Settlement." The Dutch Settlement. Accessed March 13, 2013. http://www.sahistory.org.za/print/cape-town/dutch-settlement. Lampure, Kelly. "History of Johannesburg." Wikipedia. July 03, 2013. Accessed March 13, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Johannesburg. Miller, Lindsay. "DesmondTutu." Wikipedia. November 03, 2013. Accessed March 12, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DesmondTutu. Shakespear, William. "Shakespeare Quotes." Enotes.com. 2013. Accessed March 13, 2013. http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes.