Cry the Beloved Country

Two separate cultures and one uniting land. This clash between the native South Africans, and the modernized Europeans forced the less fortunate of the two to the bottom rung of society. In “Cry the Beloved Country”, by Alan Paton, internal conflict, symbolism, external conflict, and structure show how people let tribal culture and society decay in South Africa in the mid-1940’s. Internal conflict is rampant throughout the novel. At the start Kumalo leaves to Johannesburg and is afraid to go. He feels fear because his world is “dying, being destroyed, beyond any” recollection (Paton 44). Kumalo is starting to feel his “own world slipping away” a world he grew up in and should recognize beyond any shadow of a doubt (Paton 44). As he travels further and further from his home he starts to see “a new country, a strange country” even though he’s still in South Africa (Paton 45). As the novel continues, it becomes more apparent how the native people realize the severity of the situation they’re in. The native people “cry for the unborn child that is the inheritor of [their] fear” for their fear of losing their land is so great it prevents them from truly cherishing it while it is still theirs (Paton 111). The people wish for the unborn child to “not love the earth too deeply...not laugh too gladly...not be too moved...nor give to much of his heart to a mountain or valley” (Paton 111). The native people wish to protect the next generation so their children don’t get hurt as they have. Their culture and society is decaying at such a rate that they fear they will never get back what they are losing so quickly. While the native people are rushing to catch up with the new society Kumalo is rushing to catch up simply with his own thoughts on the subject. Kumalo is trying to find something that will “take the place of tribal law and custom” just as he finally admits to himself “the tribe was broken, and would be mended no more” (Paton 120). He