Stephen Kamalo Fear

During a state of fear, all someone could think about is nothing but the fear and how to get rid of it. Throughout the whole book, Stephen Kumalo is seen as someone who is pretty sensitive and fear would only bring him to an even worse condition. What Stephen Kumalo fears the most would be the unknown. He is in a new environment, a place where he has no reputation for himself at all. When he first enters Johannesburg he is immediately deceived by someone who said that he would help him but backstabbed him in order to get money. Stephen was shocked and all he could do was panic, but as an adult he calms himself down and think of new ways to achieve his goals. The author shows how being mature and having faith can get you out of a bad situation
Stephen begins to wonder if his son, Absalom, who seems to be known as a criminal around Johannesburg could have done this. Absalom is only one of thousands of many people living in Johannesburg yet there is still that slim chance that it was him. At that moment, all Kumalo wanted to do was some alone time and so he walks back to his room. “Kumalo lifted to his friend a face that was full of suffering. ‘This thing’ he said. ‘This thing. Here in my heart there is nothing but fear. Fear, fear, fear’”(74). His friend Msimangu points out that there are “thousand and thousands of people” living in this city and Kumalo replies that it is just fear. It seems the question of ‘what if’ is stuck in his head. Stephen Kumalo is doing a good thing which is to have some alone time and go over the facts. Fear/anxiety is definitely a hard to overcome because of it takes lots of time to get over it. Kumalo decides to
If you were in his shoes, he would very scared because his son has killed Arthur Jarvis, the son of James Jarvis. Meeting James Jarvis is a huge surprise and Kumalo doesn’t know how to act at that moment. This makes him stutter and slow making the moment very awkward. “But the old man did not answer. He continued to tremble, and he looked down on the ground, so that Jarvis could not see his face, and could not have see it unless he had lifted the chin with his hand, which he did not do, for such a thing is not lightly done”(178). While reading through the book, it mentions the symbol of being old. The symbol of being old means that someone is sick, ill, sad, or scared. Kumalo is scared of facing James so he trembles a lot and drops stuff. Kumalo can not find any strength to stand back up because Jarvis is just that intimidating to him. The real problem was that Stephen Kumalo doesn't really know James Jarvis as a person. James Jarvis in actuality is a very nice person at heart. He seems to understand a bit more of why his own son loves the natives and fought for them. This seems to change his heart and wants his own son's beliefs to live on so he helps the natives. James Jarvis decided to have a new church built in Ndotsheni. “Kumalo stood up, and he said in a voice that astonished the Bishop, this is from God, he said. It was a voice in which there was a relief from