Faith is one of the strongest assets one can attain to help them get over obstacles and through adversity. Alan Paton talks mostly about faith as a religious and spiritual symbol, with this he demonstrates that those with a strong faith to help characters in need find a sense of peace or happiness. Paton implies that all without faith will at some point become corrupted. In Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country Paton demonstrates how those with faith are able to find joy and peace despite adversities. Steven Kumalo has had to face much difficulty and suffering, but through his faith he was able to pull through and find peace. Steven’s life has been a road of ups and downs, starting with traveling to Johannesburg to help his “sick” sister.
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The church in Ndotsheni provides a powerful image of modest faith. The church is in such bad shape that, “the rain came down through the roof” (293). The Church provides little shelter from the elements, yet it is still a gathering place for the people of the church. The church is nothing special, but it has a strong symbolic representation of a humble unpretentious faith. The church has also served to bring James Jarvis and Kumalo even closer than before. Towards the end of the novel Jarvis sends a letter to Kumalo that closes with, “it was one of her last wishes that a new church be built in Ndotsheni” (298). It seems unlikely that a man whose son was killed by another mans son would ever become close in anyway, much less offer to build a new church for him. But this is not the case with Jarvis and Kumalo, actually through forgiveness and through faith these two men have become close. Upon first meeting Jarvis, who is a man of faith, immediately realizes that Kumalo is in a tough place and says, “There is no anger in me” (214). For a man to tell the father of his son 's murderer is astonishing. The only way that Jarvis could immediately come to peace and offer forgiveness to Kumalo is through his faith. Without this faith there is no telling what this meeting could have been like. Through their strong faith Jarvi and Kumalo have reached forgiveness and become an unlikely pair of friends.
Throughout Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton describes characters with active spiritual and religious lives as being happier, and overall a more peaceful person. Paton drives home the importance of faith as a moral guidance to a path of content. While those who are progressing spiritually are paving a path to success, those without faith are deteriorating and becoming
The church in Ndotsheni provides a powerful image of modest faith. The church is in such bad shape that, “the rain came down through the roof” (293). The Church provides little shelter from the elements, yet it is still a gathering place for the people of the church. The church is nothing special, but it has a strong symbolic representation of a humble unpretentious faith. The church has also served to bring James Jarvis and Kumalo even closer than before. Towards the end of the novel Jarvis sends a letter to Kumalo that closes with, “it was one of her last wishes that a new church be built in Ndotsheni” (298). It seems unlikely that a man whose son was killed by another mans son would ever become close in anyway, much less offer to build a new church for him. But this is not the case with Jarvis and Kumalo, actually through forgiveness and through faith these two men have become close. Upon first meeting Jarvis, who is a man of faith, immediately realizes that Kumalo is in a tough place and says, “There is no anger in me” (214). For a man to tell the father of his son 's murderer is astonishing. The only way that Jarvis could immediately come to peace and offer forgiveness to Kumalo is through his faith. Without this faith there is no telling what this meeting could have been like. Through their strong faith Jarvi and Kumalo have reached forgiveness and become an unlikely pair of friends.
Throughout Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton describes characters with active spiritual and religious lives as being happier, and overall a more peaceful person. Paton drives home the importance of faith as a moral guidance to a path of content. While those who are progressing spiritually are paving a path to success, those without faith are deteriorating and becoming