Whether it be baby showers, graduation parties, or weddings, one thing about them never changes: the presence of family. In one’s life, family serves as a source of love, happiness, and assurance. From supporting one as they take their first steps to teaching them how to drive years later, family shows to be by a person’s side all throughout their life. However, family proves to be the exact opposite in Stephen Kumalo’s life in Cry, the Beloved Country, where it becomes a selfmutilating force with members showing their true colors when distant from family guidance, and eventually, bringing mostly sorrow in one’s life.
This idea of family bringing agony in one’s life predominantly shows itself through the relationships Kumalo shares with his siblings. Initially arriving in …show more content…
Under the influence of his cousin Matthew and an older boy named Johannes, Absalom begins to commit petty crimes, “... [bringing] many things… in the late hours of the night” (Paton 79), and had as a matter of fact, been sent, “‘[by] the magistrate…to the reformatory’”(Paton 96). When arriving at the reformatory, Kumalo learns worse news about Absalom that causes him even more suffering: “‘... there [is] a girl who [is] pregnant by him” (Paton 98). however, Kumalo’s agony does not end here because a few days later, he discovers that his greatest fears have come true: Absalom was involved in a major crime, specifically the murder of an activist for the natives of South Africa, Arthur Jarvis. As his search for his son comes to a piteous ending,
Kumalo finally is able to speak to his son after months. He discovers that his son is no longer who he raised him to be, and has been demonized by the city, just as his siblings have been.
Understanding that there is little hope for his son getting mercy from the court of law since he was the one that shot Jarvis, Kumalo does not face astonishment when Absalom is given
This idea of family bringing agony in one’s life predominantly shows itself through the relationships Kumalo shares with his siblings. Initially arriving in …show more content…
Under the influence of his cousin Matthew and an older boy named Johannes, Absalom begins to commit petty crimes, “... [bringing] many things… in the late hours of the night” (Paton 79), and had as a matter of fact, been sent, “‘[by] the magistrate…to the reformatory’”(Paton 96). When arriving at the reformatory, Kumalo learns worse news about Absalom that causes him even more suffering: “‘... there [is] a girl who [is] pregnant by him” (Paton 98). however, Kumalo’s agony does not end here because a few days later, he discovers that his greatest fears have come true: Absalom was involved in a major crime, specifically the murder of an activist for the natives of South Africa, Arthur Jarvis. As his search for his son comes to a piteous ending,
Kumalo finally is able to speak to his son after months. He discovers that his son is no longer who he raised him to be, and has been demonized by the city, just as his siblings have been.
Understanding that there is little hope for his son getting mercy from the court of law since he was the one that shot Jarvis, Kumalo does not face astonishment when Absalom is given