Effects of Fear on Apartheid South Africa In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton shows how fear between races was a substantial issue in apartheid-era South Africa. Paton offers a stunningly harsh and realistic view of racial fear and the harmful effects it has on everyone. In South Africa at that time, unfortunately, racial segregation was legal and the native Blacks were treated differently from the white Afrikaners. Their unequal treatment led to fear and resentment of one another. Although modern-day America is not the same as the South Africa that Paton describes, fear and distrust between the races continue to stand in the way of change and progress here as well.
In the novel, a black priest, Stephen Kumalo, decides to search for family who moved to the colossal city of Johannesburg. He searches for his son Absalom, his brother John, and his sister Gertrude. He travels through the vast city with aid from the church and finds out his brother is an important and influential …show more content…
These are mainly caused by fear of the other race. The policeman is afraid that the black man is doing something suspicious and starts to get nervous. As Malcolm Gladwell explained in blink, in describing a police shooting of an unarmed black man in New York City, “The officers made a series of critical misjudgements, beginning with the assumption that a man getting a breath of fresh air outside his own home was a potential criminal.” (197). When someone with a firearm is afraid or nervous they are more likely to use that firearm. The black man is afraid of the policeman because the policeman is now watching the man and suspicious. The black man would also be nervous because of recent events and shootings involving the police. This causes a perpetual never ending circle of fear between the races. This makes it so the people are not together but instead against each
In the novel, a black priest, Stephen Kumalo, decides to search for family who moved to the colossal city of Johannesburg. He searches for his son Absalom, his brother John, and his sister Gertrude. He travels through the vast city with aid from the church and finds out his brother is an important and influential …show more content…
These are mainly caused by fear of the other race. The policeman is afraid that the black man is doing something suspicious and starts to get nervous. As Malcolm Gladwell explained in blink, in describing a police shooting of an unarmed black man in New York City, “The officers made a series of critical misjudgements, beginning with the assumption that a man getting a breath of fresh air outside his own home was a potential criminal.” (197). When someone with a firearm is afraid or nervous they are more likely to use that firearm. The black man is afraid of the policeman because the policeman is now watching the man and suspicious. The black man would also be nervous because of recent events and shootings involving the police. This causes a perpetual never ending circle of fear between the races. This makes it so the people are not together but instead against each