Examples Of Fear In Cry The Beloved Country

What is your greatest fear? Fear is the recognition of danger, which may or may not always be correct. In South Africa, during the apartheid, the separation of black and white people made the fear between both races more prominent. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton shows the fear characters have as they explore the city of Johannesburg. Throughout the novel, specific examples of fear are brought up to observe the life of black and white people during the apartheid. Let's look at some examples.

Throughout the novel, just as Alan Patton reiterates the theme of fear. Crime in Johannesburg is a reason for fear. When Kumalo first arrives to Johannesburg, he is approached by a young man who offers to help upon seeing the confusion of being in a new place on Kumalo's face. The man offers to buy his ticket for him which to he agrees, giving the young man a pound to buy the train ticket. As it turns out, he ended up giving his money to a crook who ran off with his money. As the novel progresses, bigger crimes start coming up. Kumalo fears losing his family in Johannesburg due to the criminal activity brought on by both white and black …show more content…
When he's there, he discovers his sister, Gertrude, became a prostitute and a liquor seller. His brother, John, stopped going to church and became a politician. He fears that he'll discover the way that his son has been living. "Here in my heart there is nothing but fear. Fear, fear, fear," he says when he hears that a white man has been killed. His fear is that Absalom may be the person who committed the crime. Kumalo says, "…Absalom…went away, to look for my sister, but he never returned, nor after a while did he write any more. Our letters, his mother's and mine, all came back to us. And now after what you tell me, I am still more