Apartheid In Cry The Beloved Country

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In the novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Paton, apartheid plays a significant role throughout, as it encourages those who struggle with inequality to take a stand for themselves and try to change the way their lives are determined by others. Apartheid has been a problem for South Africa since the earlier nineteen hundreds because of the unjust society and heartbreaking rule of "white man's law over a black man's country," (Cry, the Beloved Country.) Some positive results come from the fight of those who are treated unfair, but none that are large enough to turn around the system of discrimination. Two families are affected greatly in this book; one is that of the white James Jarvis and the other of the black Stephen Kumalo. Both …show more content…
This legal racial severance controlled the Republic of South Africa for more than fifty years until the early 1990's when Nelson Mandela was the first black president to be elected to Africa. The separation of various races throughout the nation-state was not only adequate but more importantly ingrained legally. The way of life during this time gave the white inhabitants more power politically and socially, as well as better selections of houses, jobs, and education. The nonwhites were kicked out of their previous homes and forced to live in rural areas that were separated from the rest of the community. Being involved in the government was not an option for colored citizens, as they could only live helplessly under the rule of white leaders. The only way for black Southerners to travel out of their homelands was to carry a pass and follow strict rules that were enforced only upon them. The living arrangements that were set up for the powerless black society were on land that was unusable and inhuman, which often alienated family members from one another. Around the year 1991, the apartheid system began to crumble as it could not regulate the lives of the colored race any longer. Just two years later the official policy of South Africa involving excessive amounts of discriminations toward people of the different race was eliminated completely. The 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country, demonstrates the reality of how life was in South Africa during the 1940's for humans of both white and

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