Theme in Cry the Beloved Country
Theme in Cry the Beloved Country
Cry the Beloved Country had many strong themes, but one stood out the strongest in my eyes. The strongest theme was no matter how bad things get, family will always be there for you. Throughout this novel many examples were provided to support my chosen theme.
Stephen Kumalo is the main character and shows the best examples of evidence to support my theme. The first example is when he received a letter from another priest in Johannesburg saying that his sister was very sick and to make a journey to Johannesburg to come see her and her son to try and help them. Stephen made the journey to help his sister first stopping to see the priest who wrote the letter. The priest told him they would find his sister the next day. He also said in the letter when he wrote that his sister was sick that he didn’t mean illness but he meant she had become a prostitute to try to support her and her son. Stephen attempted to take his sister and her son back to their home village but she ran away and he could not find her.
James Jarvis was a rich white man who cared for his son greatly, but in the last few years they haven’t seen eye to eye on some important issues of race separation. James Jarvis believed in the quote,” birds of a color stick together”. So when he hears from his daughter and law that his son missed an important family gathering to stay home and work for and in favor of the blacks he became annoyed and frustrated with the whole idea. Later after Stephen Kumalos’ son Absalom Kumalo killed his son, James Jarvis did an incredible thing, he never got filled with hatred but the exact opposite. James realized what he had lost when his son Arthur Jarvis was killed and when he realized it he started to accept his sons’ views after his death. For his own sake and his sons, he accepted the black race and did what he could to help them.
Stephen Kumalo also had a son living in Johannesburg. Stephen cared for his son but hadn’t heard from him for a long time and wondered what he was up to. ...