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Tyson Tyler English Mrs. Johnson Cry the Beloved Country The book I have chosen to write about is Cry the Beloved Country. This book is about ambiguity and reconciliation. The main character in the story Stephan Kumalo has to deal his the struggle of his family, and trying to keep them together. The first few chapters of this book are place in a small town called Ndotshenti. But the action in this takes place in the largest city on South Africa, Johannesburg.
Stephan Kumalo finds out there can be day light even when nothing in you life is going right. The area of Ndotshenti is known as the Velds, which in Zulu means the green grassland. The rural country is what describes Ndotshenti best; on the other side of the town lies the European part of Ndotshenti. This is Ndotshenti where blacks are not allowed to go. Primarily because apartheid, which means total separation between blacks and whites. Stephan Kumalo is the minister in the small town.
Stephan Kumalo helps those in need of help. Also find out very early, he is in need of help too. His son Absalom decides to leave home, because he does not like his fathers new wife. He goes with his friends Johannesburg to work the gold mines.
However his son is not the only person causing stress on Stephan Kumalo, because with in a few days of his son leaving, he receives a letter pertaining to his sister. She very sick, but the man writing the letter says not physically, but mentally. At this point Kumalo is befuddle, until he finds out that she is selling her body in order to get money. He also remembers she has a little boy and is worried about his condition. Stephan Kumalo decides to take a trip to the big city, to see if he can find his sister, and hopefully bring her back to his house.
While there, he also planned to visit his brother John and see if knows the whereabouts of his son. So, he packs his bags and tells the people of the church he will be home in a few days. He arrives in Johannesburg and immediately he feels out of place. The reason for this is because he is not use to seeing the fast life. Industrialization is a new phenomenon for Stephan Kumalo. Hustlers immediately notice he is a countryman out of place, and take advantage oh Stephan Kumalo.
He looses most of his money but finds a kind man to get him to where his brother lives. The next day he and his brother have an extensive conversation about their lives. John Kumalo tells Stephan that his son and Absalom are wondering about the city together. Stephan is not happy with his sons decision to come to the big city. His brother tells him that there is nothing for young men in the countryside and there is an abundant amount of jobs for men his age in the big city.
Next, Stephan hits the streets of Johannesburg trying to find his sister Gertrude and bring her back to Ndotshenti. Stephan fins her at a run-down motel and tells her what she has to. She agrees and she go gets her son and they prepare to leave with Stephan. When Stephan first takes a look at her he cam immediately see they she has doing damage to her body. Although he unable to find his son he is somewhat satisfied because he has located his sister.
When they arrive in Ndotshenti he buys Gertrude and her son clothes, though does not have that much money. He goes back to his daily routine until he gets a letter saying his nephew and his son are on trial for the killing of James Jarves Jr. The son of the noble James Jarves, murdered in his own house on a late Sunday night in October. Also a noble man, but he also devoted several hours his day helping the black youth in the city. On trial both Stephan Kumalo's son and John Kumalo's son. They both were being accused on first-degree murder.
If convicted of murder, it would automatically be a sentence to death. John Kumalo a politician in the city of Johannesburg hired a lawyer for his son. When the trail date came, Stephan Kumalo was in awe, because he saw that he had not done the same for Absalom. His son claimed he was there but he was not the one with the gun, he told the jury it was Absalom.
After the trail Absalom was convicted and John Kumalo son was not. Absalom would be hung on the fifteenth day, for the murder of James Jarves Jr. After Stephan found this out he spent much of his time out in the country yard thinking about his son. One day Stephan accidentally crossed paths with James Jarves Sr.
and they began to chat not knowing anything about each other. Eventually they knew who the other was. But instead of repeating history in South Africa, they began to become better friends. Stephan told him the tricks he knew about the land, and James helped his community by rebuilding the church. In conclusion they both became friends and the only reason why they were not supposed to be friends because their skin colors were different.
They both lost their sons, so the one knew the pain the other was feeling. Bibliography the text
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Research essay sample on Cry The Beloved Country Small Town
