Absalom Kumalo: Reverend Kumalo’s son is called Absalom, which is the name of King David’s son, who betrayed his father and who was killed. King David mourned the death of his son and wished that he could have died in his son’s place. Reverend Kumalo also mourns for the loss of his son.
Father Vincent: Father Vincent is described as “a young rosy-cheeked priest from England” (p. 17 in your school edition). His title reminds the reader of the official Church of England. He conducts the marriage ceremony of Absalom and his girlfriend in prison. He helps Reverend Kumalo to restore his faith and he arranges for Mr. Carmichael to defend Absalom’s case pro deo (for God), which means free of charge.
Description, dialogue, action and thought
In real life, people do not appear, speak, act and think in neatly organised and separate compartments. Paton portrays convincing characters who look, talk, act and think like real people by combining the literary techniques of description, dialogue, action and thought. Reverend Kumalo is a convincing character because he has flaws and strong points. His humility and faith help him to overcome his weaknesses of vanity and anger.
For example, in Book One, Chapter Three, Reverend Kumalo is described as a humble man when he gets onto the first train on his way to Johannesburg. The passengers in the carriage for non-Europeans notice his clerical collar “and moved up to make room for the umfundisi” (p. 10 in your school edition). Paton contrasts the description of Reverend Kumalo’s humble appearance with his dialogue, action and thought. Typically human, Reverend Kumalo wants to be respected for more than simply being a parson; he wants to be respected for being a seasoned traveller who often goes to Johannesburg. He creates this impression through his dialogue and the business-like way in which he taps his pocket. The author cleverly uses the technique of thinking aloud to increase the effect of pretence.
“Kumalo’s voice rose a little, as does the voice of a child, or indeed of a grown person, who wants others to hear.
– Tell him that when I am in Johannesburg I shall go to this place at Springs. He tapped the pocket where the paper was safe in his wallet. Tell him I shall make inquiries about the girl. But tell him I shall be busy. I have many things to do in Johannesburg.
He turned away from the window. It is always so, he said, as if to himself, but in truth to the people.”
This incident of Reverend Kumalo’s vanity contrasts with an event in Book Two, Chapter Eight, where he goes to the address in Springs to look for Sibeko’s daughter. He is deeply humiliated when he tells James Jarvis that Absalom has killed his son. At first, James Jarvis does not recognise him as the parson from Ndotsheni. He describes Reverend Kumalo as follows: “The parson was old, and his black clothes were green with age, and his collar was brown with age or dirt” (p. 153 in your school edition). Paton vividly describes Kumalo’s body language in a moving scene that illustrates his shock and suffering. “Are you ill, umfundisi? But the old man did not answer. He continued to tremble, and he looked down on the ground, so that Jarvis could not see his face, …” (p. 153 in your school edition). James Jarvis’ compassion for Kumalo’s suffering restores his dignity somewhat.
Stereotyping characters
A stereotype is a fixed idea of what a particular group of people are like or do. In real life, you can sometimes predict the way in which some people, or groups of people, behave because they share the same fixed views about what a particular type of person is like. These views are often biased, which means they believe unfairly that some people are better than others. In Cry, the Beloved Country the author stereotypes Mr. Harrison’s way of treating black people. Harrison unfairly believes that most of them are “up to no good” (p. 129 in your school edition). Mr. Harrison is also biased against Afrikaners. He thinks they are short-sighted because “they have some fool notion that the mining people are foreign to the country, and are sucking the blood out of it, ready to clear out when the goose stops laying the eggs” (p. 130 in your school edition).
The author contrasts Mr. Harrison’s fixed and biased view of black people with his son’s liberal views. John Harrison and Arthur Jarvis characterise a new, liberal way of thinking.
They co-own the Boys’ Club in Gladiolus Street, Claremont. At the beginning of Book Two neither of the fathers, James Jarvis and Mr. Harrison, agrees with their son on “the native question” (p. 117 in your school edition). However, James Jarvis wants to visit the Boys’ Club and he reads his son’s papers. He changes his views, whereas Mr. Harrison’s opinions remain unchanged.
Mr. Harrison and his son are flat characters, whereas James Jarvis and his son both undergo change. Arthur Jarvis recorded his growth in his article called “Private Essay on the Evolution of a South African” (p. 150 in your school edition). This article helps to ease the suffering his father experiences at the loss of his son. It also triggers James Jarvis’ active participation in restoring the farmlands, and in rebuilding the church in Ndotsheni.
3.6 Conflict
3.6.1 Internal conflict of man against self
When you are in two minds about whether you should do something or not, or when you are afraid of doing something but you really want to do it, you are experiencing conflicting thoughts and feelings. You are experiencing conflict. When this battle between opposing forces is happening inside you, you are experiencing internal conflict.
When Reverend Kumalo unexpectedly meets James Jarvis, who doesn’t recognise him at first, he experiences internal conflict. He struggles between his fear of telling James Jarvis that it was his son who killed Arthur Jarvis and his desire to tell the truth. This conflict brings tension and keeps the reader in suspense: “Will Reverend Kumalo overcome his fear and tell James or not?”
3.6.2 External conflict of man against man
Conflict can also happen between you and someone else because your opinion differs from theirs. You could have a battle of words or you could fight physically. In Book Two, Chapter Twelve, Reverend Kumalo’s opinion about his nephew’s involvement in the robbery and murder of Arthur Jarvis differs from his brother’s opinion. Reverend Kumalo believes that Absalom’s friends participated in the robbery. He accuses them of having betrayed Absalom. Furiously, John Kumalo throws his brother out of his shop: “He kicked over the table in front of him, and came at Kumalo, so that the old man had to step out of the door into the street, and the door shut against him, and he could hear the key turned and the bolt shot home in his brother’s anger” (pp. 182–183 in your school edition).
3.6.3 Man against nature
You could also be struggling against the consequences of a severe drought, when water restrictions are imposed, or when water becomes unavailable and you have to fetch supplies from a neighbouring town. The struggle of the community in Ndotsheni against nature, against erosion and drought is one of the main sources of conflict that drives the action in the novel. In Book Three, Chapter One, Reverend Kumalo hears from his friend that the community desperately needs rain because the little stream in the valley has dried up a month previously. The women have to fetch water from the river that flows from Jarvis’ farm. His friend expresses the tension that arises from their struggle for survival against the drought: “It is dry here, umfundisi. We cry for rain”; “Our mealies are nearly finished, umfundisi. It is known to Tixo alone what we shall eat” (p. 190 in your school edition).
3.6.4 Man against society
Cry, the Beloved Country is a social protest novel; it is a plea for compassion to restore social justice. It explores tensions caused by white and black people’s conflicting opinions about how to manage change from the old to the new