In Paton’s Cry the beloved country his main theme
seems to be the hardships and lack of fairness towards the natives. In the
story the whites came in and took over leaving the natives homeless and jobless
for awhile up on too recently in the story. I plan to describe three main parts
that made me choose this theme.
The first part is the harshness they
are put through sometimes makes them turn on their own family. As when Kumalo
was going to lie to keep his son out of jail and turned on his nephew and
brother. But at the same time when your constantly looked down on or giving what’s
left over your going to do what it takes to get by and keep your family safe.
When your forced to move night after night your going to want to get your
family and leave but kumalo had to save his son first no matter the cost. At
the same time it’s not fair that they have to arrange the marriage in secret
just so they can keep the baby in the family through wedlock.
When they were talking about ways to
separate the blacks and whites he said pass laws don’t work because they ended
up putting people in jail and the jails would be over flowing with people so
the white people aren’t happy either way. I mean when there off the streets
their complaining about them being in jail but when there not in jail they
complain about them being loose. At one point they even tried to justify that
they weren’t for segregation but just wanted separate visiting hours for
recreational centers and things it got to one point where they wanted completely separate
centers. Like I said before no matter what they are constantly complaining and
never satisfied. They would go as far as to lie and say they just want separate
buildings just so there is space enough for everyone why lie I mean if you want
it segregated be open about it its just another hardship the natives faced
because people would lie and say they were against it but in the end it just
being another lie to keep them from getting in any more trouble or out of
danger.
When the people are forced to go out
and steal because people don’t want to hire natives it ends up being they’re
own fault someone broke in and stole their stuff. Now I’m not saying it’s right
I’m just saying if they would give the natives jobs they wouldn’t have to go
and become criminals I mean give them a chance on better education. Now yes it
could lead to smarter criminals but at the same time it could lead to better
doctors, cops, and teachers you got to give them a chance here people you never
know what will happen for sure until you try it what if someone who was denied
education had what it took to stop I don’t know world hunger or something.
Those are my thoughts on patons main
theme in his bookCry the beloved country.
His main theme so far is the troubles and harshness that the natives face. From
resorting to crime to having to move night after night this symbolizes so much
hardship they may face in life even today the same thing occurs from time to time.
