PATON, Alan (1999), Cry, the Beloved Country, C1, 3000 Headwords, Penguin Readers
By Javier
García Navarro, 1º Bachillerato A, EFL
Stephen Kumalo, who is a black church minister, leaves from Ndotsheni to
Johannesburg to look for some lost members of his family as are his son,
brother (John) and sister(Gertrude). After a long journey and bad experiences, he
manages to find them all with the help of Mr Msimangu; but they have changed.
His sister has turned to prostitution and has a little boy; his brother has
lost his faith and his son has murdered Arthur Jarvis, an opponent of
apartheid. Stephen goes to James Jarvis’ house to tell him what his son did to
Arthur. Absalom, Stephen’s son, is sentenced to death. Msimangu gives Stephen
all the money he had, so that he goes back to Ndotsheni. He has to return home
without Gertrude, who has disappeared.
Finally Stephen goes back home, there the drought still rages, and he
prays for it to end. Time after, a letter came saying the date of the hanging
of Absalom, and ...
The part I found most interesting was when James Jarvis, Arthur Jarvis’s
father, went to Ndotsheni to meet Stephen and immediately it started to rain,
although there was a drought there. And a few days later James sent an
agricultural expert to teach local people new farming techniques. I like this
part of the book because I find very interesting that, although Stephen’s son
murdered his own son, James wanted to help him and his community to handle the
drought. I think James saw in Stephen remorse for what his son had done and
that he felt awful.
I would recommend this book both to teenagers and adults.
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