The White Mans Fear Depicted in Cry, the Beloved Country...

The time of the 1940’s in South Africa was defined by racial oppression of the native inhabitants of the country by the Dutch Boers, also known as the Afrikaners. These people were the demographic minority yet also the political majority. They executed almost complete control over the lives of the natives through asinine rules and harsh punishments. The highly esteemed novel Cry, the Beloved Country tells a story of Stephen Kumalo, a black priest dealing with the struggles of living in the South Africa during this time. His son killed a white man and on the day his son is to be hanged for this crime, Kumalo climbs a mountain in order to reflect on the current situation both in his family and in his country. In chapter 36 of Cry, the†¦show more content†¦This section demonstrates how the fear manifested itself among the whites. The Afrikaners’ power is not in numbers, as â€Å"they were few† but instead in political authority. They exploit this and impose harsh laws on the black to try to control and restrict them. However, they have bound themselves in their fear of the natives, a force that is perhaps more confining than their rules. Instead of trying to understand their fear and show their compassion towards these other human beings, they instead choose to hide it so that they will not appear weak. Additionally, the solution of love that Paton suggests presents a conundrum. In order end the fear, they must love, but to love they must stop being afraid. This demonstrates the almost impossible nature of true equality occurring between the natives and the Afrikaners. In the last paragraph of chapter 36, Alan Paton uses symbolism to bring a clearer recognition to his final message. He says the â€Å"the dawn has come†¦Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but light will come there also.† The dawn symbolizes a new era of equality and cooperation in South Africa. In the cycle of night and day, dawn is the beginning of the light a nd goodness. The people who live in the darkness prefer to do so because it is where they cannot see what they do; the darkness blinds them to their own atrocities. When the sun comes, they see their