Cry the beloved Country is a novel by Alan Paton set in pre apartheid South Africa. During this time there were rising racial tensions in South Africa and the country was becoming more and more divided. The setting for this book is in multiple locations, first it starts off in a small rural town of Ndotsheni and then in Johannesburg. Black people during this time were only allowed unskilled jobs and had to carry a pass. Black people were living in an unequal and unjust society in South Africa while the whites lived well and oppressed the black, not everyone is guilty and not everyone is innocent. The story is about the reconciliation of two fathers and their sons, the book goes over the vicious cycle of inequality and injustice and the suffering of black people during their struggle however, and it tells the story from both sides.
For many people life was tough and a majority of the population did not have a well-paying job or even a job at all. This is apparent in the start of the book where the main character Stephen Kumalo goes about his everyday life in the rural town of Ndotsheni. Kumalo works as a priest at the local church and is a man of the people he is a very kind and loving person and tries to help out wherever he can. There are not any jobs in Ndotsheni and even if you have a job it does not pay well. Much of the youth living in Ndotsheni that are old enough to work move elsewhere to find jobs. One of the main hubs in South Africa is Johannesburg; it is one of the country’s biggest cities and is where most people go to find work this is why it is said “all roads lead to Johannesburg”. Many people from all over the country go there to seek work among other reasons but there many people “They go to Johannesburg, and there they are lost, and no one hears them at all”. This is what happened to Kumalo’s son Absalom and his sister Gertrude.
When people went to Johannesburg searching for work not everyone got a job bec...