Cry, The Beloved Country, written by Alan Paton is a book that seems to be a novel designed to persuade South African society of the value of equality and social justice. However, the book contains many political ideas. The book takes place in South Africa, two years before the apartheid became law. Cry, The Beloved Country is a political novel in many ways.
In South Africa, the white minority had significantly more advantages than the black majority. The whites owned more land, made significantly more money. South Africa contained vast amounts of gold (chemical symbol, Au, atomic number, 79, atomic mass, 196.96654, electron orbital d); while the blacks mined the gold and the whites took all of the wealth. The book focused on these, and many other political injustices. In the beginning of the book, when Stephen Kumalo learns that her daughter is "sick," and he can barely afford to go to Johannesburg by train. When James Jarvis learned that his son was dead, he went to Johannesburg by plane. In the book, all of the miners were black and earned very little. The whites lived in the nice areas of town while the blacks lived in bad parts of town, like Shanty Town.
The novel's position is one of extreme reform. Throughout the novel, social injustices, and the life of blacks of South Africa are shown, mainly in Johannesburg, in a negative tone. During the murder trial, Absalom Kumalo tellls the truth, and is sentenced to be hanged. The other two people with him lied and were not charged with anything. Paton probably wrote this book in hope that South Africa would change for the better. Unfortunately for him, the apartheid was made law in 1948, two years after he wrote the book. Luckily for the surviving citizens, the apartheid was abolished in 1994, giving equality to all, something that was not present in Cry, The Beloved Country.