Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Cry, the Beloved Country-Key Facts
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNRY—KEY FACTS
Note: Major situations of the book are revealed. Do not read. The ending is revealed.
1. AUTHOR—Alan Paton
2. DATE OF PUBLICATION—1948
3. NARRATOR—The third-person narrator is omniscient, or all-knowing, and temporarily inhabits many different points of view.
4. POINTS OF VIEW—Books I and III are largely told form Kumalo’s point of view, while Book II is told largely from Jarvis’s point of view. A number or chapters, however, feature a montage of voices from different layers of South African society, and the narrator also shows things from other characters’ perspectives from time to time.
5. TENSE—Past
6. SETTING—Mid-1940s, just after World War II. Ndotsheni, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
7. PROTAGONIST—Stephen Kumalo; James Jarvis
8. MAJOR CONFICT—Stephen Kumalo struggles against the forces (white oppression, the corrupting influences of city life) that destroy his family and his country.
9. RISING ACTION—Kumalo travels to Johannesburg to search for his son.
10. CLIMAX—Alsalom is arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis.
11. FALLING ACTION—Absalom is sentenced to death; Jarvis works with Kumalo to improve conditions in the village; Absalom is hanged.
12. THEMES—Separation and reconciliation between fathers and sons; the impact of social injustice on individuals, crime and punishment; Christian love as a response to injustice.
13. MOTIFS—Descriptions of nature; anger and repentance; repeated phrases.
14. SYMBOLS—The church, brightness, sunrise.
15. FOREWHADOWING—When Kumalo sees in the newspaper that a white man has been killed by native South Africans during a break-in, he has a premonition that Absalom is involved.
Note: Major situations of the book are revealed. Do not read. The ending is revealed.
1. AUTHOR—Alan Paton
2. DATE OF PUBLICATION—1948
3. NARRATOR—The third-person narrator is omniscient, or all-knowing, and temporarily inhabits many different points of view.
4. POINTS OF VIEW—Books I and III are largely told form Kumalo’s point of view, while Book II is told largely from Jarvis’s point of view. A number or chapters, however, feature a montage of voices from different layers of South African society, and the narrator also shows things from other characters’ perspectives from time to time.
5. TENSE—Past
6. SETTING—Mid-1940s, just after World War II. Ndotsheni, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
7. PROTAGONIST—Stephen Kumalo; James Jarvis
8. MAJOR CONFICT—Stephen Kumalo struggles against the forces (white oppression, the corrupting influences of city life) that destroy his family and his country.
9. RISING ACTION—Kumalo travels to Johannesburg to search for his son.
10. CLIMAX—Alsalom is arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis.
11. FALLING ACTION—Absalom is sentenced to death; Jarvis works with Kumalo to improve conditions in the village; Absalom is hanged.
12. THEMES—Separation and reconciliation between fathers and sons; the impact of social injustice on individuals, crime and punishment; Christian love as a response to injustice.
13. MOTIFS—Descriptions of nature; anger and repentance; repeated phrases.
14. SYMBOLS—The church, brightness, sunrise.
15. FOREWHADOWING—When Kumalo sees in the newspaper that a white man has been killed by native South Africans during a break-in, he has a premonition that Absalom is involved.
# posted by Sister Pat / English @ 3:09 PM 
