Cry, the Beloved Country

can you please explain the analysis of chapter 5 in simpler words ... i can't understand it

this is the analysis of chapter 5:

This chapter provides an interesting commentary on the status of South African politics around the publication of the novel in the late forties. The discussion of current events and politics in South Africa reveals the bias of the white novelist Alan Paton, who places his sympathies squarely with the pastor Stephen Kumalo but nevertheless gives the white ruling class of South Africa nearly total absolution for the decayed state of the African natives who populate the nation. It seems both odd and inconsistent that the great criminal tragedy that the priests lament is the killing of a white couple by natives, despite the marked injustice against Africans during that period, and even Msimangu essentially rejects the notion that the whites have any responsibility for what has occurred in South Africa. He seems to locate both the blame and the solution to the blacks' troubles in themselves, in finding a way to independently rebuild their way of life. Paton can clearly identify and lament the injustice to the natives of South Africa, but this chapter manifests little sense of regret and almost no legitimate sense of responsibility for this injustice.

Once again, Paton details how foreign and backward Kumalo feels in Johannesburg. As this chapter makes clear, Kumalo represents an obsolete and tribal way of life that is crumbling around him. He is part of the remnants of the tribe, now a relic among his contemporaries.

Asked by
Last updated by Aslan
Answers 1
Add Yours

-Critics felt Alan Paton had a bias for white.

-While sympathetic to pastor Stephen Kumalo, the whites in the novel were absolved of wrongdoing for South Africa's problems.

-Daily injustices to black people not covered while priests lament death of a white couple.

-Author seems to locate both the blame and the solution to the blacks' troubles in themselves, in finding a way to independently rebuild their way of life.