Cry the Beloved Country

Cry, the Beloved Country is a social protest against the structures of the society that would later give rise to apartheid. Paton attempts to create an unbiased and objective view of the oppositions. This requires that he depicts the Whites as affected by 'native crime', while the Blacks suffer from social instability and moral issues due to the breakdown of the tribal system. It shows many of the problems with South Africa such as the degrading of the land reserved for the natives, which is sometimes considered to be the main theme: the disintegration of the tribal community, native crime and the flight to the urban areas. As tribal societies continue to break down, the obvious wealth and excitement of cities such as Johannesburg lure many impoverished natives away from their tribal homes. The migration creates a society of overlords and slum dwellers whose lives are constantly overwhelmed by crime and violence. Feelings threatened by the arrival of blacks into their community, the white Afrikaners resist integration and fear engulfment. Urban blacks are faced with internal trouble as they struggle to maintain their customs outside of their decaying tribes, and external conflict as they lash out against social and economic domination in the city. Despite the synthetic bravado in declaring that there lies at the core of who they are is love for freedom and free will, humans tend to prefer the security of structure of a stable society, one in which people abide by rules and, in so doing, feel the safety and security of predictability. When social norms are in change and the structure of society becomes uncertain, it becomes fearful of the unknown. No one really trusts another. They see themselves in a struggle, one in which they form alliances with people that are believed to be like them, as they make enemies of people they distrust or fear. People who fear that they are losing privilege, into which they were born, speak of