Cry The Beloved Country Essay

In Cry the Beloved Country, power is the ultimate corruptor of all people. In his book, Alan Paton discusses the issue of how the people’s obsession with power brought many issues into South Africa. Reverend Msimangu states that power is corrupt, John Kumalo became caught up in the never-ending chase for power, and the “native issue” existed ultimately because of the white people’s thirst for power. Evidently, power was the crux of many issues in South Africa during the 1940s-1950s.
Msimangu drew an insightful point about power, stating that what the people viewed as “power” only corrupts, and that love is the real “power”. He said to Stephen Kumalo that “Some of us [natives] think when we have power, we shall revenge ourselves on the white man who has
He became a successful businessman. He still was not making as much money as the richest whites, but he was way more wealthy than he could have been in Ndotsheni. Once he gained all this power, he became increasingly paranoid about losing it. He was so afraid of going back to being a lowly countryman in Ndotsheni, just like Stephen Kumalo. However, this love of power blinded him. He wasn’t able to see the influence that his brother had back in Ndotsheni. He openly insulted Stephen Kumalo about his lack of power in Ndotsheni. “Down in Ndotsheni I am nobody, even as you [Stephen] are nobody” (66). John Kumalo thought that he was a person of influence in Johannesburg, because he was able to sway crowds with his speeches. However, John Kumalo “[was] one of the country’s greatest orators, with one thing lacking” (220). This one thing that he lacked was courage. Ironically, this lack of courage made him one of the worst orators because he had so much power, but he was afraid of losing it for the greater good of his people. In the end, John Kumalo was not able to put the needs of his people above his own selfish