Moscati, Heribertus Martinus (2011). Stephen Kumalo’s Struggles to Solve His Family Problems in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. Yogyakarta: Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Department of Language and Arts Education, English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses family problems in Stephen Kumalo’s family. Alan Paton, as the author of the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country
generally portrays social segregation between black and white people in South Africa that also influences Kumalo’s family life. In this thesis, there are two questions on problem formulation related to the topic of this thesis. First is about problems in Kumalo’s family. Second is about his struggles to solve those family problems.
To achieve the objectives of the study, the writer applied library research to get data. There were two kinds of sources that were used in this thesis. The first was primary source. It was the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country itself. The second is secondary sources that were obtained from books that are related to the topic. Other secondary sources were from internet source. The sociocultural-historical was used to get understanding about Stephen Kumalo’s family background as black family. The information about social life, culture, and political situation in South Africa were important to reveal the life experience of all characters in the novel. Some information about family through some theories was also very essential to recognize.
Those problems are racial discrimination, shame, and failure in educating family members, while Stephen Kumalo’s struggles to solve his family problems are rebuilding good relationship between white and black, facing the feeling of shame directly, and reuniting and rebuilding his family.
In the last part, there are conclusions and suggestions. Conclusions contain a brief explanation of analysis section. Then there are two suggestions. The first suggestion is for the future researcher(s) on the Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The second suggestion is to implement
Cry, the Beloved Country in teaching English and Education in general.
ix
Moscati, Heribertus Martinus (2011). Stephen Kumalo’s Struggles to Solve His Family Problems in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. Yogyakarta: Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menjelaskan tentang masalah keluarga dalam keluarga Stephen Kumalo. Penulis novel, Alan Paton menjelaskan pemisahan secara sosial antara orang kulit hitam dan putih di Afrika Selatan yang mempengaruhi kehidupan keluarga Kumalo. Dalam skripsi ini, ada dua pertanyaan yang akan dijawab berkaitan dengn topik. Pertama adalah pertanyaan tentang masalah-masalah dalam keluarga Kumalo. Kedua berkaitan dengan usaha-usaha Kumalo untuk menyelesaikan masalah-masalah keluarganya.
Untuk mencapai tujuan skripsi ini, metode pustaka diterapkan untuk mengumpulkan data. Ada dua sumber data dalam skripsi ini. Sumber utama adalah novel yang berjudul Cry, the Beloved Country itu sendiri. Sumber kedua berasal dari buku-buku yang berkaitan dengan topik. Sumber-sumber lainnya diambil dari internet. Pendekatan sosial kebudayaan dan sejarah diterapkan untuk mendapatkan pemahaman tentang latar belakang keluarga Kumalo sebagai keluarga kulit hitam. Informasi tentang kehidupan sosial, budaya, dan situasi politik di Afrika Selatan penting untuk mengamati kehidupan setiap karakter dalam novel. Teori-teori tentang keluarga juga perlu diketahui.
Hasil dari studi ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat beberapa masalah dalam kekuarga Stephen Kumalo. Masalah-masalah tersebut adalah diskriminasi ras, perasaan malu, dan kegagalan mendidik anggota keluarga, sementara perjuangan Kumalo untuk menyelesaikan masalah keluarganya adalah membangun kembali hubungan baik antara kaum kulit putih dan hitam, menghadapi secara langsung orang yang membuatnya malu, dan mempersatukan dan membangun kembali keluarganya.
Bagian terakhir adalah kesimpulan dan saran. Kesimpulan berisi penjelasan singkat berdasarkan analisis. Kenudian terdapat dua saran. Pertama berkaitan dengan peneliti novel Cry, the Beloved Country
selanjutnya, dan yang kedua adalah penerapan novel tersebut dalam pengajaran bahasa Inggris dan dunia pendidikan pada umumnya.
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Heribertus Martinus Moscati Student Number: 041214135
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
HIS FAMILY PROBLEMS IN ALAN PATON’S
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Heribertus Martinus Moscati Student Number: 041214135
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2011
The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ),
O Magazine, September 2002
The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.
Friedrich Nietzsche
No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
This thesis is dedicated to:
My mother, father, brothers, lover, and best
friends
vi
First, I would like to thank Jesus Christ and Mother Mary for enormous blessing and guidance for me to finish this work.
Then, my gratitude goes to my sponsor, Rm. Lucianus Suharjanto, S.J. who had helped me with patience from the start. My thank is also for Ms. Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd. M.Pd., as the chairperson of English Education Study Program, who had accompanied me and other students to finish my study.
For the Head of Faculty of Teachers Training and Education of Sanata Dharma University, Drs. Tarsisius Sarkim, M.ED., Ph.D, I want to say my great thank for controlling me in my struggle to finish my study. For all of the lecturers in English Education Study Program, I want to say thanks for helping me in developing my knowledge and skill in English.
I want to say thanks for my parents, Titus & Maria, and my brothers, Claus & Hedwig. The greatest love has been given to me. Without their advice and support, I cannot finish this thesis. For my lover, Iin, I want to say thanks a lot for supporting me.
A lot of thanks I give for my best friends, Aldo, Tom, Mendra, Rinto, Cecik, Leri, Joden, Tejo, Devi, Jefry, Nanek, Yani, Cici, Layang, Lana, Lil Chrizt, Lale, El Jhozz, Rino, Ito, Kele, Moriz, Rigit, Cepot, Engkozz, Astry, Candra, and etc, who always being beside me all the time in my life.
For all 04 crews in PBI USD, Gregg, Kucel, Yosan, Damar, Friska, Kadal, and etc, Thanks for being together in many struggles.
Last but not least, thanks for all who have their own way to help and support me in finishing this thesis.
Page
TITLE PAGE ………. i
APPROVAL PAGES ………. ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ……… iv
DEDICATION PAGE ……… v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….. vii
ABSTRACT ……… viii
ABSTRAK ……… ix
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
A. Background of the Study ……….. 1
B. Problem Formulation ………... 5
C. Objectives of the Study ……… 6
D. Benefits of the Study ……… 6
E. Definition of Terms ……….. 7
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 9
A. Review of Related Studies ……….. 9
B. Review of Related Theories ……… 12
1. Theories of Family ……… 12
a. Definition of Family ……… 12
b. Kind of Family ……… 15
c. Family Functions ……… 18
2. Theories of Conflict ……….. 19
3. Theories of Setting ……… 20
4. Theories of Society and Class ………... 21 5. Relation between Society, Culture, and History
C. Theoretical Framework ………. 30
B. Stephen Kumalo’s Struggles to Solve His Family Problems ………... 60
1. Rebuilding Good Relationship between White and Black ……….... 60
ix
Moscati, Heribertus Martinus (2011). Stephen Kumalo’s Struggles to Solve His Family Problems in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. Yogyakarta: Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Department of Language and Arts Education, English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses family problems in Stephen Kumalo’s family. Alan Paton, as the author of the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country
generally portrays social segregation between black and white people in South Africa that also influences Kumalo’s family life. In this thesis, there are two questions on problem formulation related to the topic of this thesis. First is about problems in Kumalo’s family. Second is about his struggles to solve those family problems.
To achieve the objectives of the study, the writer applied library research to get data. There were two kinds of sources that were used in this thesis. The first was primary source. It was the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country itself. The second is secondary sources that were obtained from books that are related to the topic. Other secondary sources were from internet source. The sociocultural-historical was used to get understanding about Stephen Kumalo’s family background as black family. The information about social life, culture, and political situation in South Africa were important to reveal the life experience of all characters in the novel. Some information about family through some theories was also very essential to recognize.
Those problems are racial discrimination, shame, and failure in educating family members, while Stephen Kumalo’s struggles to solve his family problems are rebuilding good relationship between white and black, facing the feeling of shame directly, and reuniting and rebuilding his family.
In the last part, there are conclusions and suggestions. Conclusions contain a brief explanation of analysis section. Then there are two suggestions. The first suggestion is for the future researcher(s) on the Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The second suggestion is to implement
Cry, the Beloved Country in teaching English and Education in general.
Moscati, Heribertus Martinus (2011). Stephen Kumalo’s Struggles to Solve His Family Problems in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. Yogyakarta: Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menjelaskan tentang masalah keluarga dalam keluarga Stephen Kumalo. Penulis novel, Alan Paton menjelaskan pemisahan secara sosial antara orang kulit hitam dan putih di Afrika Selatan yang mempengaruhi kehidupan keluarga Kumalo. Dalam skripsi ini, ada dua pertanyaan yang akan dijawab berkaitan dengn topik. Pertama adalah pertanyaan tentang masalah-masalah dalam keluarga Kumalo. Kedua berkaitan dengan usaha-usaha Kumalo untuk menyelesaikan masalah-masalah keluarganya.
Untuk mencapai tujuan skripsi ini, metode pustaka diterapkan untuk mengumpulkan data. Ada dua sumber data dalam skripsi ini. Sumber utama adalah novel yang berjudul Cry, the Beloved Country itu sendiri. Sumber kedua berasal dari buku-buku yang berkaitan dengan topik. Sumber-sumber lainnya diambil dari internet. Pendekatan sosial kebudayaan dan sejarah diterapkan untuk mendapatkan pemahaman tentang latar belakang keluarga Kumalo sebagai keluarga kulit hitam. Informasi tentang kehidupan sosial, budaya, dan situasi politik di Afrika Selatan penting untuk mengamati kehidupan setiap karakter dalam novel. Teori-teori tentang keluarga juga perlu diketahui.
Hasil dari studi ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat beberapa masalah dalam kekuarga Stephen Kumalo. Masalah-masalah tersebut adalah diskriminasi ras, perasaan malu, dan kegagalan mendidik anggota keluarga, sementara perjuangan Kumalo untuk menyelesaikan masalah keluarganya adalah membangun kembali hubungan baik antara kaum kulit putih dan hitam, menghadapi secara langsung orang yang membuatnya malu, dan mempersatukan dan membangun kembali keluarganya.
Bagian terakhir adalah kesimpulan dan saran. Kesimpulan berisi penjelasan singkat berdasarkan analisis. Kenudian terdapat dua saran. Pertama berkaitan dengan peneliti novel Cry, the Beloved Country
selanjutnya, dan yang kedua adalah penerapan novel tersebut dalam pengajaran bahasa Inggris dan dunia pendidikan pada umumnya.
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature becomes an important thing in human life. It has many contributions in human civilization. The human development from time to time cannot be separated with literature. With some of its genres, literature portrays human life in some aspects too. Human experience is an interesting part in writing a literary work for some authors. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature, there are four modern literary genres. They are the short story, the novel, the poem, and the play/ drama. Each genre has its own form (1971: 19). By these genres, it’s expected that readers can get some learning and values in human life, especially positive values. Novel is one of the literary genres. In this study, novel is the main source to analyze. Through reading the novel, the readers will focus on human living in social life.
Living in society and building a social relationship with other people in society is a part of human life. It is the essence of a human as a social creature. All members of the society are involved in the social interaction. A lot of literary works describe the society. Social life is a basic for some authors in writing their literary work, especially novel.
Some aspects of human life in a society, such as birth, death, marriage, crime, kindness, friendship, love, and etc. become the interesting topic in writing novel. Graham Little stated in his book, Approach of Literature
that literature functions “as a representation of the situation and thoughts happening in a certain setting time and place,” (1963: 1).
Elizabeth Langland, in her book of Society in the Novel, gave her opinion about society.
The way society is structured – how it is depicted, how its elements are organized – defines its formal role. So, when we speak of the formal role of society, we are speaking of the ways in which structural elements of a particular depiction are combined and evaluated to make society itself an integral part of a novel’s form, a significant element in the principles generating a particular work (Langland, 1984: 9).
So literature has an important role in helping us to understand about the social happenings, how people in society are treated, how they meet the problem in their life, and what their struggle to solve their problem.
Based on the discussion about the literature above, this thesis is going to analyze the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, one of the South African writers. Historical background of the writer became an essential part of this novel. Society in South Africa, especially the black people’s experience, is the focus in this novel.
living in a family. People can learn a lot of things in their family. So family is a smaller circumstances in a society in which individuals are able to learn social life. Family and society are related each other. The way of social life in family can also influence people’s way in living with other people in society.
Not only family is told in the novel, but also about family problem. Every person certainly has problem in their family. Every family also has their own problem. Family problems occur almost every day. It is common for every member in a family life. No one can avoid the problems. These problems can be different based on the age or position in a family. For example, parents’ problem is definitely different with children’s problem. Parents’ problem usually relates on their responsibility to get income for the family, while children problem is about how they get parents attention. The situation in the family can also be the influence of the problem in a family.
It is stated by Ross Stagner and Hjalmar Rosen in their book of
There are some family problems that are very difficult or complex to solve. Sometimes there are multiple problems. While some of those family problems are not so complicated. Unlike any other social group, families are able to provide the close emotional support needed to produce self-confident and well-adjusted children and adults (http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/350/350-090/350-090.html). Lack of communications, closeness, sexual problem, or economical problem can
be a problem for a family. The problems can be caused by members of the family itself, for example, a problem caused by parents or child. It can disturb and destroy a harmonic situation in family. Family relationship gets worse because of these family problems. Bad relationship in a family appears as the effect of the problem either in the family itself or one family with others. Separation and divorce are the worst risk of family problem.
example, blacks are forced to leave their tribal villages, where there is no work, and go to the city. In cities like Johannesburg, white businesses depend heavily on black labor, for which they pay little.
There is an ironical thing about Kumalo’s position in his society. He is a kind, wise, humble, and generous man in his village, but his sister is a prostitute and his son is a troublemaker and murderer. He is also called Reverend by people in Ndotsheni. Failure in educating family members is also a problem for some parents. It is experienced by Kumalo himself. It is related to the role of parents to teach all good things for their children.
There are some interesting things for the writer from this novel. Topic about family problem of Stephen Kumalo's son and sister is chosen by the writer in the research. Based on the Kumalo’s family problem, the writer is going to research about what problem that is in Kumalo’s family and what Kumalo’s struggles to solve his family problems are.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the explanation in background of the study, the problems are formulated as follows:
1. What are the problems in Stephen Kumalo’s family, as described in
Cry, the Beloved Country?
C. Objectives of the Study
There is also some interesting learning that is found in this novel by completely reading it. The writer will state the aims of the study based on both questions in problem formulation. The first objective of this study is to find out Stephen Kumalo’s family problems in his family. The writer is going to explain about what problems that Stephen Kumalo, as a protagonist character, must face and solve in his family relationship.
While the second objective is to find out Stephen Kumalo’s struggles to solve his family problems. The writer will find out how Kumalo struggles to solve his family problem although it is very difficult for him.
D. Benefits of the Study
1. It has benefit for the readers who are interested in family problems. Family is an interesting topic to study.
2. The reader can learn many subjects like justice, racial problems, discrimination, and economic divisions in South Africa, based on social classes or backgrounds.
3. There are also some subjects like kindness, Christianity, and reconciliation between two fathers and their son.
4. It has benefit for the next researcher to research other side of the problem on this novel.
Beloved Country.
E. Definition of Terms 1. Family
In his book of Structure, Sound, and Sense, Justin Pikuna states that family is an enduring social group based on marriage and blood relationship. As a primary group, the family with children is bound together by kinship and intimate relations marked by care, affection, and support, as well as mutual sharing in various activities and concerns (1974: 58).
2. Family problem
In this story, Stephen Kumalo, as a main protagonist character, is told to have a problem in his family about separating with some of his family members. They are a part together as an influence of the situation in South Africa.
3. Racism
It is experienced by black people in South Africa. They get some discrimination in many aspects of life. There is a big difference with black and white people in this novel. Stratification and inequality in social life of the characters in the novel show how racism happens in the novel and it is experienced by the characters. 4. Corruption
victim. Stephen’s brother, John Kumalo, is involved in the corruption. Corruption is one the crimes that are told in the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country.
5. Christianity
Much of Stephen Kumalo’s time is spent in prayer. Symbol of church and the use of word reverend show it. He is also called
reverend from people in Ndotsheni. Amiram Gonen, in The Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World (1993), stated that:
The Afrikaners are Christians, the majority of whom are members of one of the three Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa; the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (c.70 percent of Afrikaners); the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk (c.16 percent); and the Gereformeerde Kerk (c.6 percent). The last is the most conservative of the three, and is also called the Dopper Church in analogy with the inverted cup (dopper) used to extinguish candles (1993: 22).
In the same book, it is also stated the Zulu are predominately Christian: about three-quarters of them have specific church affiliations (1993: 673)
6. Kindness
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this Review of Related Literature, there are four main parts. They are review of related studies, review of related theories, review of social condition of South Africa, and theoretical framework. In the first part, review of related studies, the writer will attach what other researchers or writers have said about Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country and about his novels’ style. In almost all of his novels and writings, the racial inequalities become an important aspect. He was interested in writing about social experiences of South African, especially black people. In review of related theories, readers can read some theories about family and society, especially in South Africa.
This study applies sociocultural-historical approach, so it is important to provide review about social condition in South Africa, as the setting of the novel. The last part, theoretical framework, will explain the contribution and why those theories and reviews are needed and applied in the analysis.
A. Review of Related Studies
Alan Stewart Paton is one of the South Africa’s greatest writers. He was born on January 11, 1903 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Author Alan Paton was a white man in a country of oppressed blacks who
fought for their freedom and believed in their worth. Meet the man who brought the world face-to-face and heart-to-heart with the problem of race relations in South Africa (http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Basic-information-about-the-cultural-and-political-history-o).
Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa (1994-1999), had a comment about the film of Cry, the Beloved Country based on Alan Paton’s novel. He said:
Cry, the Beloved Country, however, is also a monument to the future. One of South Africa’s leading humanists, Alan Paton, vividly captured his eloquent faith in the essential goodness of people in his epic work. A goodness that helped manage this small miracle of our transition, and arrested attempts by the disciples to turn our country into a wasteland.
(http://www.obs-us.com/obs/english/films/mx/cry/speech4m.htm) - Nelson Mandela commenting on the film Cry, the Beloved Country
based on Alan Paton’s novel
In Dominic Head’s The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
(2006), it is stated that:
Alan Paton is South African novelist and short-story writer. Born in Pietermaritzburg, he became principal of Diepkloof Reformatory, Johannesburg (1935-48) and gained the insights into segregated black living conditions which illumine his first novel,
Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) and Debbie Go Home: Stories (1961; as Tales from a Trouble Land in USA, 1965). The novel pricked white South African Christian consciences and alerted world opinion to the country’s long-established racial inequalities. Altogether more accomplished, Too Late the Phalarope (1953) explores the tragedy of Afrikaner racial and political inflexibility. Other publications include: two substantial biographies, Hofmeyr
Cry, the Beloved Country was published in February of 1948. This novel was written by Alan Paton when he studied in penal institutions in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Racial themes concerned Paton in almost all of his novels and short stories. Social and political situation in South Africa influenced his literary works very much. It contributed much to Paton’s literary works. Paton used society's experiences as the basis for writing his novels. Meriam Webster said in her Encyclopedia of Literature
that after it was published, Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) brought international attention to the issue of apartheid (1995: 864).
It is stated in the novel that before writing this book, Alan Paton wrote numerous articles on South African problems for national periodicals which he continues to do. In Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton wanted to show the figure of Stephen Kumalo with the problem of his family. The system applied in South Africa influenced his family problem very much. Cry, the Beloved Country is set in South Africa in the 1940s. Its story unfolds against a backdrop of economic and political tensions that have a lengthy, complicated history (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cry/context.html).
Some statements or comments about the novel and its author, Alan Paton are also said on cover page of the novel.
forget the resigned sorrow of its closing pages’ – Observer
‘Mr Paton’s record of a simple Zulu parson’s search for his delinquent son in the maelstrom of Johannesburg is as moving in the biblical simplicity of its style and drama as it is imaginatively disinterested as an account of the problems of race relations. This is as remarkable a novel for its facts as for its truth’ - Guardian
By reviewing the studies on Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, the writer saw that the relation between the historical backgrounds in South Africa with the characters’ experience in this novel of Cry, the Beloved Country was described by the author of this novel.
In this novel, it is told about family life in South Africa in their daily social life. Ross, in her book of The Support Network of Black Families in Southern Africa, stated:
Family life must thus also be seen against the background of cultural diversity and extreme socioeconomic differences. Most families—primarily nonwhites—are poor and struggle to satisfy their daily needs. Contributing in complex ways to different types of family structures are traditional practices, historical events— especially the racially discriminatory and disruptive effect of apartheid laws, which placed restrictions on movement, provided inferior education and limited employment opportunities, and enforced compulsory shifting of families—and the demands of modern society (Ross, 1995)
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theories of Family
a. Definition of Family
There are challenging arguments to be made against each approach and social scientists will continue to debate how to define family (Cheal, 2002: 9). There are some definitions of family and family life. Cheal also states that a family is a group consisting of people who have close personal relationships which are believed to endure over time and across generations. Family relationships involve careful social construction of links between persons in the past, the present and the future (2002: 155). Family life is a way of living in which individuals seek to achieve personal goals they believe are important for their happiness and sense of well-being by actively participating in family relationships (2002: 156). Arlene S. Skolnick and Jerome H. Skolnick, in their book of Family in Transition, state that the family is a human institution, not found in its totality in any prehuman species. It required language, planning, cooperation, self-control, foresight, and cultural learning and probably developed along with these (1983: 40).
conceiving and raising the children, caring for the ill and aged, etc. Besides, the members of a family have certain responsibilities toward one another (1980: 216).
While Edward Byron Reuter, in his book of Sociology, stated that a family is not a man and woman and their children, but the members and the set of relations that bind them into a unique unity (1941: 19). It is also said that the family as a social unity, as a reality apart from the legally enforced family coherence, and its part in the development of human nature and personality are receiving increased attention in the sociological literature (Reuter, 1941: 210). Wahlroos ever said that the greatest happiness and the deepest satisfaction in life, the most intense enthusiasm and the most profound inner peace, all come from being a member of a loving family (Wahlroos, 1983, p. xi). In William Haviland’s Cultural Anthropology, it is stated that although the word family means different things to different people, in anthropological terms it is a group composed of a woman, her dependent children, and at least one adult man joined through marriage or blood relationship (1993: 243).
problem, and sibling relationship between Stephen Kumalo with his sister, Gertrude Kumalo, and his brother, John Kumalo.
b. Kind of Family
According to Elizabeth Hurlock’s Personality Development, there are many kinds of family compositions. There are nuclear family and extended family. Nuclear family is composed of two parents and their children, whereas extended family consists of a nuclear family plus relatives who live under the same roof. The family members may all be singletons, or some may be singletons while others are multiple births twins either identical or nonidentical, triples, etc (1974: 365).
Peter N. Stearns, in Encyclopedia of Social History, stated that the inclusion of the family in social history research has meant that historians have had to find concepts to refer to familial groupings larger than the family household (1994: 333). It is also stated that social historians have generally used relatively few terms, such as “extended family” and “lineage” (1994: 333). Kinship or lineage can also determine very much in building a good relation and facing the problem in a family.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, it is stated that the term “nuclear family” (or “elementary,” “simple,” or “basic”) is most frequently used to refer to a group consisting of a man, woman, and their socially recognized children (1968: 303)
There are two other kinds of family based on Fairchild’s
Dictionary of Sociology. Those are paternal family and maternal family. Paternal family is the type of family in which authority is formally vested in the father, or male head, with the relative subordination of the female spouse and offspring; while maternal family is the type of family in which the authority is formally vested in the mother, or female head, with some degree of subordination of the male to his wife’s kinsmen (1975: 114). Stephen Kumalo’s family in the novel is an appropriate sample of paternal family. He is a leader for his family. He has a bigger influence and responsibility than other members in his family. Most parts of the novel describe his fatherhood in building relationship in his family or solving his family problem.
practice virilocal marital residence, if there is good reason for a man to move to his wife’s village, he may do so (2006: 16).
There is a term of family structure. In Noller and Fitzpatrick’s
Communication in Family Relationships, it is stated that:
The first class of definitions is based on family structure. Most of us use the term family in at least two ways: (a) when we mean partners and children (family of procreation) and (b) when we mean relatives by blood or marriage such as parents and siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (family of origin). Many singles and childless couples have families of origin, even when they do not have families of procreation, but they would be unlikely to live with other members of their family. A family of origin, then, is the extended family or any group of individuals that has established biological or sociolegal legitimacy by virtue of shared genetics, marriage, or adoption. A family of procreation, usually called the nuclear family, is further restricted to those living in the same house. Family structure definitions remind us about membership criteria and hierarchies based on sex and age (1993: 2-3).
Family life must thus also be seen against the background of cultural diversity and extreme socioeconomic differences. Most families— primarily nonwhites—are poor and struggle to satisfy their daily needs. Contributing in complex ways to different types of family structures are traditional practices, historical events—especially the racially discriminatory and disruptive effect of apartheid laws, which placed restrictions on movement, provided inferior education and limited employment opportunities, and enforced compulsory shifting of families—and the demands of modern society (Ross, 1995).
Absalom Kumalo, but also with her sister, Gertrude Kumalo and his brother, John Kumalo. Sibling relationship is portrayed here. So Stephen Kumalo, considered as a leader of their family, has responsibility for all of them in the story.
c. Family Functions
Cheal, in Sociology of Family Life, said that the structure of a family consists of a set of positions, or roles, within the family, and the patterned interactions between them (2002: 7). It is also stated that functional definitions of families focus on what people do together, and especially on what they do to support each other (2002: 7). One such definition states that a family is a group of people who assume responsibility for some of the following functions (Zimmerman, 1988; Vanier Institute of the Family, 1994):
1. physical maintenance and care of group members;
2. addition of new members through procreation or adoption; 3. socialization of children;
4. social controls over members;
5. production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services; and,
6. maintenance of motivation and morale through love.
socialization of the young (1948: 395). In the same book, it is also said that the family, like any other institutional complex, therefore performs individual functions by helping to meet the organic and acquired needs of the persons in the society (1948: 395). From a sociological point of view we are mainly concerned with the social functions, and consequently we stress the four functions mentioned – reproduction, maintenance, placement, and socialization – as being the core functions with which the family is always and every where concerned (1948: 395).
2. Theories of Conflict
Randall Collins, in his book of Sociology of Marriage and the Family, stated that:
An entirely different type of theory sees the family as an institution of power, domination, and conflict. Conflict theories generally criticize the traditional theories of the family. They argue that these theories simply accept the status quo in the family as an inevitable part of society. Conflict theories, on the other hand, believe that the family is full of internal conflicts of interest and upheld by unequal resources for domination, and hence is an institutional arrangement that can and should be changed in the direction of greater equality (1941: 18).
He says further in this book that one conflict approach derives from Marxian theory. The radical economic theories see the basic dynamics of society as deriving from the economic division between property owners and nonowning workers and the class conflict that takes place between them (Collins, 1941: 19).
Patricia Noller and Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, in their book titled
It is stated that conflict is an inevitable part of family life. Family members have frequent and intense close contact, often leading to irritably and annoyance (1993: 99). They also say that:
Conflict occurs when family members do not agree about the events and situations in their lives. They may not agree about what is appropriate behavior in a given situation, who should perform particular family tasks, how resources should be shared, or how decisions should be made. In other words, conflict arises because family members perceive a difference between them (1993: 99). So, based on the explanation about conflict theory, different social classes are the key concepts in this conflict theory. It can cause class conflict in a society. Then, this class conflict is also potential to cause a problem or conflict in a family. So the family problem and class conflict in a society influence each other.
3. Theories of Setting
Referring to Holman and Harmon, social setting can refer to general environment of the character for example religious, mental, moral, social, emotional conditions, through which the people in the story move. It also might reveal the occupations and daily manner of the living of the character (1986: 465).
In this novel, it is also told about rural and urban community. Both of them are setting of the story. Stephen Kumalo, as a main character, lived in rural area in Ndotsheni, Natal. He started his family life from this rural community. Another setting of place was the city of Johannesburg, where some members of Kumalo’s family went to. They went and got some problems there. So the social life and situation in city or urban community is definitely different from social life in rural community. In Stearns’ Encyclopedia of Social History, it is stated that cities create distinctive societies (2006: 176).
In book of Human Society, it is said that
In modern society one of the great distinctions is that between rural and urban, between country and city. It is a distinction that has little to do with the primitive communities just discussed because the village or hamlet in our society, no matter how small, is still subjected to countless urban influences. Whereas the strictly primitive society is a completely rural society, free from any urban influence, the civilized society is always partially urbanized. The rural-urban differential is therefore a gradient (albeit an important one), with the rural end of the scale never even approaching absolute rurality (Davis, 1948: 315).
4. Theories of Society and Class
Fairchild in Dictionary of Sociology, is a group of human beings cooperating in the pursuit of several of their major interests, invariably including self-maintenance and self-perpetuation. The concept of society includes continuity, complex associational relationships, and a composition including representatives of fundamental human types, specifically men, women, and children (1970: 300).
It is also stated in the same book that society is a functioning group, so much so as to be frequently defined in terms of relationships or processes. While a functional society is a group of people associated together, within and partly supported by, a more extensive society, for the purpose of carrying on, facilitating or enjoying a particular social function. Examples of such functional groups: literary, fraternal, religious, research, athletic, economic, or political societies (1970: 300).
involving communications, beliefs, and values (1992: 472).
In Daniel Bell’s The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, it is stated that culture, for a society, a group, or a person, is a continual process of sustaining an identity through the coherence gained by a consistent aesthetic point of view, a moral conception of self, and a style of life which exhibits those conceptions in the objects that adorn one’s home and oneself and in the taste which expresses those points of view. Culture is thus the realm of sensibility, of emotion and moral temper, and of the intelligence, which seeks to order these feelings (1976: 36).
Davis, in Human Society, writes that if there is any single factor explaining man’s uniqueness, it is this: He, and he alone, has culture. From this all other differences flow. His intelligence, for example, is multiplied a thousandfold by the possession of culture. His speech, important as it may be, is merely a part of culture. His social life is governed by culture. Culture is therefore a profound possession that ramifies throughout human life and accounts for all of man’s truly unique qualities. It adds an extra dimension to existence, and makes human what would otherwise by merely animal (1948: 3).
how cultural patterns in general affect the economic and social advancement of the human race (1994: 1).
Elizabeth Langland, in her book of Society in the Novel, wrote if society is a concept and construct in art, it is also a concept and construct in life. Society in novels does not depend on points of absolute fidelity to an outside world in details of costume, setting, and locality because a novel’s society does not aim at a faithful mirror of any concrete, existent thing (1984: 5).
Class and community are two words that have a relationship each other. There can be various kinds of class in a community or society in a larger scale. In Reinhard Bendix and Seymour Lipset’s Class, Status, and Power, the term “class” refers to any group of people that is found in the same class situation (1966: 21). Class is also related to the term “race”. Racial stratification can determine the class difference. Class difference tends to be in an area in which there is a plurality of people.
According to Encyclopedia of World Cultures by John Middleton and Amal Rassam,
The peoples of Africa may be classified according to several criteria, probably the oldest of which is race. Africa is occupied by members of the Negroid race, the most numerous; then by members of the Caucasoid race, mainly in northern and southern Africa; the Mongoloid race (in Madagascar); and by the so-called Bushmanoid and Pygmoid races or subraces. Previous work in this field has shown the difficulties and contradictions that result from using the concept of “race,” and it is clear that this criterion does not contribute to an understanding of the cultures and identities of African societies (1995: xxiii).
L. Sills states that “Social races” are composed of socially defined and significant groups; the study of social race thus is a fundamental aspect of the study of social structure, especially in stratified state societies (1968: 263). Haviland’s Cultural Anthropology states that stratification is the division of society into two or more classes of people that do not share equally in basic resources, influence, or prestige (1993: 297).
There are a lot of theories which are related to the class. Some sociologists propose their theory about social class in the society. Social theory of Karl Marx is one of theories for the class difference. In Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick’s Cultural Theory the Key Concepts, it is stated that according to Marxism theory, societies are understood as being structured according to the exploitation of subordinate classes by a dominant class (2002: 221). Marxists traditionally view society in terms of the history of economic and institutional relationships (the economic base-structure and ideological superbase-structure) which have exerted a determinant effect on class interests and differences, and would likewise oppose the liberal conception (Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 368). Based on the
Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies by Ellis Cashmore, Marxist discusses of the interrelationship of class relations and forms of social differentiation based on racial and ethnic categories (2004: 259).
classes. Study of social mobility is an important complement to studies of social stratification, because a hierarchical society may not be considered undesirable if there is free movement between the different levels of the hierarchy (Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 365).
Another theory is Max Weber’s theory of class. In the book of
Class, Status, and Power by Bendix and Lipset, there is a statement about classes in a community or in a society.
In our terminology, “classes” are not communities; they merely represent possible, and frequent, bases for a communal action. We may speak of a “class” when 1) a number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances, in so far as 2) this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income, and 3) is represented under the conditions of the commodity or labor markets (1966:21).
All communities are arranged in a manner that goods, tangible and intangible, symbolic and material are distributed. Such a distribution is always unequal and necessarily involves power. ''Classes, status groups and parties are phenomena of the distribution of power within a community.'' Status groups makes up the social order, classes the economic order, and parties the legal/political order. Each order affects
and is affected by the other (http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Theory/weber.html).
among a set of social units: individuals, categories, groups, regions, or something else (2006: 943).
5. Relationship between Society, Culture, and History with a Family in the Novel
In Cheal’s Sociology of Family Life, it is stated that families do not exist in isolation. They are connected to a number of groups, because they depend upon them. Families cannot meet all of their needs unaided, in any society, and they must therefore turn to other groups for support and for resources (2002: 13). In Sills’ International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences vol. 5, it is stated about disorganization and dissolution in family life.
Likewise in every society some of the familial groups are imperfect in their functioning and deserving of the label “disorganized.” Generally there is some relationship between disorganization and a more climactic, terminal situation called “dissolution.” Family groups are eventually dissolved by death or some form of separation, insofar as these groups are organized around the matings of men and women (Sills, 1968: 313).
important of these are differences due to social class (1941: 60).
Family in the novel experiences how treatment in social structure influences their life. In this social structure, there are some actions determined by a social differences or class. In the book of Cultural Theory the Key Concepts, Edgar and Sedgwick state that there is a social mobility in a society.
Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals between hierarchical social groups, most typically between classes. Study of social mobility is an important complement to studies of social stratification, because a hierarchical society may not be considered undesirable if there is a free movement between the different levels of the hierarchy. (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999: 365)
In Cashmore’s Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, it is stated that the stable conception that a subject has of him- or herself as an individual is an identity. Cultural identity defines a junction between how a culture defines subjects and how they imagine themselves (2004: 95). Sills, in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences vol. 5, states the significance of familial disorganization and dissolution depends upon the institutional arrangements for family life in a particular culture (1968: 313).
History gives much contribution in the development of human life and culture. Sowell, in book of Race and Culture, stated a history which spans thousands of years, encompassing the rise and fall of empires and of peoples, makes it difficult—if not impossible—to believe in the permanent superiority of any race or culture (1994: 225). Cultural competition has been an integral part of the history of racial and ethnic groups around world (1994: 226). Amiram Gonen, in The Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World, stated Afrikaners are scattered throughout South Africa, with the largest concentrations in the urban areas in the Transvaal, in the Orange Free States, and in the northern Cape. The province of Natal probably has the smallest concentration of Afrikaner settlement (1993: 22).
by biological processes; psychological dynamics; cultural values; market conditions; demographic changes; the institutions of industrial capitalism, churches, government, and welfare agencies; and long-term historical changes (2006: 338).
C. Theoretical Framework
The theories above are going to help the writer in analyzing two questions in problem formulation which become the main analysis in this study. To know the social background of Stephen Kumalo’s family, the meaning of family and understanding about social class variations of people in South Africa are very important for the writer. Social background of people, especially black people is the focus to help the writer answer the question about what problem in Stephen Kumalo’s family is. To understand relationship between family and society is very important too. Theories about family and society are the help for analyzing and answering the questions in problem formulation.
METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of three parts, namely the object of the study, the approach of the study, and the method of the study. The object of the study talks about the novel being studied; the approach talks about the approach used in this study and the method of the study talks about the steps taken in analyzing the problem formulation.
A. Object of the Study
The type of work that is going to be analyzed by the writer is a novel. The topic of this analysis is sourced from the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country. It was written by Alan Paton, a South African writer. The novel was published first in New York in 1948 by Charles Scribner's Sons and in London by Jonathan Cape. The novel is narrated in third person point of view. It contains about 256 pages with three big parts. Book I consists of chapter 1 to chapter 17. Book II is from chapter 18 to 29, while book III is from chapter 30 to 36. Two cinema adaptations of the book have been made, the first in 1951 and the second in 1995 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry,_the_Beloved_Country).
Set in Ixopo (Ndotsheni) and Johannesburg, South Africa, Cry, the Beloved Country talks about racial discrimination that influences the family of Stephen Kumalo. He has a big family problem about separation
with some of his family members. His family is destructed by social segregation. Stephen Kumalo is known as a kind and generous man. He is also considered a pastor, and called Reverend in his village, Ixopo. An ironical thing in this story is how Stephen Kumalo who has good image and reputation in his village must face the fact that his son, Absalom Kumalo, is a murderer. He is involved in a crime in city of Johannesburg. While Stephen Kumalo’s younger sister is a prostitute and liquor seller. So Stephen Kumalo becomes ashamed of Gertrude and Absalom’s cases. He worries about his son and sister’s condition because they do not also write letter anymore. There is no information about them in very long time. Lack of communication happens to Stephen Kumalo, whose responsibility to keep his family in better life.
His sister, Gertrude Kumalo, goes to Johannesburg to look for her husband, who is recruited to work in mine. While Stephen Kumalo’s son, Absalom Kumalo, goes to look for her aunt, Gertrude, and never comes back. This condition forces Stephen Kumalo, as a leader of their family, to overcome this problem. So Stephen Kumalo takes a decision to look for his “lost” family to Johannesburg, where they go from Ixopo. His struggle to solve his family problem is to reunite all of his families, who goes to Johannesburg and never come back. Although it is difficult, he struggles hard to look for them and take them back to Ixopo.
their life. He tells a lot of about life of black people in South Africa. The system applied in South Africa influenced their daily life in some aspects, such as injustice treatment and discrimination by white people. The big influence of this system came to Stephen Kumalo's family. Stratification, injustice, and inequality are most described in the novel. By this injustice treatment, Stephen Kumalo, as a main protagonist character, was a part with his some members of his family, like his son, his sister, and his brother. Stephen Kumalo's struggle to solve his family his family problem also faces some obstacles because of the bad system of social life and government in South Africa.
So the objective of the study is to know the problems of Stephen Kumalo’s family, such as racial discrimination, shame, failure in educating family members. Stephen’s struggles that he takes to solve his family problems are rebuilding good relationship between black and white, facing the feeling of shame directly, and reuniting and rebuilding his family.
B. Approach of the Study
it in a literary work. Important social issues in a society are described in a literary work. Guerin stated that this approach is to deal with content for in content it is found literature’s importance in the movement of the history and social condition (1982: 92).
In Warren and Wellek’s Theory of Literature, literature is considered as a social institution. This view sees a literature as a “social creation” (1956: 64). The social-cultural-historical approach relates literature to the social institution, to an economic, social and political system. Social class is very different in this novel. Class divisions are typically seen as fundamental to the stratification of society, and as such may be associated with differences in power and culture (Sedgwick, 1999: 64). Culture and class in social life cannot be separated. Sedgwick, in
Cultural Theory the Key Concepts, also says “Culture thereby comes to be seen as fundamentally structured in terms of class inequalitie (1999: 66).”
In Rohrberger and Woods' Reading and Writing about Literature, they say that the work of literature put in the sociocultural-historical approach as a product of civilization. It is also stated that critics whose major interest is the sociocultural-historical approach insist that the only way to
locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produced it (1971: 9).
approach and socioculural approach that fusion in sociocultural-historical approach. She says “the traditional historical approach to literature usually takes as its basis some aspects of the sociocultural frame of reference, combining it with an interest in the biographical as well as knowledge of and interest in literary history (1971: 9).”
In Guerin’s A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, it is stated that this approach sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work (1999: 22). Applying socio cultural-historical approach in this research helps the writer to analyze the relation of the novel and the social, cultural, and historical background in which the novel is written. In Cultural Theory the Key Concepts, Andrew and Edgar wrote that cultural theory, then, starts from the self – proclaimed assertion of a plurality of meanings associated with the world ‘culture’ (2002: 3).
Social background of the novel is how social diversity in happens in South Africa and influences the society and family life. African culture and history also appear in the novel in many aspects, such as the characters’ language, habit, Christianity, and treatments to the society that is experienced by the characters of the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country. Historically, the culture of Christianity also influences the characters in their daily life very much, especially Stephen Kumalo and his wife, Mrs. Kumalo. It is told that Stephen Kumalo always spends his time in pray.
apply in this analysis since this thesis analyzes the literary work from its social, cultural, and historical aspects through the attitudes and actions of the characters in the novel.
C. Method of the Study
The method used in conducting this analysis is library research. Library research meant that the data used in this analysis are obtained from some books and other written references that are available in library. Sources from internet were also used in supporting this study. There are two sources in analyzing this story. Those are a primary source and secondary source. The primary source is Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, and the secondary source is the other books that can be used in supporting this analysis.
the Peoples of the World, Elizabeth Hurlock’s Personality Development, Paul B. Horton and Chester L. Hunt’s Sociology, Graham Little’s
Approach of Literature, H. P. Fairchild’s Dictionary of Sociology, Kingsley Davis’ Human Society, . Meriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, Middleton and Rassam’s Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Judith Ferster’s Arguing through Literature, Justin Pikuna’s Structure, Sound, and Sense, Leonard Thompson’s A History of South Africa Third Edition, S. Wahlroos’ Family Communication, R. Hills’ Modern Systems and the Family, Tom Hopkinson’s Life World Library South Africa, C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon’s A Handbook to Literature, Thomas Sowell’s Race and Culture, T.O. Irhomi’s Bungai Rampai Sosiologi Keluarga, Patricia Noller and Mary Anne Fitzpatrick’s Communication in Family Relationships, Peter N. Searns’ Encyclopedia of Social History, Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger’s South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, Randall Collins’ Sociology of Marriage and the Family, William A. Haviland’s Cultural Anthropology, Reinhard Bendix and Seymour Martin Lipset’s Class, Status, and Power, and Guerins’ A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature were used.
explanation from books.
In analyzing the novel, the first step done by the writer was reading a novel of Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, as the main source, more and more to understand it well and to get the idea about the topic to research. Then the writer found out the topic about Stephen Kumalo’s family, as a main protagonist character, with his family problem and his struggle to solve it.
The next step was to analyze the family problem of Stephen Kumalo, as a main protagonist character in this novel, and what struggle he took in solving his family problem. Then the problems found by the writer are formulated to some questions in problem formulation. The influence of the government system in South Africa toward Stephen Kumalo’s family is also important to analyze in this part.
ANALYSIS
The analysis of the study will focus on Stephen Kumalo’s family problem. There are two questions in problem formulation to answer in this section. The first is to find out the problem in Stephen Kumalo’s family as described in the novel. The second question is to find out Stephen Kumalo's struggle to solve his family problem.
A. Problems in Stephen Kumalo’s Family
There is some tragedy in the novel. Based on title, it cries out for suffering parents, justice, an end to the justice, segregation, the dying land, a young man, a lady, and starving people. The tragedy of the young man and the lady is going to be told in this chapter. It becomes the part of Kumalo’s family problem. Suffering parents who work hard to look for their son is also told. In this part, problem in Stephen Kumalo’s family is going to be analyzed. Social background of Kumalo’s family is important to analyze. Structure of Stephen Kumalo’s family and his family members that are told in the story are also important to be recognized. Roles of each member in a family can influence the family life itself, such as father, mother, and children. Kinship or lineage can also determine very much in building a good relation and facing the problem in a family. Family also has its own ways or steps in facing and solving its problems.
Conflict always happens in a family life. Every family has their own problem. As a family that is told mostly in the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country, Kumalo’s family may indeed have its own conflict. In Noller and Fitzpatrick’s Communication in Family Relationships, it is stated that
Conflict is an inevitable part of family life. Family members have frequent and intense close contact, often leading to irritability and annoyance. Family resources are not inexhaustible and therefore have to be shared. Often family members have disagreements about who has the right to tell other family members what to do (1993: 99).
1. Racial Discrimination
Stephen Kumalo’s family is the origin family of Zulu people in Ndotsheni, Province of Natal, South Africa. According to Oxford Children’s Encyclopedia, it is stated that the Zulus are the largest of the 10 main groups of black Africans in South Africa. Of the 5,680,000 Zulus, nearly two-thirds live in KwaZulu, which was once called Zululand (Oxford University Press, 1991: 192).
grown as increasing cultural complexity made the necessary. Therefore, family is important in forming society in which it is the basic institution, which develops the society (1980: 216). So biologically the Kumalo family has includes one father, one mother, and one son.
Cultural background in South Africa also influences his family. The fact that white people has broken the tribal structure causes any difference in social life. The segregation in many aspects of life in South Africa is experienced by black people. Massive social injustice and inequalities appears in their daily life. Clear difference of black and white happens in many situations.
He put the paper into his wallet, and together they watched the train. As all country trains in South Africa are, it was full of black travellers. On this train indeed there were not many others, for the Europeans of this district all have their cars, and hardly travel by train any more.
Kumalo climbed into the carriage for non-Europeans, already full of the humbler people of his race, some with strange assortments of European garments, some with blanket over their strange assortment, some with blankets over the semi-nudity of their primitive dress, though these were all women. Men travelled no longer in primitive dress (Paton, 1948: 14-15).
From this sentence, it is described clear that Stephen Kumalo’s background is from black people. It is different with white people in many cases. Martin N. Marger, in a book of Social Inequality, states that:
bulk of the society’s resources; Africans the least. The distance between the whites and the other three racial categories was so great, however, that the hierarchy was in effect a dichotomy— whites over nonwhites (2005: 178).
In the novel, there is another contrast happens in farms. White farms are symbolically located at the tops of the hills, where the land is green and fruitful. Black South Africans, however, are forced to tend their settlements at the bottom of the hills, in the unforgiving land of the valley (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cry/section1.rhtml). Many other situations in the novel describe the difference of black and white people, such as their right to be a landowner and to have farm in different certain places.
Because black South Africans are allowed to own only limited quantities of land, the natural resources of these areas are sorely taxed. The soil of Ndotsheni turns on its inhabitants—exhausted by over-planting and over-grazing, the land becomes sharp and hostile. For this reason, most young people leave the villages to seek work in the cities. Both Gertrude and Absalom find themselves caught up in this wave of emigration, but the economic lure of Johannesburg leads to danger. Facing limited opportunities and disconnected from their family and tribal traditions, both Gertrude and Absalom turn to crime (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cry/themes.html).
responsibility to their only son. Actually his blood relationship with his siblings is also told in the story. As a father, he plays a dominant role in their daily life. In his society, he is honored by community. He is called a
Reverend or a priest. A lot of aspects of Christianity are in his family. A lot of times in his life he spends in pray. Being respected by his neighbors, he is very famous because of his kindness too.
Reuter, in his book of Sociology, states that the person’s status and role are in part determined by such facts as age, sex, race, personal appearance, deformities, and other items of physical character; they are determined in part by education, family connections, religious affiliation, occupation, and other facts resulting from the accident of birth (1941: 45). Having any influence in his village, Stephen Kumalo is respected by his neighbors there. Silent condition in rural area of Ndotsheni influences his social life very much. They live their life in comfortable situation.
represents the social life and situation in both places. So the pattern of behavior is also different too. Each society of both rural and urban area has their own way to solve their problem.
Racial discrimination is the bad thing that happens to Stephen Kumalo’s family members in Johannesburg. Racial discrimination influences the social life of black and white people. It is the big problem that destructs his family. There is a problem about influence of social life of South Africa towards Stephen Kumalo’s family too. As a black family, Kumalo’s family experiences this injustice very much. So it brings some problem in some members of the family. It is virtually the responsibility of all members of the family to solve it. But an important role must be taken by Stephen Kumalo in solving it. Gertrude and Absalom Kumalo are victims of the fact that black people always have different treatment in many cases. They are victim of an injustice that happens in South Africa, especially in Johannesburg. Social segregation in South Africa brings a negative effect for them in their life in Johannesburg.
The first is his sister, Gertrude Kumalo. Gertrude is Reverend
Stephen Kumalo’s sister as told in the novel. Both characters in the novel are in blood relationship. She is twenty-five years younger than Stephen Kumalo. As an older brother, Stephen does not want bad thing to happen to his younger sister. As a relationship in siblings, Stephen and Gertrude are certainly close, but because of the large difference of their age, they are not so close each other. It is also told in the novel,
While Kumalo was waiting for Msimangu to take him to Shanty Town, he spent the time with Gertrude and her child. But it was rather to the child, the small serious boy, that he turned for his enjoyment; for he had been a young man in the twenties when his sister was born, and there had never been great intimacy between them. After all he was a parson, sober and rather dull no doubt, and his hair was turning white, and she was a young woman still (Paton, 1948: 55).
Gertrude is told to be sick in a letter from Theophilus Msimangu to Stephen Kumalo. It’s not a kind of illness. Her illness is a kind of society illness, and urban societies tend to have this sick. She becomes a liquor seller, a prostitute, and has been in prison more than once. She experiences these illnesses in the city of Johannesburg. A lot of problems come to black people, and Gertrude Kumalo has her own problem too. Because of his great love, great expectation comes to Stephen Kumalo to aid his sister in her trouble in Johannesburg.
