workers were permitted to hold only unskilled jobs and were subject to “pass laws” that restricted their freedom of movement. In 1913, the Natives Land Act radically
limited the amount of land that black South Africans were permitted to own. As the character Arthur Jarvis states in the novel, just one-tenth of the land was set aside for
four-fifths of the country’s people. The resultant overcrowding led many black South Africans to migrate to Johannesburg to work in the mines. Those in power welcomed
the influx of cheap labor but failed to provide adequate housing or services to address the mass migration. These are the circumstances under which the character Stephen
Kumalo leaves his impoverished rural village to search for his son in Johannesburg http:www.sparknotes.comlitcrycontext.html.
Though Paton’s novel helped raise the social consciousness of white South Africa, things got much worse before they got better. In 1948, the National Party
representing Africaner and conservative interests gained power and introduced apartheid. Under apartheid, every South African was classified according to race, and
the Group Areas Act enforced the physical separation of blacks from whites. Every aspect of South African life was racially segregated. Under the leadership of Nelson
Mandela, the African National Congress ANC, which had been founded in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress and renamed in 1923, began protests
against the new laws in the form of strikes and marches. After decades of struggle and bloodshed, the ANC prevailed, and South Africa held its first free election in
1994. Mandela was elected president, apartheid was dismantled, and the country PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ratified one of the most liberal constitutions in the world. http:www.sparknotes.comlitcrycontext.html
D. Theoretical Framework
In doing this study, I use the theories of conflict and theories of character and characterization mentioned in the review on related study. The theories are related to
social criticism of the analysis which is about the main character’s conflicts and the causes of the conflicts. It is necessary to understand the theories of conflict because
they will be helpful in analyzing the criticism of the author. The theories of character and characterization are also play an important role to show the social conditions of
South Africa at that time through the characters in the story. Since this analysis is about the conflicts and the causes of the conflicts as
criticism toward the society, the historical background on the South African social condition are also needed to be presented in order to provide guidance to the analysis.
The historical background helps in finding the criticism of the author toward the South African society at that time. It will limit the topic so that the analysis will be
focused on the main character’s conflicts and the causes of the conflicts as the social criticism of the author. Therefore, by giving the background on South African Social
condition, the analysis will be more reliable. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of work that I analyze is a novel and the title is Cry, the Beloved Country. It is made and printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson and Viney Ltd,
published by Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex, England in 1944. It became an immediate worldwide bestseller. It is about a black man’s country under white’s man
law is a work of searing beauty. Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background
of a land and a people risen by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricsm, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work
of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man. Cry, the Beloved Country was published in 1948 to overwhelming
international acclaim—at the time of the author’s death, in 1988, more than fifteen million copies of the novel had been sold, and it had been published in twenty
different languages. In Paton’s native South Africa, however, praise for Cry, the Beloved Country remained muted, and the novel’s objectives take on the problems of
racial inequality in South Africa created much controversy. Nonetheless, Paton’s reputation as one of South Africa’s greatest writers remained secure, though his
28 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
subsequent novels, Too Late the Phalarope 1953 and Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful 1981, were praised by critics but failed to generate the same excitement as
Cry, the Beloved Country. Alan Paton died in South Africa in 1992.
B. Approach
Analyzing a literary work needs an approach in order to lead the researcher to a better understanding of a novel. Rohrberger and Woods 1971: 6-15 present five
approaches in their book Reading and Writing about Literature. They are the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the socio-cultural-historical approach,
the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach. The socio-cultural-historical approach insists that the only way to locate the
real works is in reference to the civilization that produced it. It means that referring to the civilization or history in which the literary work produced is important in this
approach. The approach that I apply in this study is the sociocultural-historical approach.
The approach is stated by Rohrberger as follows. Critics whose major interest is the sociocultural-historical approach insist that
the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the to the civilization that produced it. Civilization is defined as the attitudes and action of a specific
group of people and point out that literature take the attitudes and actions as its subject matter 1971: 9.
The critics also define civilization as the attitudes and actions of a specific
group of people and point out that literature takes these attitudes and actions as its PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
subject matter. It is necessary that the critic investigates the social milieu in which a work was created in a vacuum and second, literature embodies ideas significant to the
culture that produced it. There are two factors that need to get attention to socio- cultural. First, accuracy in the presentation of historical facts is of value to the
historian, but not necessarily to the author. Second, a work of literature might have a historical significance, but not necessarily a literary significance.
The themes of Cry, the Beloved Country is about social inequality and injustice in the main character’s conflicts; the focus of the sociocultural-historical is
the South African society, the time when Paton lives and exists. Nevertheless, he is able to join with the culture and society at that time was bad, especially for the Black
people, the working class. They were described as a second class in society because of the politics Apartheid. Looking at the bad conditions, Paton, who came from the
white society but born and live in South Africa wrote a novel about the condition of South Africa, he put his criticism on it.
I use the sociocultural-historical approach because of its relation between the author and the society at the time Paton wrote the novel. In the novel, Paton wants to
criticize the society at that time and he describes it through the representation of each character problem in the novel. The sociocultural-historical approach also related to
this study which examining the criticism and the conflicts and the causes of the conflicts of the main character personality which closely related with the society and
the background of the author. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
