CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Cry, the Beloved Country as one of Alan Paton’s works was written in 1948. It is the story of Zulu Christian Pastor’s journey from quite Natal province to a
modern, sinister Johannesburg in search of his son, his sister and his brother-all whom have disappeared into an urban life, sin and political intrigue. By tragic
circumstances his son Absalom, has accidentally killed the social reformer son of a leading Natal farmer. The novel deals with social condition in South-Africa where
Paton used to live and spent most of his work and life there. There are many opinions about the theme of this novel. Some critics said that
the theme of Cry, the Beloved Country is about the tension between urban and rural society. In this novel, Paton presented rural society as a united family a religious
person and having good morality and stability, while urban society as broken family, hedonism and atheism. It can be seen that the tension is a comparison of living
between Johannesburg as a place of urban society and Ndotsheni as a picture of a place where rural society live. Other critics said that the theme is about social
disintegration and moral restoration Ross, 1997: 8. Cry, the Beloved Country may be longer remembered than any other novel of
1948, but not because it fits into any pattern of the modern novel. It stands by itself; it
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creates rather than follows a tradition. It is at once unashamedly innocent and subtly sophisticated. It is a story; it is a prophecy; it is a psalm. It is passionately African, as
no book before it had been; it is universal Lewis Gannett, 2005: 1. According to Gannet, Cry, the Beloved Country is a sophisticated novel. It is a
combination of a story, a prophecy and a psalm. It is a fiction that includes Christian values as the dominant influence of the characters. Dealing with Paton’s interest in
the race relation in South Africa, Gannet had an opinion that Cry, the Beloved Country is a story, which tries to offer a solution to the problem of South Africa,
which is based on Christian values, such as love and kindness 2005: 1. Randoph Vigne stated that Cry, the Beloved Country was the book that
enabled Paton to say, when campaigning against the Group Areas Act 1957: ‘Having a voice which, by God’s grace, can be heard beyond the confines of South Africa, I
use it to speak for people who have no voice at all’. The novel, Cry, the Beloved Country is well known in many countries outside South Africa. It means that Paton’s
voice for the injustice in South Africa also reaches to other country and to other people outside South Africa 2006: 1.
According to Vigne, Alan Paton allowed politics to interfere his literary works: For Paton, as he makes clear several times, politics was a duty, interference in
his life as a writer. To literature he owes always an equal, perhaps a higher duty. Nowhere, however, does he examine the failure of his hopes for political change
through actions in which he participated 2006: 1 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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