“The journey had begun, and now the fear back again, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the great city where boys were killed crossing the street,
the fear of Gertrude’s sickness. Deep down the fear for his son. Deep down the fear of a man who lives in a world not made for him, whose own world is
slipping away, dying, being destroyed, beyond any recall. p. 15” “They walked to the gate of the little house of Mrs. Lithebe. Kumalo lifted to
his friend a face that was full of suffering. This thing, he said. Here in my heart there is nothing but fear. Fear, fear, fear. p. 67”
Afraid has become one of Stephen Kumalo’s conflicts because he has to decide between his own will and the situation he face. He feels fear because he does
not know what will going to happen next while he is still hoping the good side from the situation he faces. Kumalo’s afraid will brought him to another conflicts that he
is going to face later.
b. Sad of Gertrude’s Condition
Kumalo cries when he knows Gertrude has become a liquor seller and a prostitute with a child, he feels sad because he cannot do nothing to change the
condition. And he also sad when he knows that his son had been sent to reformatory. “His eyes fill with tears, his deep gentleness returns to him. He goes to her
and lifts her from the floor to the chair. Inarticulately he strokes her face, his heart filled with pity. p.30”
“He glanced at his friend, but Kumalo’s eyes were on the ground. Although Msimangu could not see his face, he could see the drop that fell on the
ground, and he tightened his grip on the arm. p. 59”
Kumalo sad because he feels pity to see what happen while in other situation he cries because he looses his hope. He feels sad and cries, he struggles in his heart
because he can not do anything to help his relatives. Kumalo’s sadness has become PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
one of conflicts because he cannot do anything to help Gertrude although he is a priest so he just Struggle within himself and feels the sadness inside him.
c. Desperate of Absalom’s murder case
Kumalo feels desperate when he is hoping some support and a help to help his son from his brother John but when he look at him, John did not give what he
expected. Kumalo becomes tired and dispirited when he feels desperate, it can be seen when he arrived at Mrs. Lithebe’s house.
“Kumalo look at his brother, but his brother does not look at him. Indeed he walks away. Wearily, wearily he goes from the great gate in the wall to the
street. Tixo, he says, Tixo, forsake me not. Father Vincent’s words come back to him, anything, anything, he said, you have only to ask. Then to Father
Vincent he will go. p. 92” “Kumalo returned to Mrs. Lithebe’s tired and dispirited. The two women were
silent, and he had no desire to speak to them, and none to play with his small nephew. He withdrew into his room, and sat silent there, waiting till he could
summon strength enough to go to the Mission House. p. 92”
Kumalo feels desperated because the situation he face was to hard for him. He
has to help his son but he does not receive any help especially from his own brother so he has to choose to find any help from another man. He struggles within himself
between learned to be humble and the desires to be something that is himself p. 93 d. Suffering because of the treatment from his family
Kumalo suffers because he has been shamed and humiliated when he came to speak to his brother about their son and John consider it as provokating him and he
became angry and humiliating Kumalo in front of people. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
“Out there in the street, he was humiliated and ashamed. Humiliated because the people passing looked in astonishment, ashamed because he had not come
for this purpose at all. He had come to tell his brother that power corrupts. That a man who fights for justice must himself be cleansed and purified, that
love is greater than force. And none of these things had he done. p.182”
Suffering has become the major factor of Stephen Kumalo’s conflicts because he always feels suffer when he has to deals with the member of his family. He feels
suffer because he thinks that his family hurting him, for he is a priest but his son has become a murderer, and his sister has become a prostitute and his brother live with a
woman but not married. From the beginning of the story, Kumalo already shows his suffering when he receive letter from Johannesburg telling about his family in
Johanessburg. “-Hurting myself? Hurting myself? I do not hurt myself, it is they who are
hurting me. My own son, my own sister, my own brother. They go away and do not write anymore. Perhaps it does not seem to them that we suffer.
Perhaps they do not care for it. p. 11”
After all the conflicts Kumalo had experience, he learns that he can believe in all his suffering. It means he begins to understand what the meaning of his life is. It
makes him have a strong character with an understanding of life. The journey had opened his eyes of what had happening in Johannesburg is different from Ndotsheni.
“Kumalo looked at him under the light of the lamp. I believe, he said. But I have learned that it is a secret. Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness
and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. There is my wife, and you, my friend, and these people
who welcomed me, and the child who is so eager to be with us here in Ndotsheni –so in my suffering I can believe. p.193”
“Kumalo came to himself with a start and realized how far he had travelled since that journey to Johannesburg. The great city had opened his eyes to
something that had begun and must now be continued. For there in PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
