Afraid of something uncertain

“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 Johannesburg things were happening that had nothing to do with any chief. But he got to his feet, for they had summoned him to the presence of the ruler of the tribe p. 196.” It can be seen that from all of the conflicts Stephen Kumalo faces, Kumalo learns many things that shapes his character to be more humble and not depend to himself or the situation or to other people because it can cause him to have internal conflicts.

2. The Causes of Stephen Kumalo’s Conflicts

This analysis is also important because it will figure out the main points of what Paton criticizes toward the South African Society. Each character will describe the social condition in South Africa and the criticism of the author toward the South African society. There are some causes of the conflicts that Stephen Kumalo has and most of them comes from the member of his family. Each characters and nature below will represents the social condition of South Africa at that time. a Gertrude’s Sickness Gertrude is Stephen Kumalo’s sister, she is twenty-five years younger than him. Gertrude goes to Johannesburg to search his husband who had never come back from the mines. Kumalo receives a news about her when someone send him a letter told that Gertrude is very sick and ask him to come to Johannesburg quickly.