Social Criticism Definition of Terms
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
Maris Kobe in his review on the novel says, “In language both simple and eloquent, Alan Paton has created a masterpiece of symbolism, compassion and
understanding. This book is a must read as a modern rendering of Greek tragedy.” 1997: 2
From those criticisms, I can conclude that Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel but it contains with some values and critics about the society of South Africa. Paton
succeeds to a remarkable degree in portraying a segment of South African life during period immediately following the end of World War II. He succeeds, to an even more
remarkable degree, in endowing this regional portrait with universal significance. He accomplishes this by incorporating into the actualities of South Africa’s physical and
social setting a fundamental theme of social disintegration and moral restoration. This theme is worked out through two complementary, or counter pointed, actions:
Stephen Kumalo’s physical search for his son Absalom, and James Jarvis intellectual search for the spirit of his son Arthur. In each case, the journey, once undertaken,
leads to an inner, spiritual awakening. Another criticism stated by Rooney said that Cry, the Beloved Country is a
great novel about racism, since it shows the injustice without any violence. It is intended to evoke and summon the readers compassion to the effect of the injustice
2005: 1. Through this novel, Paton tries to show the reader what is really happen in South Africa at that time. Paton tries to realize the readers about the effect of the
injustice. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Paton himself stated in his note of this novel, that Cry, the Beloved Country is a compound of truth and fiction. The story is not true, but the social condition is a
record of the plain and simple truth. It is not only a portrait of social condition of South Africa, but it also conveys Paton’s feelings and opinions about racism. It seems
that through this novel, Paton tries to fight against the practice of racism, especially racism in South Africa 1974: 5.
In this study, I focus on the main character’s conflicts and the author’s criticism toward the South African society in the novel. As I stated above, there are
some opinions and critic about the novel. Most of them are to show social condition of the South African society at that time. Using the fact that the author was live in
South Africa at that time, I compare the society with the society of South Africa where the author lives at that time. Although the novel is not real, the fact of social
condition in South Africa at that time is real. The conflicts of the main character show the criticism of the author toward the South African society.