Biblical Influences on Cry, the Beloved Country

Biblical Influences on Cry, the Beloved Country

or:

Cry, the Beloved Country: Like the Bible but Shorter

To anyone and everyone: This is one of the great books! It reads like a lovely poem. Enjoy and reflect.

--unknown lawyer from Chicago

The owner of the South Haven, Michigan bookstore The Hidden Room discovered this simple yet memorable comment written firmly on a memo card of a noted Chicago legal firm. The card was left in a copy of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. From his early childhood, Paton was a lover of language and a devout Christian. As he grew into a masterful poet, writer, and orator, his passions remained with him, a constant influence on his works. This is especially evident in Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton’s first and most highly esteemed novel. Cry, the Beloved Country is the story of Stephen Kumalo, an elderly black parson in a small poverty- and drought-plagued tribal village in the racially torn country of South Africa. He undertakes a journey to the corrupt, terror-ridden city of Johannesburg where he searches, both physically and emotionally, for his son Absalom, as well as his old way of life. From Paton’s use of rhythm to the names he chose for his characters, strong Biblical influence is apparent throughout the novel.

Though Paton incorporates several different oratorical styles in Cry, the Beloved County, the style of the book as a whole is frequently described as Biblical. The language throughout the novel, simple and lyrical, is reminiscent of the King James version of the Bible; the entire book has a lilting, almost musical quality. This echoes the style that carries over from the original Hebrew into good translations of the Bible, known as Hebrew poetry. Many of the passages in the novel are so rich in the devices of Hebrew poetry they seem to almost imitate parts of the Old Testament:

The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.

With its melodic rhythm and holy, commanding tone, the above passage emulates the Old Testament’s Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.