Read chapters 7-10 of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country and write/post a journal: Identify and explain one of the discoveries of Stephen Kumalo and its importance.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

Answers

Gadzooks! Can it be? I am first! Ahem.. Anyway, One of the important discoveries that Stephen Kumalo makes is the discovery that there are actually white people in South Africa that don't hate black people and are willing to help them. This discovery is important because it changes Kumalo's outlook a little. It makes him realize that there is still hope for Africa. Also, this is important because it "beats" him.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

During the chapters we were supposed to read. Stephen discovered many new and exciting things. One of these things was that people are trying to change South Africa. This is improtant because the people who work in the gold mines can one day make more than 35 shillings a week. This helps him believe that Claremont can one day be a happy family enviroment.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

An important discovery for Stephen Kumalo was finding out about his son. His son was one of the major reasons Stephen and his wife wre scared about going to Johannesburg. Although the news was bad, a weight was lifted off his shoulder when Stephen learned about his son and nephew. This "news" probably did not make Stephen like the big city anymore but it completed the first part of Stephen's mission of finding his family leaving him to only find his friend's friend's daughter.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

While this may not seem as the most important discovery the Rev. Stephen Kumalo makes at first glance, the knowledge of the bus boycott for the umfundisi proves to be a very important part of the novel. This is when the two preachers are getting ready to board the bus for a place eleven miles from Johannesburg. A man of African ancestry stops them and convinces the two with his "silver tongue" to not board the bus because the evil capitalist white men have raised the ticket price to higher than most can pay who live in the squalid homes and societies described throughout chapter 9.

The importance of the bus boycott shows that there are people willing to fight against the establishment without bearing arms. The notion of an elderly white woman being robbed by "natives" seems to taper a bit with these Gandhi-like actions of nonviolence. (Incidentally, a point that I would like to make is that Gandhi, a Rhode[?] Scholar who studied on a full scholarship at Oxford University in England, practiced law in South Africa. Gandhi, most noted for his actions against the British, the same colonialists who controlled South Africa at the time of this novel, participated in many actions such as a bus boycott in both South Africa and India.)

The bus boycott softens the image of the stereotypical native and gives rise to something greater than mugging old ladies in a dark alley for those who believe in the sovereign nation to be of South Africa. The man who stopped Kumalo and Msimangu did more for the country than all the thugs who were mentioned in the newspaper combined. This action also plays a role with the rhetoric of John Kumalo, for or against is really up to interpretation of the reader. This is the path towards the green, utopian valleys described in chapter 1, and the country will turn out, in the pages to come, to be a better place.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

I think that there are several things that Kumalo discovered that raised his opinion of Johannesberg. Before he got therer and when he first arrived (including when he was robbed), he thought of the city as a horrible place that corrupted people when they moved there, causing them to lose touch with reality. But he discovers that there are people who are trying to make things better. Like the man who convinces Kumalo and Msimangu to walk eleven miles to and from Johannesberg instead of taking the bus. He also sees white men giving rides to black people boycottting the bus, which shows that not all white people were against black people.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

One important discovery of Stephen Kumalo is at the reformatory. Although Stephen does not find Absalom, it seems to me that he gains a lot of information here and is somewhat releaved to hear the good behavior of Absalom. The important information that he gains is that Absalom is supposed to get married and the time when Absalom left is sooner than other places.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

One of the major discoveries made by Stephen Kumalo is the discovery of his brother, John, and the lifestyle which his brother has adopted. He finds his brother divorced, living with another woman, but seemingly prosperous and important. His brother had rejected the way of tribe life because to him it was only oppressing and further weakening his people. He gives to Stephen a new perspective on just what is going on in Africa: he feels that his people are being oppressed and extorted; he is trying to help his people by being prosperous himself.

Naturally, this attitude is somewhat painful for Stephen to hear, especially as his brother has "forgotten" God. Stephen has believed that with the restoration of the family and tribe will come the restoration of Africa; his brother abandoned that hope long ago. John believes that "since God has done nothing" for the people of Africa, "man must do it himself."

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

Stephen Kumalo makes several discoveries over these few chapters that affect him greatly. One of the less obvious, and it may seem trivial, discoveries that he has made is when he is at his brother John's house and is trying to find his son, Absalom. John writes down the number of the company he was last employed at and the adress and though he has a telephone he will not call to ask what has happened to Absalom and when he last showed up at work. This discovery that even if you are lucky enough or rich enough to own a telephone there are still people who, because of their skin, will not answer. This is important because he looks at the phone and is proud that his brother has this and then it chrystalizes that everything is different and that material possesions can only take a person so far in Johnannesburg.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

One of the important discoveries Kumalo made was when he is around his nephew and heard about the coming of his new grandson from the woman his son, Absalom impregnated. After all the things from his good past that have turned bad (his son and his sister), he sees a new life in the nephew and the new baby. He thinks that they can bring back the pride to the tribe there once was.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

In these chapters Stephen Kumalo finds the first pieces to the puzzel that he went to Johannesburg to discover. While he still cannot track down his son he has learned more about him. He has discovered that his son was involved in illegal activities and went to somewhere to change for the better, and then ran away from his new home. While these things are hard to cope with and take in they are discoveries about his son of whom he hasn't talked to or heard from in years.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

I believe that an important discovery of Stephen Kumalo's in chapters 7-10 of the book appears on page 100. Stephen discovers, with the help of Msimangu, that he cannot solve everyone's problems for them. He had just visited his son's fiancee, and was departing when Msimangu helped to show him this very fact. "...were your back as broad as heaven, and your purse full of gold, and did your compassion reach from here to hell itself, there is nothing you can do." Msimangu showed him the futility of trying to change the condition of his family and South America through his actions alone.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

I think the most important discovery Kumalo realizes is that white men can help without doing anything to hurt you. This was clearly demonstrated when he got a ride from a white man on the bus strike. The man had to go miles out of his way, but he did not do anything to hurt Kumalo.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

Many discoveries occured in chapters 7-10. One of which is that Stephen Kumalo truely discovered how powerful power and money can be. These two concepts can control the life of any one person who gets a hold of them. Kumalo finds this in his brother, who had changed his entire life to fit around power and money. This affects Kumalo strongly, because they have taken over his brother's life and he does not know who his brother is anyone with him and his power and money.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

An important discovery made by Stephen Kumalo, from page 98, chapter 10, is when Stephen discovers that his son supposedly impregnated this girl, and that he had plans to marry her. Kumalo wants to take the girl with him. The possibility that she is carrying his grandchild haunts Kumalo.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2005

Stephen Kumalo discovers his brother for who he really is in the 7th chapter: "Kumalo sat silent, for this was a new brother he saw." This quote shows that Kumalo, the chief, and the others from the villages truly were ignorant of the oppression that was going on, so this scene is a double-discovery. Kumalo discovers about his people being used for labor by the Europeans, and Kumalo truly discovers the kind of person his brother is.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2005

While in Johannesburg, Stephen Kumalo discovers the fact that there are SOME compassionate white people. The black people of Johannesburg are boycotting the buses due to a raise in price, and so they must walk everywhere. "And there were still cars stopping to give them lifts, especially to the old people, and the women, and the cripples. Kumalo's face wore the smile, the strange smile not known in other countries, of a black man when he sees one of his people helped in public by a white man, for such a thing is not lightly done." (pg 81) Kumalo sees here that not all white people are cruel to his kind, but there are indeed some that are willing to help.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2005

In chapters 7-10 Stephan has many important discoveries. His discovery of something known as politics is the most important he makes. He learns what his brother does and of thing like the protests. Before in his little village he had never herd of a thing like politics but now that he has come to Johannesburg he is thought the ways of politics. The realization that the church is not the way people convey their ideas is shocking to him and forces him to rethink his life. With this newfound knowledge perhaps Stephan can help the people of the city to become free.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2005

Whilst reading chapters 6-10 of Alan Paton’s “Cry, The Beloved Country,” it became apparent to Stephen Kumalo that people in Johannesburg are afraid of something. Msimangu knows that the people are afraid of the police, and people connected to the police, but Kumalo is not knowing of this yet.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2005