How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Who indeed knows the secret of the earthly pilgrimage? Who indeed knows why there can be comfort in a world of desolation? Now God be thanked that there is a beloved one who can lift up the heart in suffering, that one can play with a child in the face of such misery. Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal. Aye, even the name of a river that runs no more. (1.10.6)
While Kumalo is playing with his little nephew, he tells the child all about Ndotsheni and the Umzimkulu River. Telling his nephew about those familiar hills and the great valley makes Kumalo happy, since he is homesick. But while he is playing with his nephew, he suddenly goes off into this much bigger meditation about why we are all here and why life has to be so hard. What effect does it have on your reading of this novel that Paton regularly connects small plot points with much larger ethical and religious questions like, "Who indeed knows why there can be comfort in a world of desolation?" How do these meditations from Kumalo make you feel as a reader?
Quote #5
So [Msimangu] told [Gertrude and Mrs. Lithebe], and having told them, closed the front door on the wailing of the women, for such is their custom. Slowly he followed the bent figure [of Kumalo] up the street, saw him nodding as he walked, saw people turning. Would age now swiftly overtake him? Would this terrible nodding last now for all his days, so that men said aloud in his presence, it is nothing, he is old and does nothing but forget? And would he nod as though he too were saying, Yes, it is nothing, I am old and do nothing but forget? But who would know that he said, I do nothing but remember? (1.14.24)
Paton often uses a writing style called free indirect discourse. This may not sound particularly thrilling, but bear with us for a second: free indirect discourse is when a character is talking but there are no quotation marks or specific phrases like "He said" or "He thought" to show that it's the character who is speaking. Still, we know that this series of questions comes from Msimangu, and not from the third-person narrator, as Msimangu is looking at sad, broken Kumalo.
What effect does it have on your reading of these more emotional passages that Paton blurs the lines between character and narrator? How much influence do the characters' inner thoughts have on the narration of the book? How much do the characters' emotions bleed over into the narrator's description of what's happening in the novel?
Quote #6
[Jarvis] kissed [Mrs. Jarvis], and she clung to him for a moment. And thank you for all of your help, she said. The tears came again into her eyes, and into his too for that matter. He watched her climb the stairs with their daughter-in-law, and when the door closed on them, he and Harrison turned to go to the study.
— It's always worse for the mother, Jarvis. (2.19.30-1)
There is this weird split in Cry, the Beloved Country where the women are most often the ones who weep visibly. So, Kumalo's wife cries when Kumalo prepares to leave Johannesburg. Here, Margaret Jarvis is visibly emotional. And yes, tears come to Mr. Jarvis's eyes, too, but it's Mrs. Jarvis's emotion that sparks Mr. Jarvis's tears. And Mrs. Lithebe and Gertrude wail when Absalom's verdict comes through. In fact, Msimangu actually warns Gertrude not to cry when they go to see Absalom for the last time in prison. Why might Paton emphasize a connection between women and emotion? In addition to crying, how do the men of the book generally show their feelings?