Stuti Rana Honours English 10 30 June 2015 Critical reading journal Book 1 1. The book is narrated in third person omniscient and we are following Stephen Kumalo for the majority of book one, but it is also entwined the the thoughts of other characters or looks at things from an aerial view and describes the hills of Ixopo in the beginning of book one.The purpose of this narration is to get more the whole plot line and set the mood by taking bits and pieces from other characters’ thoughts or having a bird's eye view and describing South Africa physically. The world from Kumalo's point of view you see the surroundings in a more religious perspective. 2. All we know is told from mostly Kumalo’s point of view and sometimes other characters. We know what we know because if Kumalo feels or reacts to an event then we can confirm what has happened when another character accounts or observes the same situation or an event occurs reacting to that situation. For example when we first hear of Kumalo’s brother we know nothing about his business in Johannesburg until Reverend Msimangu says, “He is one of our great politicians.” ( page 56). Everything we know is mainly told from the viewpoint of Kumalo. 3. The book is mainly caused by Kumalo receiving a letter from Reverend Msimangu asking him to come to Johannesburg to aid his sick sister. After finding out his sister was not physically sick, he asked her to come home with him. This eventually leads him to try and find his son and that causes him to learn what happened to his son. 4. In the first chapter the narrator describes roads that runs from Ixopo into the hills, valley of Umzimkulu, and the hills and mountains of Igneli. The narrator also describes grass that “is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil.”. This is followed with a warning, “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. Destroy it and man is destroyed.” (Page 33). Again the quote about grass is repeated, but this time followed by the imagery of green hills becoming bear and growing red and bear and how it is not guarded or cared for:“ it no longer keeps men, guards men, cares for men.”(Page 34). This imagery shows the same hills, but how one is cared for and sustains life, but the other, desolate, cannot be lived upon. It shows that a person’s home depends on the individual as much as the person relies on it and if you cannot sustain your home, it will no longer sustain you. This is supported when the narrator ends the chapter by saying, “ The soil cannot keep them any more.” (Page 34) . I feel like this is an allegory for South African apartheid, and how it is making the land barren. 5. I was surprised when I read from Reverend Msimangu’s point of view. The whole story we see how grateful Kumalo is to him and how in some ways he looks up to him. On page 124 the tone of the paragraph was very harsh and accusing and lines such as, “And how fools listen to him, silent, enrapt, sighing when he is done, feeding their empty bellies on his empty words.”. It was as if Msimangu was making fun of his listeners and when Kumalo comes up to him, telling him that he was touched by his words, the Reverend just says, “ I have tried every way to touch you, he says, but I could not come near. So give thanks and be satisfied.” the tone of this was so commanding and ungrateful I was surprised how bitter Msimangu,a man that Kumalo idolized, was. Sometimes Kumalo sees this bitterness, as illustrated on page 100 when Msimangu asks the girl that Absalom loves, “ Perhaps you will find another man, said Msimangu bitterly”..... “ You can do nothing here, he said. Let us go”. Kumalo was just trying to help this girl that may be the mother of his future grandchild and Msimangu is rude to her and Kumalo. Eventually, he says, “I am ashamed to walk with you, he said. His face twisted” I am shocked to find a man of his stature, a man who many people look up to as a religious figure and many people respect, be very bitter inside. 6. I feel like my view point on Johannesburg and the story took a more realistic feel when Kumalo and his brother were talking about the trial and if they need a lawyer and John Kumalo says, “ You see, my brother, there is no proof that my son or this other young man was there at all.” … “ Not there at all? But my son­,” “ Yes, yes, John Kumalo interrupts him, and smiles at him. Who will believe your son? he asks.” (page 134). We always read how things in Johannesburg aren’t always fair and that even though there is opportunity in that city, you can get cheated in many ways. As reader we know Kumalo first experienced this when he was trying to “buy a ticket” for a bus ride. When his brother betrays him it is an even harder hit because his son’s life is on the line. This amplifies the plot and adds a more realistic tone to the novel because things that Kumalo experienced happened to people in South Africa. This puts more at stake for the characters in the novel, therefore amplifying the plot and the actions taken by other characters. 7. The repetition in this novel broadens the ideas that the story is trying bring out,also if you repeat something it gives that phrase a different meaning at times and helps you make connections in the story. For example in the first chapter the quote about the grass being rich and matted is repeated twice. Before the first quote green hills and lush valleys were described, and the quote is followed by a warning that if you do not guard it or care for it­ “it” referring to the land­ it will not be able sustain you. After the second quote the narrator writes about the same hills, but this time dead and barren, this reflects consequences of not guarding and caring for the land. Also repetition helps to hammer an idea into the reader's head. For example the phrase “ All road lead to Johannesburg” and “ Once you go to Johannesburg you never return.” are repeated through the book one many times and solidify those idea, also hinting at foreshadowing. 8. If Johannesburg wasn’t “ a place of opportunity” then people might not think of migrating there and then Kumalo’s son, brother, and sister might not have moved there in the first place. Also if Kumalo hadn’t received the letter, then he might have never visited Johannesburg, or at least not visited at that exact moment and that alone could have meant that he wouldn’t find his son or sister. 9. The whole story has been about a black african man who lost his son due to various circumstance in South Africa. It was about him finally being exposed to a city that was the center of South Africa because “ All roads lead to Johannesburg”, and him experiencing the life of a religious black man in Johannesburg, the heart of what South Africa really is. It forces the reader to feel the environment of South Africa in a black man’s eyes and share his experiences, this allows the reader to better understand South Africa from the viewpoint of someone who has lived there. It shows the center of South africa during the pinnacle points of apartheid. 10. Some particular quotes in the novel made me speculate how the natives really feel about each other, the quote was, “It is not in my heart to hate a white man.”(Page 55). Throughout the first book you see that not all white and black interactions are apathetic ,discriminatory, or hateful. This made me want to understand the stance these black men have on apartheid. 11. When the book opens you can feel how the author is describing the hills and the titihoya. You become slowly familiar with the surrounding and can better understand the world because when Kumalo is exposed to Johannesburg, he is also new and adapting to his surroundings, like the reader and with that connection it helps the reader ease into the story and community. 12. On page 89 the narrator is not writing from Kumalo’s point of view and says, “God have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. White man have mercy upon us.” This quote seemed to saying in the first two sentences that God should have mercy upon them. Then refers to God as Christ, and says he should have mercy upon them. Then it refers to the white man and then says white man have mercy. The white man sentence follows the sentences about God and Christ. To me it seemed to claim that in the eyes of the specific narrator, that white man has power like God. 13. The ending to me was about Kumalo finding a hope for his son in a form of this lawyer, who took this case for God. It also showed how different things were as compared to in the beginning. The mood felt more tense and the stakes were higher. The ending shows a lot about how Kumalo developed in his time at Johannesburg and how his experience aged him physically harder than his past years of his life in his home. Critical Reading Journal 2 1. The viewpoint we are reading from in Book 2 is told from a third person omniscient, and follows James Jarvis, though there are other characters that the narrator follows, for the majority of this story he follows James. I believe the point of this narration is to show the viewpoint of two different men, one black and one white, who have both lost their sons and show how different and how the same they are. 2. We know most of our information from the previous book, but we learn new facts from both the viewpoints of Kumalo and James. For example we didn’t know what Arthur Jarvis wrote in his book until James read it. 3. The connections in this book to the previous book was displayed in the very beginning of the book. The first two paragraphs are the same as the ones in the beginning of chapter 1. Also the fact that both these men have lost their sons makes the connections between their stories stronger. 4. The quote “ But there was no one to cry.”( P. 186) I felt like the narrator was referring to the quote in book one, “Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end.” ( page 104 and 105). Arthur is dead, but his death could have been prevented if someone had cried not to come down stairs. In addition, in chapter one and in chapter 18 the first two paragraphs are repeated, but in chapter 18 the waring , “ Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.” (page 33) is left out. It was not a particular phrase, but the absence of one that hinted to me we were not reading from Kumalo’s point of view, and the absence made me look at the previous paragraphs differently. 5. I was puzzled by the quote, “ He cannot face it any more, he said to himself, the old chap cannot face it any more.” (P 209). In context, Jarvis has finished reading his son’s Private Essay on the Evolution of South African”​
and he locked the back door before heading out and the policeman at the back door hears the click of the lock and says this quote. I know that James’s son was killed because someone came in through the back door and eventually shot him and that is why James locks the door. The narrator had to have put that quote in there, knowing it was true to what Jaris was feeling, even though it is said from another character’s point of view. What I don’t understand is what can’t Jarvis face? Is it the simplicity of how his son could have avoided his own death, or does it have to do more with how his son was now a complete stranger to him? Another thing that surprised me was the absence of the quote “Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.”(page 33). To me the first chapter in book one was a warning and with the absence of those paragraphs changed the meaning of that introduction for me. It became a description of a home and nothing more. I am confused as to why the narrator repeated only the first two paragraphs and what it means. 6. I feel as if book two as a whole changed my perspective because for the majority of book one we were reading from a religious man’s point of view and we were hearing his son’s trail and events from his point of view, reading form Jarvis’s thoughts when he is thinking of the men who killed his son, you don’t instantly think of Absalom and a person who kills, because in the majority of book one he isn’t described as a killer. Also after the trail, I realized both of the men's’ sons were dead and the quote, “ when people go to Johannesburg, they do not come back.”(Page 38) ,which is repeated throughout the book , was foreshadowing how both their sons went to Johannesburg and would not return. Also on page 207, the quote from Arthur's essay, “ From them, I learned all that a child should learn of honour and charity and generosity. But of South Africa I learned nothing at all.” That quote really showed me how distant he had become from his parents, and in that moment I believe James realized it as well, because the narrator says, “ Shocked and hurt, Jarvis put down the papers.” ( p. 207). That confirmed my hunch that the stories of the two men were meant to parallel each other. Both had come to Johannesburg on family matters, they both lost their sons and they were both strangers in a way to their sons. But that quote really bought out how they both had tried to raise their sons by their own standards, and both had turned out very different from their expectations. Also it highlighted that they were both very much different,in both race and how they view things. Kumalo is more open and religious, whereas Jarvis is more confined and practical. 7. The repetition of the phrase, “ All roads lead to Johannesburg.” really found a meaning for me in this part of the book, because you see that everyone’s lives intersect at one point in one way or another. For example two of our main characters both meet in Johannesburg and that quote was foreshadowing that. Also the repetition of the first two paragraphs in chapter 18 and chapter one really enhance the fact that these two men’s stories parallel each other. On a different note, when talking about how the strike in the mines had failed the narrator wrote, “ But all is quiet, they report, all is quiet” (page 223 and 224) and less than a page later, they are describing how only a few lives were lost and the quote is repeated. The repetition also hints at verbal irony. That the people who report the deaths and the strike know that nothing was “ quiet” about this situation, because not only does everyone know about the deaths, but also if a few people died, in the process to control a strike, it mostly likely not quiet because then there would not be actions taken to restrain the strikers and lives would not have been lost. 8. If Absalom hadn’t carried the pistol or even hadn’t been afraid. His trial might not have ever happened and Jarvis and Kumalo might have never met. 9. This book shows us not only the climate and mood of South Africa, but it compares two very simple and similar men and sorts out their differences. It shows the viewpoint of a white man who has lost his son in South Africa and his life compared to another man who has also lost his son, but is black. The book in general shows the how the general aspect of how life is in South Africa as both a white man and a black. 10. The continued portrayal of Johannesburg as positive and negative is a huge connection in life, that everything isn't black and white, and throughout the book this is portrayed. In the trial, the judge questions, “An intention to kill, is an essential element in murder; but its existence may be inferred from the relevant circumstances. And the question is whether on the facts here proved an inference of the nature was rightly drawn. Such an intent is not confined to cases where there is a definite purpose to kill; it is also present in cases where the object is to inflict grievous bodily harm, calculated to cause death regardless of whether death results or not.” (page 235). This questions the fact that is being charged with murder requiring the suspect to kill or have an intention of killing? This case was not black and white in any circumstance. The phrase, “ evils of that great city” is an oxymoron and it perfectly describes many situations in life, that though someone may want to look at something as perfect and godly, everything has it bad parts. 11. What makes this book unique to me is the fact that the story is told right before and at the turning point in apartheid. The setting is 1946, we know because the miners strike in real life and in the book parallel each other, which was in the year 1946 and this was the pinnacle point in time that was the catalyst to the movement of apartheid. Also you see in this book, that though there is also racism involved in the foundation of apartheid, it is not the only thing that chains down the segregation that apartheid has created. Another fact that I thought made this book different was the fact that the land seemed to be a character in the book. It is always described and seems to be changing and developing, as if it were a character in a novel, and part of that land was Johannesburg, which was also treated and described like a character. Comments like, “ evils of that great city” ( page 247) really personified the city for me as something more than a setting. Another example of how the land has become a character is the repetition of the first two paragraphs from chapter one. 12. For me one of the questions book 2 raised was if someone should be held guilty if they had no intention to murder. If we charge someone with murder are we charging them with the intent to murder, or that someone was killed at their hand, or both? and if both what if you have one without the other? If someone kills in self defense and someone kills because they are scared to be caught, these both have no intent to kill, but both circumstances someone loses their life at the hand of another. Is context to judge in cases like those? Also, the question about hate and how the natives really feel of the white people in their community. When Stephen Kumalo asked his brother” Do you hate the white man, my brother?” (page 245) his brother replys, “ I hate no man,”... “ I hate only injustice.”. Previously the quote, “ It is the People that make the Law. Therefore if a Law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the Law, that is justice, even if it is not just.” …. “ but it is only the people that can be just. Therefore if justice be not just, that is not to be laid at the door of the Judge, but the door of the People, which means at the door of the White people, for it is the White People that make the Law.” (page 191). So in summary if Justice is following the the law and the law is unjust, the people who make the law are to blame, and it is in this case, the “ White People” (the fact that white people is capitalised intrigues me). So if injustice is the white people’s law then does John Kumalo hate the white? The question of life and if the black community in South Africa hated the white. 13. To me the ending was Kumalo losing his son and how that really showed the parallels between him and Jarvis. How though his son is not dead his fate is inevitable and he will die very soon. Also in the end you see how much Kumalo and Jarvis have changed as people and the ending really brought out that difference. They are now heading back, but they are so different than from when they came to Johannesburg. Also the ending for me marked the end of Johannesburg, which for me represented the land and the adventure that Kumalo was taking. Critical Journal Book 3 1. We are reading this material from Kumalo’s point of view, but sometimes is told from other viewpoints for brief moments. The purpose of going back to Kumalo’s point of view was because the readers needed to see how his story would progress and the whole novel has been about him and his experiences with his family and his interactions in Johannesburg. It allows us to see how Kumalo would deal with new ideas introduced by Letsitsi and how they relate to his experience in Johannesburg, 2. We know what we know from the previous books and from the new information given to us from the various viewpoints in this book. We know for sure this event occurs because of the other view points we read from in this book, that confirm what is happening. 3. There are many connections in this book to the descriptions in the beginning of book one and two. In here Letsitsi says, “ there is no reason why this valley should not be what it was before. But it will not happen quickly. Not in a day.”(Page 289). This is referring back to chapter one about the warning about bare and desolate land and how if it is not cared for it won’t be able to support its people. We are learning that Ndotsheni is that land. We know this because the description of how it is in a drought refers to the quote in page 33, “they cannot hold rain and mist” and the description of how the cattle are using up the resources of the land also can be connected to the quote on the same page, “Too many cattle feed upon the grass”. I wasn’t sure at first if this description was referring to Ndotsheni, but when it is described from Kumalo’s point of view in book 3 you can confirm they are one and the same. Also in the end of chapter one it says, “ The titihoya does not cry hear anymore.” (page 34) and in the end of the last chapter it says, “ The titihoya wakes from sleep and goes about its work of forlorn crying.” (page 312) this shows hope for not only Ndotsheni, but also Kumalo and his life. The last sentence is describing the dawn of emancipation and the riding of apartheid and that is when the titihoya wakens, symbolizing that the description was actually a metaphor for apartheid and how if your land isn’t guarded from it it will become desolate, the rise of the titihoya symbolizes that turning point in the nation and it is also depicted by the people of Ndotsheni also changing their ways. 4. I was shocked when I realized the parallel between the biblical story King David and his son Absalom. I had a hunch about the parallel, but it was confirmed when Kumalo decided to go to the hillside alone to mourn and think of his son Absalom. Absalom had left his father and turned to his friend, who gave him advice, but later betrayed him, David mourns for his son as Kumalo mourns for his own. I was surprised because there are already ties between the bible and Cry the Beloved Country because one of our main characters is a very religious man. 5. I was puzzled again by the character, Msimangu. In book three he gives Kumalo an abundance of money and Kumalo describes him as, “ the best man of all my days.”(page 262) . Throughout the book he is described as having a gold voice, being gracious and kind, but also bitter and he describes himself as a sinful man who was touched by God. The complexity of this character puzzles me and though he is bitter at times, he is also very uplifting and kind. 6. My reading change many times when Kumalo went on the hill. First I began to realize his connection between the biblical story of David and his son, Absalom and then I began to realize the connection between the titihoya and the first chapter as well as how it symbolized the country of South Africa. The ending made view the book in a very different light and I saw the many connections and foreshadowing placed throughout the book. 7. The style in the writing of book three was very reminiscent of the time Kumalo had spent at Johannesburg and the differences he noticed when he got back to his home. In the end the style of the writing turns from depressing to hopeful and you see the story of both the land and the character has come full circle. The land is going back to what it once was and Kumalo is also moving on to his precious happy life, though he and the land have learned and changed, the cycle comes back around. The writing, while touching critical points about South Africa’s community, didn't leave us hopeless for Kumalo and the people of South Africa and that is one thing I enjoyed the most, watching the characters, their homes, surroundings, and the land develop and change, but in the end still having that foundation of hope and peace. 8. If Absalom had been granted mercy, I don’t believe Kumalo would have came to some of the conclusions that he did, and Jarvis may have acted differently toward the Kumalo. Also if Jarvis hadn’t wanted to help the people of Ndotsheni, progress wouldn’t have been made there and in the distant future the people may have never been able to survive on the land. Also Jarvis wouldn’t be introduced to Letsitsi and may have never heard the ideas that he put forth. 9. This book takes place around 1946 when the miners had started to strike and it shows you the turning point in South African history as well as the racial tensions that were built up there.More often than not it shows you how a religious black man interacts with this community in Johannesburg, that is completely new to him and how he comes back and sees things in a new light. It shows you what a man can do when he is willing to learn and take actions due to what he has learned. That is portrayed by Jarvis who instead of hating this man whose son killed his, decides to befriend him and in doing so creates a hope for Ndotsheni. Though there were still racial tensions between these men portrayed by the repetition of the quote, “ but such a thing was not done lightly.” the men still did what other might not have, they moved past the hate and decided find common ground 10. This book made me speculate the connection between it and the biblical text of David and his son Absalom. In addition it questions the idea of fear. The whole story we are told of how fear rules people’s land and their hearts, but to be afraid, don't you have to be afraid of something or someone? And can that fear drive hatred or are they completely different in the case of South Africa? In the end Kumalo is looking back on the words Msimangu said, “ I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they turn to loving they will find we are turned to hating.” ( page 311). In life one emotion leads to another, but can a person be afraid, without fearing anything? 11. This work was unique to me because it described the land as a character and that it was not tonky the people suffering, but also the land. In addition the land symbolised in ways the coming and going of apartheid by describing the titihoya and the dawn. The land was a reflection of all the things that people felt and did. It personified a person's home and that is what made this novel unique to me. 12. Book three made me question suffering and happiness and how they relate to life. While having a discussion with a friend Kumalo and he say, “ 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. ‘I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering.’ ” (page 260 and 261) This questions whether the happiness of a person has to come at the price of suffering.When Kumalo says that pain and suffering and kindness and love are secret is he saying that they are emotions and emotions can’t ever be transcribed into words or is he saying that because they are internal, no one can truly know a person’s kindness or pain? 13. Gave me the impression that everything had come full circle. Kumalo had his worries and questions answered and in the process became some new. He had wondered about his sister, brother and his son and found out soon enough what they were doing. Also, in the beginning of the book the narrator is describing how the titihoya do not cry here anymore because the land in worn down and empty, but in the end, there is hope and new life and as dawn comes, the titihoya begin to cry out. This is showing the change in tide in the apartheid and leaves the reader at the beginning of the change of South Africa. We know this because there was a miners strike in 1946 and there is a miners strike in the book, reflecting the time period and from 1946 to 1994 were the key times to change apartheid and the book ends right at the brink of the beginning of the end.