Cry, the Beloved Country Trivia Quiz

Answer: Anglican

The Anglican Church is similar to the Catholic Church in many respects, including the hierarchy. The existance of bishops, etc. is characteristic in the hierarchy of both churches.

Answer: the first paragraph of Book 2

This paragraph is a major element in tying the book together. The opening paragraph introduces us to the village of Ndotsheni, the people there, and their attachment to the land. It also introduces us to how far the land has been degraded.

When we again see this paragraph, as we are introduced to High Place, the contrast from the opening chapter is telling. The land is not so red that when it rains the runoff flows like blood. The ground is in fact soft to the bared foot, etc.

Answer: a respected male

This Zulu honorific is used frequently in the book in reference to members of the black clergy. While translations vary from roughly 'uncle' to a member of the clergy, the title is used primarily for members of the Anglican clergy in the novel. In the brief glossary at the end of the most recent American edition the word is translated as 'parson.'

Answer: cousin

Absalom killed Arthur Jarvis when attempting to rob him in his home. Of the two people with him at the time, one of them was his cousin Matthew Kumalo, the son of John Kumalo. Paton magnifies emotions in the novel by placing closely related characters in direct conflict. For instance, the meeting between the brothers Stephen and John Kumalo is obviously given severe weight with both of their sons being accused of the killing of Arthur Jarvis- and one son's defense coming at the expense of the other.

This is further magnified by the fact that Absalom's co-defendants are let off and he is the sole recipient of punishment. The inherent conflict of interest adds another layer of complexity to what is already a wrenching situation.

Answer: carpenter

John Kumalo has a relatively proserous carpentry firm. Among the black population, he is a wealthy and successful man. He is further renowned in the black community for his politics. He is described as a large bullish man, and his oration borders on the militant as he calls for black equality and enfranchisement.

Answer: his sister Gertrude is sick

In the opening chapters, the Rev. Kumalo receives a letter from the Rev. Theophilus Msimangu in Johannesburg. It states that his sister is ill and his attention is required.

While the letter does not address Absalom, his situation is foreshadowed when the Kumalos agonize over how to pay for the trip. Stephen's wife suggests he take money that had been set aside for Absalom's education on the grounds that he will not return - those who leave for Johannesburg do not come back. Stephen is initially angry at the suggestion but relents, letting the reader know that something bad involving Absalom will likely occur.

Answer: High Place

The farm High Place is owned by the Jarvis family. James Jarvis is the eldest male in this family, and his son Arthur was killed by Stephen Kumalo's son during an attempted robbery. Arthur's son comes to befriend the Kumalos and the other Natives in the village of Ndotsheni after the characters return to Natal province.

The white farms, on the hilltops and possessing good land that has not been overused, stand in stark contrast to the black villages below, whose land is overgrazed and worn out. In one of the novel's many instances of reconciliation, the Jarvis family comes to help the villagers below at the end of the novel.

Answer: Dutch

There were two groups of Europeans who came to South Africa in the colonial days, the English and the Dutch. Eventually the English (who occupied the southern parts of South Africa) came to defeat the northern Dutch (Boers) and gain control of the entire area. Afrikaans evolved out of an older form of Dutch, and it is still possible for speakers of modern Dutch and Afrikaans to make one another understood with relative ease.

There is a similar, though older, relationship between English and German. In fact, Dutch, English, Afrikaans, and German are all Germanic languages. Italian is more distantly related to all the other named languages, being one of the Romance landguance, descended form Latin, though they are all Indo-European languages.

Answer: the use of dashes instead of quotation marks to designate dialogue

Steinbeck was the first of the two to use the technique. Dialogue conveyed in such a fashion becomes more free, and speakers are much less frequently attached to identifiers such as 'he said,' etc. This technique is useful when people are being swept along in the currents of events that are out of their control, which applies to characters in both novels.

Beyond the use of this device, many commentators have compared "Cry, the Beloved Country" to "The Grapes of Wrath." Both novels deal with massive social upheaval and elements of unrest. Both of them give a direct and honest portrayal of disadvantaged or marginalized social groups, and both of them stand to this day as classics in socially oriented literature.

While "Cry, the Beloved Country" certainly makes extensive use of Zulu words, "The Grapes of Wrath" along with most of the rest of Steinbeck's writings is firmly American and uses English throughout. Paton's style is exquisitely lyrical and as such it is nearly a polar opposite of the choppy, simple sentences characteristic of, for instance, Hemmingway. In German all nouns are capitalized, however this does not occur in either Paton's writing or that of Steinbeck.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

While the writings of Jefferson in particular would have direct relevance to the South African condition, it was the work of Abraham Lincoln which so attracted Arthur Jarvis. Lincoln was the American President at a time of massive social unrest (in fact civil war) which was caused in part by horribly imbalanced race relations.

While the condition of black people in the United States was by no means fully rectified by the U.S. Civil War, Lincoln's writings on the status of blacks and his visions for the future resonated with Arthur's work with the Native population.

Answer: the land

From the novel's opening pages, Paton parallels the degradation of the land with the decay of tribal life. While there are other forces at work in the degeneration of the tribal way of life, Paton states that as the land has been over grazed and can no longer hold water, it loses its ability to hold the people as well and the young people move toward the cities and the mines.

Contrast this with descriptions of the land owned by the white farmers, who are prosperous and healthy, and the relationship between social well being and the condition of the land is further solidified.

Answer: the mines

While it is true that many young people (male and female) wound up in prison or reformatories, this is not where a majority of them at any one point are headed, and this is certainly not the 'main draw' for them as they leave their villages. The economic heart South Africa is the mines (both gold and diamonds) and this is where the young men have gone.

Often, they are forced to go without their families, leaving the women either in the villages with little means of supporting themselves off of the exhausted land, or in the city slums, plunged into a life among the dregs of society and only illicit means of support. Needless to say this has a devastating impact on the traditions and cohesiveness of tribal patterns of existance. It is stated a least once in the novel that when people go to Johannesberg, they do not come back.

Answer: Kumalo's son murdered Jarvis' son

In one of the intersections of main characters, the owner of High Place and the Reverend of Ndotsheni below both lose their sons when Absolom Kumalo is involoved in the killing of Arthur Jarvis. It is a further painful irony that of all the white people who would hold the blacks down, who regard them as inferior, etc., Absolom killed one of the few who supported the Natives and worked for their benefit.

The two fathers' response to this event is one of the great instances of reconciliation in the novel. James Jarvis, having been distant from his son, does not become familiar with Arthur's life's work until after his son is killed and he reads his papers concerning the Native population. His reaction to these wiritings is to give assistance to the people of Ndotsheni - the people of the village from which his son's killer came.

Answer: James Jarvis

Jarvis does a number of things to assist the villagers. When his grandson rides his horse down to Ndotsheni and meets Stephen Kumalo, he asks for a drink of milk, and learns there is none there. Asking what the children do without milk he is told that some of them die. That night the Jarvis farm sends milk for the children of Ndotsheni. Jarvis hires Napoleon Letsitsi to teach the ways of modern agriculture to the villagers in Ndotsheni. He arranges to have a dam built in the village to assist in irrigation. And after visiting with Stephen in his leaky church, he pays to build a new church for the village.

To a large extent, the Europeans have emasculated the tribal governments, and the village chief is unable to do much to change the course of events. The U.N. (of which UNICEF is a part) was very new at the time and likely would not have had much to do with South Africa yet, though it would come to be involved in the country. Paton addresses little attention to the communities neighboring Ndotsheni, other than naming some of the areas surrounding the village in his lyrical descriptive passages.

Answer: selling illegal alcohol

While it is also likely she has engaged in prostitution, she is specifically said to have been selling illegal alcohol (for which she has spent time in prison.) The plight of Gertrude is yet another means of illustrating the conditions of the blacks who live in the slums.

Answer: Diepkloof Reformatory

Alan Paton did a number of things in his life for the betterment of his society. Among those was acting as a principle at the Diepkloof Reformatory. While there he introduced progressive means of reform, which generated controversy and attention. Sadly, as can be seen from the ensuing half century in South Africa, his actions and views were shared by only a minority in the nation.

Answer: Liberal Party of South Africa

Originally formed as the Liberal Association of South Africa, Paton and a number of othger progressives turned the association into the Liberal Party of South Africa. Unfortunately, a law was later enacted banning all non-racial groups, so the party was faced with either becoming an all white party (which would have seriously contradicted their views) or closing down. Sticking to their principles, they chose the latter.

Answer: James Jarvis

While headed into the mountains, he meets James Jarvis on horseback. He informs Jarvis that his son will not receive mercy and will be hanged at sunrise. Jarvis expesses sorrow for Kumalo's loss - another instance of reconcilation as Jarvis is after all talking about the killer of his son. Kumalo sleeps on the mountain that night, reads letters from his son in prison, and tries to think of what his son is doing at that moment.

Answer: milk for the children

While the Jarvises do give agricultural aid in many forms to the people of Ndotsheni, in this specific instance they send milk for the children.

Answer: learned to hate

Concomittant to the theme of reconciliation and forgiveness is the lingering sense of doubt that it will not be enough to stem the tide of dark days to come. Msimangu's fears are illustrated in the persona of John Kumalo, who embodies militancy instead of reconciliation.

It is also seen in the agricultural reformer, Napoleon Letsitsi, who states that he does not work for the people who pay him (white people), but rather for the people of South Africa. He regards his salary, paid to aid the Natives not as aid or a gift, but as a repayment of a debt that the Europeans have incurred by the wrongs they have perpetrated against the blacks.

Answer: third person omniscient

At points in the novel, the narrator gives voice to sweeping descriptive commentary on whole segments of the South African population, including the Zulu tribes, the urban slums, etc. While the book does follow the actions of some characters, particularly the two protagonists of James Jarvis and Stephen Kumalo for extended periods, the story is never told from their point of view.

The reader is given a chance to know many of the characters on their own terms, as opposed to solely the viewpoint of another.

Answer: his sister Gertrude's son and his son Absolom's wife

Though he tried to do so, the Rev. Kumalo fails to bring Gertrude back to Ndotsheni. He does manage to bring her son back, as well as Absalom's wife (the two were married while Absolom was in prison.) Absalom's wife readily accepts Kumalo as a father figure she has lacked, and takes well to the village. Gertrude's son (Kumalo's nephew) is accepted into the Kumalo home as one of their own.

Answer: rain leaks through the church roof

One of the many indicators as to the condition of tribal life, rain leaks through the church roof on more than one occasion. This also figures into a gesture of reconciliation, as Jarvis offers to build a new church and fix the roof.

Answer: the people of Africa

Letsitsi states that he works for the people of South Africa, long wronged by the Europeans, who he believes owe a debt. While not nearly as militant as John Kumalo, he does carry something less than a desire for reconciliation with the whites.

Answer: violence

While violence is the source of the largest climax action in the Absalom's killing of Arthur Jarvis, it is not repeated throughout the novel. The church, and particularly its Christian values of forgiveness and reconciliation, is ever present in the characters of Stephen Kumalo and Theophilus Msimangu.

The land is a salient concern of Paton's throughout the novel. It is the subject of some of the most moving descriptive passages, and the focal point of the aid the Jarvises offer Ndothsheni.