Weep, Sympathize, and Smile, my Beloved Country
Throughout Cry the Beloved
Country, Stephen Kumalo's personality is constantly changing. Kumalo's
character starts out emotionally stable, but is driven to his breaking point as
the life that left him abruptly exploded, once his son Absalom and sister
Gertrude travel to a far away city. Stephens’s characteristics are portrayed
extremely accurately for someone who has had such troubles and sorrows. His
profession and guilt are his weaknesses, while his hopefulness, generosity, and
forgiveness are positive aspects for his personality.
Stephen Kumalo is a priest from a
small town in South Africa. He and his family lived a quiet, peaceful life,
completely faithful in God. Every Sunday Kumalo would preach to his audience,
providing faithful words of advice and great hopefulness for the broken.
However, thoughts of fear trickled through his mind. It had been so long since
both his sister and son went to the crime ridden city of Johannesburg. Neither
of the two had written him letters or left any trace of their existence aside
from memory. Now, Kumalo receives a letter explaining that his sister is sick
and is in need of care. So, Kumalo travels to the grungy over populated city
and finds that he can trust no stranger. As soon as Stephen steps off of his
train, he is robbed of a large sum of money by a teenage boy. Already feeling
overwhelmed, he finds more disappointment as he finds that his sister Gertrude
is a prostitute and has made her living by making and selling bad liquor. Later
as Kumalo finds his sister and her young child, living in awful conditions, he
has enough heart to take them into the home he is staying in and very
generously buys them new cloths. Soon after, Stephen receives news that his son
is living in a nearby town. With much enthusiasm and hopefulness, Kumalo
searches for his long lost child. To his dismay, Absalom has long since been
away from the place he was told to search.
Disheartened by the news his son
has disappeared once again, Kumalo keeps searching. He searches for ages,
getting closer to the trail, but then having it become shut off again. Finally,
through much hardship and loss of vigor, Stephen finds that his son is in
prison for murder. Kumalo was too late. He is so burnt up inside with guilt and
depression, that he becomes unfaithful to God. Hopeless and angered, he begins
to become a different person. He is changed by the constant flow of
disappointment and fear. He no longer prays to God for help or forgiveness. He
sulks and feels sorry for himself. However, he doesn’t give up hope for the
well being of his son and his unborn grandson.
Like any parent would do, Stephen
does everything in his power to lessen his son’s jail sentence, and mend the
broken family bonds that he, his son, and sister have created.
Although Kumalo felt angered that
his son had killed a man, stole, and got a girl pregnant that he wasn’t married
to, he felt more ashamed of it because he was a preacher. He felt guilty for is
sons actions because he had not raised him better. His guilt led him to fear,
clogging his mind with hopelessness and shame that he had failed as a parent.
However, Stephen Kumalo forgives his son for the wicked deeds he had done, and
by doing so, realizes it was not his fault as a parent. With this newfound
strength and hope, Kumalo prepares a lawyer to defend his son from a harder
life in jail.
