Cry, The Beloved Country

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Emma Yeatts English 2-1 Mrs. Anderson 10 April 2012 Gertrude VS. Absalom’s Girlfriend Have you ever judged a book by its cover? People in Johannesburg are judged every day, but some of them actually are looking for help and family. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, both Gertrude and Absalom’s girlfriend are lost and broken people because of Johannesburg; however, Absalom’s girlfriend is willing and ready for a serious change in her life. Gertrude is a single mom struggling in the wicked city of Johannesburg; Likewise Absalom’s girlfriend is living in the same area trying to escape her horrible lifestyle. In the book it dialogs about what Johannesburg can do to a person’s life. “They go to Johannesburg, and they are lost, and no one hears them at all.” (Ch. 2 pg. 9) Both are living a life of drinking and prostitution in Johannesburg. Gertrude is raising her own child similar to Absalom’s girlfriend who is pregnant with a child. Absalom, Gertrude’s brother says to her when he finds her in Johannesburg. “You have shamed us, he says in a low voice, not wishing to make it known to the world. A liquor seller, a prostitute, with a child and you don’t even know where he is? Your brother a priest, how could you do this to us.” The reader can see that it is a huge disgrace to live in this city and fall into the nasty ways if it. Which Gertrude and Absalom’s girlfriend are both guilty of doing. Both women are from the same city and both blame their struggles on certain things, not taking responsibility themselves. The readers assume that Gertrude blames her bad actions on the city because she never says anything about how she could have returned to her old lifestyle in Ndotesheni. Absalom’s girlfriend blames her present situations on her drunkard mother and her mother’s boyfriend, which is most of their responsibility but also hers. Because when she left
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