Cry the Beloved Country

672 Words3 Pages
Ignorance sweeps across the white citizens of South Africa like a plague. It causes them to be blind, and leaves them without a care to see their wrongdoings towards the blacks in their society. They cling to their twisted Christian ideologies, believing one thing and doing the opposite. By using parallelism, diction, and a biblical allusion to portray a series of arguments, Alan Paton conveys his great dislike for the accepted truths of his self-proclaimed Christian South Africans. Through Arthur Jarvis’ letter, Alan Paton paints the picture of a racist society in which those at the top look down upon the ones at the bottom. In his letter Arthur Jarvis states, “We believe in help for the underdog, but we want him to stay under.” Paton uses parallelism to reflect the people’s hypocritical nature, and establishes it with the use of the word “but”. They claim that they believe in uplifting those in the lower social classes, yet they do nothing in attempt to change their situation. Paton also includes Arthur in the mess by using the word “we” to lower him from an assumed high horse. Rather than being a judge of his people, he was merely a citizen complaining about social injustices in his country. Paton’s condescending tone when speaking about the white people’s unfairness towards the blacks adds to his argumentative diction. For instance, Arthur writes, “We shift our ground again…and feel deep pity for a man who is condemned to the loneliness of being remarkable.” The words “deep pity” and “loneliness” contrast “remarkable”. When something is remarkable it is held in high esteem. The white people’s view of a black man was so low that even if he was more successful than one of them, he’d still be at the bottom of society. He’d have no equals, because blacks were incapable of succeeding. His use of diction extends to the last line of Jarvis’ essay, where he sums up

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