Cry, The Beloved Country

            Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, is a book which tells the story of how Arthur Jarvis, a wealthy estate owner, because of his own busy life, had to learn of the social downgrading in South Africa through the death of his only son, Arthur Jarvis. The story is James" journey from being uneducated to becoming educated. If Arthur Jarvis had never been killed, his writings, and Stephen Kumalo, a priest from the village of Ndotsheni whose son killed Arthur Jarvis, would have never educated Jarvis.
             When the reader first meets James Jarvis, he knows little of his son's life. He doesn't know his son "was on a kind of a mission"(p.140), and this is why when MR. Harrison, Arthur Jarvis's father In-law says, "we"re scared stiff at the moment in Johannesburg."(P 140) James is surprised and says, "of crime?"(p. 140). Talking to Harrison taught James about the crime in the city, and the next morning he learns about his son. One of the first things that James learns of his son, and his views, he learns in Arthur's room. In reading his writings, James finds that Arthur would have risked anything to help other people, and ended up doing just that. Jarvis finds that his son was well researched on the problems of their society, and was interested in helping the development of the social structure in South Africa. From the pictures of Jesus and Abraham Lincoln on his wall, James Jarvis discovers the admiration his son had for these two men. These were men of action, who showed love for their friends, and at the same time their enemies. These two men suffered and died for their beliefs, as did Arthur in a way, which helped his father realized what a great mean Arthur really was.
             After the discovery of his son's views through all of his writings, James begins to realize the problem, and starts to think of the problems of others before his own. Jarvis, towards the end of the book, decides that he will help the minorities of Africa.