Cry The Beloved Country Sacrifice

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Max Beerbohm, an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist, once said, “No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.” Sometimes in life, one must be willing to give up oneself in order to help others. In Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, self-sacrifice, time, and effort is needed for characters to help for the sake of others. In Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton seeks to show that self-sacrifice is important to families through Stephen Kumalo’s willingness and selflessness to help his sister, son, the girl, and his nephew in Johannesburg. Stephen Kumalo is willing to drop everything to help his sister after receiving a letter saying that his sister is sick to travel to the great city of Johannesburg. His little sister, Gertrude, had left everyone many years ago to find her husband, and has never communicated nor returned home.…show more content…
The girl had a struggling past and was abandoned, so Kumalo, being a father-figure, decides to help her. He feels sympathetic towards her asking, “Shall I find you a place near me?” and telling her she “must not live here” (148). Kumalo comforts the girl by asking if she would like to live with him in Ndotsheni, and she gratefully accepts his offer. Kumalo self-sacrificed himself by sacrificing his needs for those of others. Along with the girl, Kumalo also decides to look after his sister’s son, who Gertrude failed to look after. Kumalo fully accepts his responsibility of his new nephew “as if it were [his] own” and that he “shall care for [him]” (239). Despite his suffering as his son is sentenced to death, Kumalo still keeps his duty of caring for his family. Kumalo not only brings the girl to Ndotsheni, but also the boy, sacrificing himself to help Absalom and Gertrude. Through Kumalo’s altruistic personality, he sacrifices himself for more than just
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