Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Cry, The Beloved Country

The first thing I tabbed was almost the entire first chapter, but more specifically where he talks about the "grass-covered and rolling" (Page 33) hills. He spends 2 pages and the very start of the novel describing nothing but grassy hills which I believe is done to foreshadow among other things. He talks about this place making it sound beautiful only to tell us that its been destroyed. This might be a bigger symbol for the book itself.

Another thing I tabbed in the authors choice of vocabulary leading up to opening the letter in page 36. Before they open it Paton makes it sound sad, but exciting with words like "dirty, doubt, courage". I believe he does this to try and establish a tone of anticipation or anxiety.

Again on page 44 Paton talks heavily about fear. This makes the tone seem a lot more somber with words like "fear back again, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the great city" (Page 44). Maybe more than just the tone he is trying to setup a theme which is related to his seemingly excessive use of "fear" or its synonyms.

The last thing I tabbed was on page 46 where randomly dialogue starts. Whoever is talking however almost sounds primitive talking about how the "white men blow it out with the fire-sticks" (Page 46). I think this is the author trying to show to the reader that maybe the natives aren't as advanced as the Europeans. This could effect how we perceive the Europeans and whether they're a negative effect on the natives culture.

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