How is the land symbolic in relation to the story and to Paton's overall message?

Paton often goes into great detail to describe the land in South Africa. How is the land symbolic in relation to the story and to Paton's overall message?

  In the Cry The Beloved Country writing by Alan Paton. Paton goes into great detail explaining the lands of south Africa. As he traveled to Johannesburg he began to go into great details and describes the land as "rich, pure, sacred,something to live upon also as, holy ground, and religious."
        
       Paton implies that "the grass is rich and matted, you can not see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well tended and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed."  Paton believes that by destroying the land you also can destroy man sense of belonging disappears and he is forced to learn for himself and learning requires time and experience. There is more use of energy for better and newly introduced things when traditional ideas and sediments do not pose boundaries for the innovate, but innovation is more difficult because there is nothing to look back upon. With nothing to refer to,starting new things is very hard. Without new beginnings, society remains static and does not develop. Tradition is the development of society.
    He refers South Africa to" holy ground" that the land was created to be good land. This passage from the text is explaining that when South Africa was taken over by England or Great Britain. when the British men came to South Africa they wanted to take over the land and steal away all he gold from the Africans.With this happening the land was destroy which means that man was also destroyed.
      He also says that the "great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys women scratch the soul that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. There are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away, the young men and the girls are away." He is saying that because the people of this land are losing their tradition, their society is falling into disrepair. Young people are moving out of the town to look for opportunities in other places.Without tradition to feed or keep alive the people, they suffer. Their crops are withering because they are suffering from a drought of rain, but, more symbolically, a drought of tradition. As their tradition disappears, their society lost there value and people no longer wanted to stay in the village due to the drought.
  
   Paton does a good job at explaining how the land and the main point of this book connects. He uses words like  "rich, pure, sacred,something to live upon also as, holy ground, and religious" to give an good example of how the land was in south Africa.




   



    

Nana's House

Nana’s House

           Its November the 19,2012, laying in bed not wanting to get up and head to school, Not wanting to face the fact that I can’t call my Nana and wish her a happy birthday was painful, dreadful. Even though it been 4 years there’s not a day that goes by I don’t think of you.  Crawling out of bed walking slowly to the bathroom with tears running down my face know that she wouldn’t me to cry just live knowing she is in a better place.

            Seating in math with my mind out in a daze takes me back when I was seating with my family on the front role while we watch our love one in the casket at all peace. Pulling up into the driveway tears streaming down my face wondering how life would be if she was still here holding my hand guiding me through life. Getting out the car I see the field tall, yellow, all kinds of bugs, dirt and corn. I began to think about how me, my sisters, and brothers use to run in the field hiding from my grandma when we did something bad. Playing hind-go-seek in the field was scary but fun to.

            RING RING RING... ..” Come on jaron lets head on to Spanish.”Destiny said. Walking slowly down the hall to 3^rd period feeling a little bit better then I was easily but it still hurts.

            Walking into the house smelling sweet honey perfume reminds me of when she use to spray the perfume everywhere to make her house smell just like her.  Running my hand across the table, seeing me and my Nana cooking on the stove.

            It was uncle brothers birthday dinner he was turning 75 but looked 56. He always wanted to have a birthday dinner but never got around to it. I woke up that morning rushing into Nana's room telling her to get up so we can start cooking the following: cake, hot wings, hot dogs, pizza, nacho cheese etc. He was really surprise to see all the food and his friends and family wishing him a happy birthday. Seeing him smile put a greater smile on mine and Nana's face.

            Tears flowing like a river that never runs dry makes me wonder how close she was to me. I always knew she was special to me but I never knew what I had until it was gone. Calling my mom to come get me from school hearing her tears knowing if I go home I would have to seat and listen her tell me about how much she meant to her. I already knew how much my Nana meant to me but I really didn’t want to cry a lot more. Ridding past the fire station broke more and more tears to my eyes.

            “HURRY JARON,” yelled Nana, rushing into the bathroom getting large cups and bowls of water trying to up out a fire that uncle brother began. I believe he was cooking and a rag caught on to the stove. I have never seen my Nana move so fast running in and out the bath with water. I was afraid not because of the fire but because I was thinking my grandma would get hurt. It took her about 15min to kill the fire but with great power she did. Living out into the country it was really hard for the fire man to get to your house but we all made it out just fine.

            Making it home seating on the couch thinking of the last things she said to me was, ‘jaron life is very short you never know when it’s your time to go so you must always keep god first and now that I’m always here for you if you need me. I couldn’t do it I was trying all day to hold myself together but I finally broke just knowing the fact that she was gone hurt me I couldn’t call her anymore, give her a hug, tell her how much she means to me. I had to realize that even though she’s gone she will always be in my heart.

I ♥ Mrs. Clark

      
    
     Growing up in a house where your mom and dad are always working trying to provide for their family and make a living it’s really hard for them to sit down read and sometimes play with their kids only around the holidays. Seating in Mrs. Clark class looking at the clock ready to go home and play with my toys that I just got last Christmas was a pain. As I sat in that little chair with these huge crayons in my hand listening to this English teacher," Good morning class" she lost me at good. I wasn't just the student that listened to the teacher every word I catch on to words like play, fun, talk, laugh etc...

       Until one day April 27, 2000 Mrs. Clark came into the class and said," Good morning class today we will be learning the alphabet." Just hearing her says that word made my heart jump with suspense. She began to write on the broad A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q  R S TU V  W X  Y Z , and on some days she even had a cute little song to go alone with it. A B C D E F  G H I J  K  L  M  N  O P ,Q R S T U V, W X Y AND Z, NOW I KNOW MY A B C'S NEXT TIME I WANT YOU TO SING IT WITH ME. Every day I walked into the class room I read the A B C's on the board. Even though it was only 16 kids in the class room I caught on to that song faster than anyone in my class room not knowing that I had began to read.

      I went home and sang the song to my mom as her eyes filled with eyes and joy knowing that fact that her son has began to read. I remember my first book that my grandma had bought me, she asked," jaron what's the name of this book?" At first I was scared because I didn't think I was ready to read to my whole family yet but I sat up straight in my seat holding the book in my hand and out came," the name of this book is". I paused, I over hear my mom and dad saying, " come on son you can do it", I smiled and said," The name of my book is Goldilocks and the three bears."  Cheering, joy, and happiness filled the room after I read them words I can truly say it was the best day of my life.
     
           A couple of years have passed by after that, I was now 6 years old and readings better then every student in my class. I was now read this amazing series called,”JUNIE B. JONES".  My first and favorite book I read was titled Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. I remember coming home every day running to my room reading. My mom sometimes use to get very mad at me for not cleaning my room and not paying attention in some of my other classes because I was too busy reading. My family didn't understand where I got it from loving to read but I will the only person in the whole house that did. So that's how I remember learning how to read and till this day I still love reading when I have time and sometimes even to my baby cousin hoping he will take after me and become a great reader too.

- I AM-:)

I am music, unpredictable and kind.
I wonder why kids in Africa aren't full,
I hear different music flouting through the air,
I see people helping others in need out there,
I am music, unpredictable and kind.

I am music, unpredictable and kind.
I pretend I'm on stage with flowers getting thrown at me,
I feel as if the world is always at peace,
I touch the wind as it pass me by,
I worry why people wanna kill everyone in sight,
I cry for the one's more unfortunate then I,
I am music, unpredictable and kind.

I am music, unpredictable and kind .
I understand that we all want get alone,
I say everyone is special in their own way,
I dream that the world would be a better place,
I try everyday to make sure all my friends are okay,
I hope my music touch souls all over the world,
I am music, unpredictable and kind.

Prefection of a man and the Imprefections of society..

     The first time I read "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World", I read it too fast and when it came down to the end where I had to write about the story I had NO Idea  on what to write about. I had just read the words and not what was beyond them. The second time through  I really enjoyed it so much more. It told me that the people in the village where kind and loving. They show this because, they work together to make him happy. They really believed that when he was growing up  he wasn't treated right because of his size.. ! Okay BUT BACK TO THE STORY..
    The story doesn't simply contain symbolism it is completely made up of symbolism, everything in the story is a symbol, from Esteban  to the children who finds him dead on the beach, to the women and there men.  Esteban is a symbol of both the perfection of a man and the imperfection's of society. He is the perfect human begin. He is huge and handsome, but he also looks like he wouldn't be able to make any terrain into fertile land. He is envisioned to have command of  nature from his presence alone. He symbolizes bad things in society also because when the women envision him in his old home, they see him being disliked for his immense size. However, the people who find his body realize how much of a blessing he really is and they decide to devote their live to making themselves and their village worthy of him. They want to show that he was cared about and not judge on how he look.. THEY REALLY CARED ABOUT THIS STRANGER?? 
      Like to me um... i don't know this man, he's dead on the beach why would you run and tell your parents?What I would have done was called the police and let them do there job. But that's how we today are different from the story. The people want to make themselves worthy of Esteban.They rebuilt there homes, painted them happy gay colors, and planted flowers. In the society we live in today everyone is SELFISH..They only think about themselves and don't care about no one Elsa or there feelings. But to me in this story it showed me that we need to cared for each other and stop looking down on people and start helping them..So after I read this story I asked myself what if that was me that needed the  help, that everyone was talking about. I wonder how that would make me feel?