The purpose of Cry, the Beloved Country, is to awaken the population of South Africa to the
racism that is slowly disintegrating the society and its people. Alan Paton designs his work to
express his views on the injustices and racial hatred that plague South Africa, in an attempt to
bring about change and understanding. The characters that he incorporates within his story, help
to establish a sense of the conditions and hardships that the country is experiencing, and the
presence of fear through the whole of the populace. Presenting the characters as having
one-sided personalities or b…
