Money/Gold Symbol in Cry, the Beloved Country

Money is a common manifestation of the corruption of Johannesburg. Sometimes, there is not enough of it, driving crime, poverty, disease, suffering, and death. Other times—like when gold is discovered at Odendaalsrust—there is too much of it, unevenly distributed in the wrong hands. The forces controlling the mining throw up temporary communities around the mines and do not pay their men enough. These miners are removed from their families and homes, forced to dig up and ruin the earth for the profit of their white overlords, and ultimately the tribe and the land it used to live on is destroyed, leading to more crime, poverty, disease, suffering, and death. Also, the presence of gold drives up speculation, threatening downfall at any moment. Money in Cry, The Beloved Country is unstable, misappropriated, and, ultimately, insufficient.

Money/Gold Quotes in Cry, the Beloved Country

The Cry, the Beloved Country quotes below all refer to the symbol of Money/Gold. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.

Related Characters: Theophilus Msimangu (speaker)

Related Symbols: Money/Gold

Page Number and Citation: 61

Explanation and Analysis:

All roads lead to Johannesburg. If you are white or if you are black they lead to Johannesburg. If the crops fail, there is work in Johannesburg. If there are taxes to be paid, there is work in Johannesburg. If the farm is too small to be divided further, some must go to Johannesburg. If there is a child to be born that must be delivered in secret, it can be delivered in Johannesburg.

Related Symbols: Johannesburg, Money/Gold, Earth/Land

Page Number and Citation: 73

Explanation and Analysis:

Some cry for the cutting up of South Africa without delay into separate areas, where white can live without black, and black without white, where black can farm their own land and mine their own minerals and administer their own laws. And others cry away with the compound system, that brings men to the towns without their wives and children, and breaks up the tribe and the house and the man, and they ask for the establishment of villages for the labourers in mines and industry.

Related Symbols: Money/Gold, Earth/Land

Page Number and Citation: 99-

Explanation and Analysis:

We do not know, we do not know. We shall live from day to day, and put more locks on the doors, and get a fine fierce dog when the fine fierce bitch next door has pups, and hold on to our handbags more tenaciously; and the beauty of the trees by night, and the raptures of lovers under the stars, these things we shall forego. We shall forego the coming home drunken through the midnight streets, and the evening walk over the star-lit veld. We shall be careful, and knock this off our lives, and knock that off our lives, and hedge ourselves about with safety and precaution. And our lives will shrink, but they shall be the lives of superior beings; and we shall live with fear, but at least it will not be a fear of the unknown.

Related Symbols: Money/Gold

Page Number and Citation: 100-101

Explanation and Analysis:

The old tribal system was, for all its violence and savagery, for all its superstition and witchcraft, a moral system. Our natives today produce criminals and prostitutes and drunkards, not because it is their nature to do so, but because their simple system of order and tradition and convention has been destroyed. It was destroyed by the impact of our own civilization. Our civilization has therefore an inescapable duty to set up another system of order and tradition and convention. It is true that we hoped to preserve the tribal system by a policy of segregation. That was permissible. But we never did it thoroughly or honestly. We set aside one-tenth of the land for four-fifths of the people. Thus we made it inevitable, and some say we did it knowingly, that labour would come to the towns. We are caught in the toils of our own selfishness.

Related Characters: Arthur Jarvis (speaker)

Related Symbols: Johannesburg, Money/Gold, Earth/Land

Page Number and Citation: 169

Explanation and Analysis:

For mines are for men, not for money. And money is not something to go mad about, and throw your hat into the air for. Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children. Money is for security, and for dreams, and for hopes, and for purposes. Money is for buying the fruits of the earth, of the land where you were born.

Related Characters: Arthur Jarvis (speaker)

Related Symbols: Money/Gold, Earth/Land

Page Number and Citation: 194

Explanation and Analysis:

Money/Gold Symbol Timeline in Cry, the Beloved Country

The timeline below shows where the symbol Money/Gold appears in Cry, the Beloved Country. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

After sending the child away, Stephen asks his wife to get the “St. Chad’s” money, so that he may go and fetch his sister. But once he has the money... (full context)

...himself and gives in to what he knows is true, and they count out the money. Worried that he will not have enough for the journey, Stephen’s wife gives Stephen some... (full context)

...and is anxious about the upcoming journey – how difficult it will be, how much money it will cost at every turn. He also recalls how dangerous the streets of Johannesburg... (full context)

...he has never heard spoken. Around him, people talk about the mines. Stephen sees the gold mines, in the distance, and asks the other passengers about them. They explain how the... (full context)

...a ticket from the ticket office while he waits in line. Stephen gives him some money and waits. After a while, he realized he doesn’t see the young man anymore. When... (full context)

...child. He inwardly mulls about the expenses of things, and worries about his own of money. He wonders how Gertrude was able to save so little, given her recent profession. (full context)

...anything. But in Johannesburg, he says, he can advance himself, make a great deal of money, and have some power and influence. It’s not perfect, and there are other masters, but... (full context)

...not there. He tells Msimangu and Stephen that the mines are where all of the money is coming from, but the black men who dig it up are paid too little... (full context)

...refuses, saying that there is already no privacy in the house and no amount of money can dissuade her, but after listing off the family’s many expenses as compared to their... (full context)

...but to get a house they must get off a list, and they have no money to bribe the authorities. People are given one week, then thrown out. There are no... (full context)

...and even those who attend only go so far. When asked who will pay the money for increased education, the chorus debates that also—some say whites should pay, because if they... (full context)

...them. But she does not let rooms to strangers, because she does not need the money. She is a little troubled by Gertrude’s loose manner, and is worried about her young... (full context)

...a place like she is now. He goes to fetch her, and observes that his money is running low. (full context)

...about the trial, and offers to take it pro deo, for God—that is, for no money. He talks to Stephen about the information that he needs to defend Absalom. After he... (full context)

...they would ask for higher wages in the mines, because if they were paid more money, then the mines would close. He goes on like this for a moment before John... (full context)

While Absalom’s trial is going on, new gold is discovered in South Africa, and everyone’s attention becomes focused on Odendaalsrust. There is a... (full context)

There are some people, however, who are wet blankets about the gold. They suggest that the money earned in the shares should go toward the poor, or... (full context)

...split apart and living in a compound. And some people laud this idea, because the money from the mines should lead to food and shelter and stability and little pleasures, not... (full context)

...her niece go into town, leaving James behind at the house. He reads about the gold rush at Odendaalsrust, and how the money and speculation around the gold may prove disastrous... (full context)

...voice electrifies the crowd, makes the policemen uneasy. The protest is about the recently discovered gold. John tells the crowd that they, black men, are just asking for their share of... (full context)

...only their continued low wages and poverty that permits it to survive? Why so little money for their hard work? He suggests that there is a kind of conspiracy, to keep... (full context)

The strike comes and goes, and is confined to the gold mines. Some black men are killed. Church leaders suggest that a union should be organized,... (full context)

...that their son is keeping her in his thoughts. Absalom says that he has some money for his own wife and child. He also asks that the child be named Peter,... (full context)

...James and Margaret are also preparing to leave Johannesburg. James leaves a large sum of money to John Harrison to start a club, possibly in Arthur Jarvis’s name. (full context)

Stephen returns home and talks to his wife. He shows her the money from Msimangu. She is overwhelmed with the gift. Stephen then prepares to tell her about... (full context)

Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Money/Gold Symbol Analysis

Money/Gold Quotes in Cry, the Beloved Country

Money/Gold Symbol Timeline in Cry, the Beloved Country