“You get what you give” or in other words “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is a quote that every human being will agree on, but it is hard to follow it because pride is in the way. In the novel Cry The Beloved Country, blacks and whites do not get along with each other, because backs are considers inferior to the whites in this period of time (1940’s). However, there is always hope because not all white people are evil.
The main reason why people can’t treat each other well is, pride. Pride means “Pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association: A cause or source of pleasure or satisfaction”, which is the reason people can’t be kind to each other. For example (bad side), the Korean Culture has a way to call and act on older people, if the person is younger, he must be respectful to the older ones. However, if the younger one disrespects, the older one who has pride may even beat him up.
On the other hand (good side), if the younger and older respect each other, they can give and get the respect they want, but this rarely happens (in Korean schools). Another example is in the book in To Kill A Mocking Bird, which is a book about a black man who is accused, with no evidence, of raping a white girl. The father of the girl was a poor white man, poorly educated, and with pride. He didn’t want to lose to a black man, and the fact that it was black the judge was forced to execute the innocent black man, or else the judge could of got hurt.
This novel is about a parson or also called as Umfundisi Stephen Kumalo, who takes a journey from a small peaceful town to a big and noisy city called Johannesburg to find what has happened to his sister Gertrude and his son John Kumalo. Stephen is very frightened to go because he knows that when he goes to the big city, it will be hard to go through because there is racism going on. In addition, when he finds all his family in Johannesburg, he suffers pain and depression in his heart. Stephen finds out that his sister became a prostitute; his son killed a white man (James Jarvis); and his brother, John Kumalo, as a corrupted, selfish and despoiled politician. Stephen has to face the difficult times, and he comes out strong, but with a broken heart.
This book was made to show how unfair this world is. As the novel goes on, the readers can see the difference between the whites and blacks. Blacks live in the dirty and messy places in the city and whites are always in the beautiful and better places in the city. Additionally, the whites increase the bus fee for the blacks. In this novel and in real life, when someone is superior to someone else that person underestimates the other person because of pride, which is why people can’t be equal to each other. For example, John Kumalo treats his brother Stephen differently.
In this case, John has power because he is a politician, and when he found out that his son was tied to this murder case, he fears. He is scared that his son will be executed, and as a result the readers see that he treats Stephen differently. In a way were he is selfish and only cares for his son and not his brother’s son; and as a result John proves that his son wasn’t involved in this case because there was no evidence. Therefore, the readers can easily predict that Absalom Kumalo will be executed. It is very unfair, because John has power and money to do it, and whereas Stephen is poor and has no power.
To sum it all up, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” can’t be done because of pride. As it is seen in various examples, like the bad side of the Korean Culture, the rape case in To Kill A Mocking Bird, and John Kumalo and Stephen Kumalo. In the Korean culture (bad side), many of the older people take advantage of that privilege and use it in a bad way, abusing the younger one (In Korean Schools), and in To Kill A Mocking Bird the pride of a white man, kills the innocent black man. Last but not least, John Kumalo gets selfish and only tries to save his son because he has power, money, pride and no sympathy towards his own brother. Most of the times, man and occasionally women cannot let pride stand in their way.
