Cry, the Beloved Country conveys the idea that prejudice causes violence. Throughout the book Dan Witcher shows how the biased laws of the white man caused the black man to resort to stealing and other forms of crime including murder, simply to survive and raise a family. As white men founded more mining sites, the requirements for workers grew, thus, so did the cities. The white men hired up the black men as to keep the wages low. The black men worked hard for the white men in hopes for an increase in pay but to no avail. Eventually, the black men needed more than what the discriminatory white men would give and turned to crime to compensate for the inadequate wages. Crime was an apparent result of this prejudice.
             The story begins with a child bringing a letter to the Reverend Stephen Kumalo from a "brother in Christ" (Paton 37). Evidently the letter concerned the welfare of Stephen Kumalo's sister, Gertrude Kumalo who had become a prostitute. As the story goes, Gertrude Kumalo's husband went to Johannesburg to earn money for his family by being employed at the mines. He never wrote back and could not be found by his pursuing wife, who left to find her husband. She, herself, became engulfed in the behavior of Johannesburg's society. In order to support her child she became a prostitute in one of the worst places in Johannesburg, Claremont. Gertrude, also, never wrote home. Stephen Kumalo then sent his son, Absolom, to find Gertrude and bring her home. Absolom too became lost in the corruption in Johannesburg and never wrote back. Stephen Kumalo then leaves Ndotsheni to Johannesburg to find his sister and son to bring them back.
             Just after Stephen Kumalo steps off the bus, some black man cheats him. Another black man informs him of how he was cheated and takes him to the mission house where Stephen Kumalo is introduced to Reverend Theophilus Msimangu and others in the
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