Symbolic Contrasts
            
             Many plays and novels use contrasting places, such as two cities or towns, to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the work to the meaning of the work. The novel, Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton contrasts two such places. The contrast of the two places in this novel lend emphasis to the central meaning of the work and provide the reader with a symbolic view of the central meaning.
             Physical characteristics play a large part in the apparent contrast of Ndotsheni and Johannesburg. Ndotsheni being the more beautiful of the two places is largely rural with some of the most beautiful vistas and landscapes in Africa. Ndotsheni is described, "These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it . . . if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa" (P. 3). Later in the text however Ndotsheni is described as the following, "Where you stand the grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. But the rich green hills break down. They fall to the valley below, and falling, change their nature. For they grow red and bare; they cannot hold the rain and mist, and the streams are dry in the kloofs. Too many cattle feed upon the grass, and too may fires have burned it. . . . The titihoya does not cry here any more" (P. 3). Each of the descriptions of this place are symbolic in their own way. Johannesburg is a great bustling city where things are much different from the rural area of Ndotsheni. Through the eyes of Reverend Kumalo the city is described, "He sees great high buildings, there are red and green lights on them, almost as tall as the buildings. They go on and off. The noise is immense. Cars and buses one behind the other, more than he has ever imagined" (P. 17). The quality of life lived in each of these places is another differentiating point which contributes to the contra...