Land Parallel to the Kumalo Family

    In Cry, The Beloved Country, the land is an extended metaphor for Kumalo's family.  They are similar because both need attention and to be taken care of; they are breaking apart, worn down, and the family doesn't have the power to fix it.  Everything starts out looking fine, but there is a struggle ensuing beneath the surface.  "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" (33) is a quotation that conveys this extended metaphor between land and the family.  Here, the soil represents all the problems that Kumalo and his wife are unaware of until Kumalo leaves for Johannesburg.  They are hidden under the "grass" of their relatives not writing letters.  The "rich green hills break[ing] down" describes the truth being revealed and suddenly everything Kumalo knew about his family changes.  "[T]hey cannot hold the rain and the mist" shows that John, Gertrude, and Absalom are unable to use the help Kumalo tries to give them.  Absalom is sentenced to death, John won't change his ways, and Gertrude doesn't come home to Ndotsheni.