Book 1: Cry, The Beloved Country

    Kumalo encounters a great amount of conflict with his family and he changed throughout Book 1 of Cry, The Beloved Country. This has classified Kumalo has a dynamic and a round character. Also Kumalo is a realistic character because I can look at his experiences and relate them to people I know in real life.

    Kumalo started off as a humble, passionate person. Kumalo had full faith in God and didn't do wrong to anyone. Kumalo went to Johannesburg and got cheated out his money because he didn't know any better. He was very trusting and he didn't think someone could do such a thing. That is when Kumalo realized that everyone in the world isn't as passionate as him. He started to lose his faith in God, he felt as if he had turned on him. Kumalo lost his faith in The Lord when that should've been the first person he turned to through this difficult time. Johannesburg was a stressful place, therefore Kumalo became stressed and couldn't handle it.

    Kumalo is a very realistic character because the experiences he encounter are realistic. People in the real world get lied to and stole from all the time. Kumalo was just so trusting and not use to those types of actions that he couldn't believe it. He didn't think to question the man because in his mind there was no need to. He stood patiently waiting for the man to come back, thinking what he said was the truth.

    His trusting, humble, passionate, and God like ways made up his personality. That was how people knew of him.  I didn't think him going to Johannesburg would change him, but I can tell you that I was wrong. His sister was "sick", his brother betrayed him, and when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse it did. Kumalo found out his sister, Gertrude, had been selling liquor and became a prostitute. He was ashamed because he had a certain look to uphold with him being a priest. Kumalo's brother had betrayed him Absalom was charged with murder. He acted as if he didn't care, and he thought that no one would believe Absalom. He show no sympathy at all because his son was in the clear so it didn't matter to him.

   In conclusion, Kumalo is a round character and a dynamic character because of the conflict he encounter and how he changed. Having realistic experiences, makes Kumalo a realistic character that we could relate to. Kumalo was humble, passionate, and trusting. This experience changed him in many ways because he was no longer humble. He was no longer the same person we knew at the beginning of the book; if he could speak he'd probably tell us some things just simply got to him.