Racism in the South Africa in the early twentieth century in Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country

ABSTRACT

Racism is theory or idea of domination of the majority group to the minority one based on inherited physical traits. The researcher analyzes racism in the novel Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The researcher chooses Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country because the novel tells a problem of racism in South Africa. It is also a best seller novel and has been adapted into movie. The important of the study is the setting where racism is occured, South Africa. It has been never conducted by any previous studies in UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim who concern in racism.

The purposes of the study are to identify the models of race relation reflected in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, to identify the solutions depicted in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country deal with racial problem, and to describe the relation to the real condition in South Africa as the background of the novel story.

The research problems of the study are: first, what the models of race relation reflected in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country are; second, What the solutions depicted in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country deal with racial problem are; and the last, how the relation to the real condition in South Africa as the background of the novel story is.

In analyzing the novel the researcher uses sociological approach in literary criticism. Sociology is a tool to understand the condition that occurs in society. In literary perspective, the researcher analysis the condition of society in the novel and then she tries to relate to the real condition in South Africa as the background of the novel.

The findings of the analysis are there are three models of domination in the novel; those are prejudice, discrimination, and segregation. Those are kinds of white people treatment to the black people. Beside that, those kinds of treatment are also found in the real world. Thus, the researcher can say that Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country reveals racism in the real condition of South Africa in 1940s at the time of apartheid era. Solutions to solve the problem are also found, they are in the form of love and compassion.