'Cry, the Beloved Country' is set in 1946 in South Africa, where huge social and political changes had taken place at that time. It was first published in 1948 when Nationalist Party came to power and soon after that apartheid was introduced, establishing the separation of races in every aspect of daily life. Black people were refused voting rights and their role in the Parliament weakened. Alan Paton, in his novel had depicted the differences and similarities …showed first 75 words of 881 total…

…showed last 75 words of 881 total…point during the novel, Msimangu talks about crime among white people also. That could be seen as a similarity, the fact that both white and black people committed crimes. Nevertheless, the fact still remains that during that time in South Africa, things became considerably worse before they became better. The novel ends with a note of hope for the country. Paton makes an assumption that the emancipation will come, but when, "that is a secret".