"As you said, when people go to Johannesburg, they do not come back. They do not even write, anymore ... they go to Johannesburg, and there they are lost, and no one hears of them at all." (39) In Cry, the Beloved Country, Allan Paton writes the remarkable story of Gertrude Kumalo's life in Johannesburg and her quest to make her life better. Gertrude Kumalo is a fearful and discomforted individual who is uncertain when she deliberates upon her future.

Fear is evident throughout the entire novel, but particularly in Gertrude. When she sees her brother for the very first time since she left Ndotsheni, she confronts fear, for she has a secret unknown to Stephen that he would not find out about. "Have no doubt it is fear in her eyes ... The fear in her eyes is mistakable. Now she will reveal herself." (59) Evidently, here she feels fear, as...