Study Guide

Cry, the Beloved Country Chapter 21

By Alan Paton

Chapter 21

So many people come to the funeral that the church can't fit them all. The crowd's full of people of all races, paying their respects to Arthur Jarvis.
Back at the Harrisons' house, Mr. Harrison tells Jarvis that Arthur's death makes him worry even more about black crime. Um, we don't know about you, but it's becoming pretty clear to Shmoop that Mr. Harrison has some seriously prejudiced ideas about the place of black people in the South African society.
The next morning, Mr. Harrison tells Jarvis that Arthur's servant has identified one of the three men who robbed the house that night. Apparently, this robber used to work in Mary Jarvis's garden before he got a job at a fabric factory.
Jarvis picks up his son's manuscript again to try and understand what he was working on just before he was murdered. Sure enough, he's moved by his son's passion for social reform.
But it also makes him sad to see that Arthur stopped writing in the middle of a sentence. Oof, here come the waterworks again.
Jarvis imagines that his son was interrupted by a sound from the kitchen, a sound he went to investigate—only to be murdered by the burglars he surprised in his own home.

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