Cry: Gender Roles

Alan Paton develops gender roles in his novel Cry the Beloved Country through typical societal sexism. He demonstrates these roles through the characters in the story. A man's job in society is much different than that of a woman's. Men owned businesses, "His brother John, who was a carpenter, had gone there, and had a business of his own in Sophiatown, Johannesburg" (36). This expresses that in society, it is a man's job to own businesses and to do the "dirty work". A woman's job is to serve everyone around them, without complaints. Women wear dresses and men wear pants, "...I has meant it for your new black clothes, and new black hat, and new white collars" (40). It is usual for a man to wear these certain outfits, for it is fairly abnormal not to. Gender roles discussed by the author differ from those of South African society. In South African society, gender roles do not matter, meaning that both men and women do the same type of work and wear the same type of clothing.