Steven Kumalo

Alan Paton uses the character Steven Kumalo to demonstrate how traditional values are very different than the new ways of life in the city.

• "Deep down the fear for his son. Deep down the fear of a man who lives in a world not made for him, whose own world is slipping away, dying, being destroyed, beyond any recall" (14).
• "I gave a pound to a young man, he said, and he told me he would get my ticket at the ticket office." Mr. Mafolo responds, "You have been cheated, umfundisi"(19).
• "And the love of must have been in his voice, for they were all silent and listened to him. He told them too of the sickness of the land, and how the grass had disappeared... how when they went away [to Johannesburg], many never came back, many never wrote any more" (21-22).