Psychologists often battle on the idea of 'Nature vs. Nurture', or the idea that people's character are decided by either genetic inheritance or their surroundings. In Cry, the Beloved Country, two brothers, John and Stephen Kumalo, are shown to have distinctly different values, although they are of the same family. Alan Paton, through his juxtaposition of John Kumalo and Stephen Kumalo, provides a correlation between a person's environment and a person's character. John Kumalo, a …showed first 75 words of 714 total…

…showed last 75 words of 714 total…son, while John Kumalo displays his own values in his lack of concern for his son.         John and Stephen show contrasting values throughout Cry, the Beloved Country in their views on power, concerns of the people around them, and their actions in concerning their sons. Through John and Stephen Kumalo, Alan Paton shows his view that a person's character is based on the environment around him and not on the blood that runs through him.