How do historical realities influence Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country? Msimangu and his family are dedicated to the church and to their charity work. His character reflects the outsized power that the church had to influence the development of new policies and to lead the fight against unjust laws in South Africa.

In South Africa, black people faced discriminatory laws and practices that relegated them to shantytowns and limited their job opportunities. This reality is revealed in Paton’s description of the shantytowns of Johannesburg and the prolific poverty found there.

In the novel, Gertrude becomes a drug and alcohol smuggler. The fate of her character reveals the serious issue of drug and alcohol abuse among young women of all races in South Africa in the 1940s.

Despite having a strong support network in Johannesburg that includes his aunt, his uncle, and his cousin, Absalom still falls in with the wrong crowd and becomes a criminal. Abaslom’s fate reflects the real-life failure of government to enact laws that punished crime in South Africa in the 1940s.