In Cry, the Beloved Country, what is the author's tone?

This is an excellent question. Of course, when we refer to
tone, we think about the attitude of the author towards his subject matter. What is
distinctive about this novel is the simplicity of its prose, and how it is used to show
the author's feelings about the injustice of what is going on in S. Africa, and the deep
hurt that is being caused to both the land and the people because of the harsh racial
schism that divides the country. Consider the following
passage:

Have
no doubt it is fear in the land. For what can men do when so many have grown lawless?
Who can enjoy the lovely land, who can enjoy the seventy years, and the sun that pours
down on the earth, when there is fear in the heart? Who can walk quietly in the shadow
of the jacarandas, when their beauty is grown to danger? Who can lie peacefully abed,
while the darkness holds some secret? What lovers can lie sweetly under the stars,
when menace grows with the measure of their
seclusion?

Note here how
Paton uses a series of rhetorical questions to express his sadness and deep mourning of
the fear that his countrymen have and how this is affecting their ability to live and
enjoy life. Man, because of fear, Paton argues, is harried and restless, and unable to
live and prosper. Throughout his sadness is
conveyed.

However, consider how the tone of the novel
changes towards the end, especially when Kumalo begins to find new hope with the help of
Jarvis. The final paragraph of the story contains the
sentence:

readability="6">

Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light
will come there also.

We are
able to see that the novel ends in an attitude of hope - Jarvis and Kumalo form a
friendship and Kumalo even befriends the son of the man who his son killed, illustrating
the ability of man to breach the unnatural divide that society has imposed in S. Africa
between whites and blacks, and the novel ends, if not optimistically, at least offering
us the hope of a brighter future.