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Genre
Courtroom drama; social criticism
Point of View
Books I and III are largely told from Kumalo’s point of view, while Book II is told largely from Jarvis’s point of view. A number of chapters, however, feature a montage of voices from different layers of South African society, and the narrator also shows things from other characters’ perspectives from time to time.
Tone
Lyrical, grieving, elegiac, occasionally bitter
Tense
Past
Setting
Mid-1940s, just after World War II, in Ndotsheni and Johannesburg, South Africa
Foreshadowing
When Kumalo sees in the newspaper that a white man has been killed by native South Africans during a break-in, he has a premonition that Absalom is involved.
Major Conflict
Stephen Kumalo struggles against the forces (white oppression, the corrupting influences of city life) that destroy his family and his country
Rising Action
Kumalo travels to Johannesburg to search for his son
Climax
Absalom is arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis
Falling Action
Absalom is sentenced to death; Jarvis works with Kumalo to improve conditions in the village; Absalom is hanged
