Not all books are created equal. Some written works are deemed to possess “literary merit” but many people are unsure what this means exactly. Even CollegeBoard offers a relatively vague idea of what literary merit truly is. Literary merit is pretty difficult to put into exact words- it’s debatable and highly subjective. However, I feel literary merit is ascribed to books that have a deeper meaning, through themes, open questions and symbolism, that can provoke thought in their readers.

Although some books will leave a reader with little more than the memory of what was previously read, a work of literary merit will stay in the reader’s thoughts. Whether the reader enjoyed the novel is irrelevant in this aspect; like the saying “All press is good press,” nearly all reactions to a work of fiction are good reactions. Maybe the reader is contemplating the morality of the protagonist’s actions or perhaps they just cannot stand a choice that a character made. Either way, this novel has stuck with them in a lasting way. Something about the book the reader has finished has caused them to have deeper thoughts about one topic or another. Themes, open questions you ask yourself as you read, and symbolism the author uses allow a novel to become much more than just words. These elements make you and others readers think harder about a text and often help in establishing a more personal connection between the text and you as a reader.  In my opinion, this shows that the book really has literary merit because its meaning goes beyond what’s simply written on the page.

With this in mind, I feel like Cry the Beloved Country is definitely a work of great literary merit. There are not one but many themes that can be derived from the text-each one giving the novel another layer of meaning. The characters are constantly faced with situations that test their strength and faith in God and life, among other things. Country’s themes, along with symbolism (often in relation to crying), were things I thought about nearly every time I read from its pages. When a book is as steeped in meaning as well as historical context as Paton’s novel is, it is hard to simply read through quickly with no second thought. In fact, it basically requires you to think deeper about what each sentence and paragraph means in the grand scheme of the novel and for that alone I feel this book is clearly one of literary merit.

The jury may still be out on what the true definition of ‘literary merit’ is and perhaps they always will be but to me, I feel that literary merit simply warrants that a book come with far deeper meaning than what may appear upon first glance.