In Cry, the Beloved Country, Absalom has a girlfriend about whom Kumalo learns when in search of Absalom who had been jailed for theft. His good behavior and intentions to reform had caused the jail keeper to befriend him, find him living quarters, a job and to release him early.
Kumalo went with the jailer to where Absalom was staying and there they learn that Absalom has abandoned his girlfriend and returned to his bad companions and to living a life of crime. The girlfriend is given no name because she is irrelevant.
The ties to life and love and family that she represents cannot rival or break the ties of the destroying power of bad companions and crime. This is one of the messages of Cry, the Beloved Country, that the environment (in this case, the city and its wanton inhabitants) can drown all good instincts, all good desires, all good training and even the power of love.
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