Name
:-
Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 14 (The African Literature)
Assignment Topic :- Themes of A Grain of Wheat
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 14 (The African Literature)
Assignment Topic :- Themes of A Grain of Wheat
E-Mail
:-
mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.
Words
:- 1451
A Grain of Wheat is portrayed to be Ngugi’s greatest accomplishment.
According to another noble novelist, this book is “an encouragement to humans
to assume a broad-minded viewpoint on man’s wrongdoing.” Based on cook’s
analysis on a grain of wheat, the book is endowed with two key themes; which are
related to “private responsibility and public responsibility.” Furthermore, he
acclaimed this work of art to be Ngugi’s most determined, impressive and
fruitful narrative. Palmer, claims that Ngugi didn’t only reflect on the wrong
doing of the white folks but also the wrong doing and wicked minds of the
native people. According to Robson, betrayal is the core theme of the novel.
Two major authors also share view concerning the outcome of this book, cook and
okenimkpe asserts that Ngugi’s novel is a “heroic corporate effort towards a
evenhanded society and betrayal; individual’s betrayals are representative of
the vast betrayal of the whole society by its power elite.” Although, the
mentioned reviewers evaluates the primary ideas present in a grain of wheat,
none of them puts a spotlight on the method and how the stories are conveyed.
Themes
of A Grain of Wheat :-
1)
Colonialism :-
As a character who has
been thoroughly inculcated with the ideology of the colonizer, Karanja abandons
all commitment to such a common good in favor of his own self-preservation.
Standing on the platform of the train station after being passed over by Mumbi
for Gikonyo, Karanja experiences a vision of his social world that plays a
critical role in his political choices in the conflict between the land and
freedom Army and British colonial authorities. Karanja’s stance of radical
individualism emerges immediately after he realizes that Mumbi has chosesn
Gikonyo, an experience of loss that provides the catalyst for a psychologically
destabilizing moment that can only be described as profoundly traumatic. This standpoint
has a significant bearing upon his later actions as collaborator, for it
conforms to the underlying system of values informing colonialism in Kenya. However,
by linking it thematically to the railway, Ngugi suggests that Karanja's
consciousness is formed as a result of the contingent historical processes of
colonization by which the colonized are drawn "into the position of social
isolation and consequent moral doubt".
colonization in Kenya
and a direct inheritance of a system of values that owes its continuing
existence to the imperialist expansion of European capitalism into Africa. Furthermore,
imperialism, and the individualism it reinforces, is implicitly depicted as a
form of psychological illness that, given the specific historical circumstances
under which it has been constructed, requires the intervention of revolution as
its cure.
Deploying both the
psychological and the historical implications of trauma, Ngugi presents the
struggle of individuals to understand their history through a narrative that is
itself a rewriting of history designed to liberate the colonized
consciousness from its
subjection to the disempowering representations of history immanent in colonial
ideology.
The effects
of widespread trauma induced by colonial domination are given a powerful
representation in the description of Gikonyo's experience of detention and his
reaction to Mumbi's act of infidelity with Karanja. Significantly, his initial
response to this traumatic homecoming is to develop philosophical
justifications for his feelings of despair and powerlessness that are almost identical
to those that Karanja formulated years earlier on the platform at the train
station: She had betrayed the bond, the secret, between them: or perhaps there
had never been any communion between them, nothing could grow between any two
people.
The imagery
used to describe this revelation also suggests that his condition of alienation
existed long before he learns of Mumbi's betrayal. His obsessive focus on Mumbi's imperfections enables him to
repress his own feelings of guilt and failure over the betrayal of his oath. His
completely unsympathetic view of Mumbi's betrayal (he seems to lack any idea of
the desperation and powerlessness she
has endured) is symptomatic of his inability to forgive himself.
Mugo lacks
any awareness that he has any connection with other human beings or the social
world. Although he is unlike Karanja to the extent that he makes no active
attempts to dominate or do violence to others, Mugo remains dominated by egotism
and self-interest. His betrayal of Kihika is driven, in part, by the same
desire for self-preservation that impels Karanja to join the Homeguards and
hunt down Mau Mau rebels. However, unlike Karanja, Mugo's individualism has its
origin in the loss of his parents at an early age and the extreme psychological
abuse he suffers at the hands of his aunt.
3)
Guilt and Redemption:-
In A Grain of
Wheat Mugo’s, like Kihika’s and Gikonyo’s, is the subaltern voice which is not
allowed expression by his colonial masters. The subaltern, Partha Chatterjee
notes, is “a contradictory unity of two different aspects: in one, the peasant
is the subordinate, where he accepts the immediate reality of power relations
that dominate and exploit him; in the other, he denies those conditions of
subordination and asserts his autonomy”.
A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi’s best novel to date,
deals with the theme of guilt and redemption of the subaltern. The story is
woven around the four characters Mugo, Gikonyo, Mumbi and Kihika. Mumbi explains
her actions thus: Karanja always pointed out to me that my faithfulness was
vain. The government forces were beating the Freedom Fighters. We never got a
letter or heard a word from those in detention. And with years Karanja became arrogant towards
me. He did not humble himself in front of me as he used to do. Instead, he
laughed to hurt me and I hung on to Gikonyo with all my heart. Kihika, the true Moses, is betrayed by his
people and the three main characters in the novel, Mugo, Gikonyo and Mumbi, are
left to carry their own burden of guilt. Strangely enough, it is Mugo who
becomes a beacon of light for the others in this guilt-ridden world.
This act of valour spreads
like wild fire and overnight he becomes a hero in the eyes of the people almost
of the same calibre as Kihika. People are overjoyed to find a leader who can
replace Kihika, not knowing that it was Mugo’s betrayal that caused Kihika’s
death.
After independence has
been won at great cost to the community the people of the village want to
organise a grand celebration to honour the detainees, particularly Mugo. They
come to his house to invite him and even at this point in time he does not
dispel their ignorance. But during the celebrations he stands in front of the
crowd and confesses his sin. The crowd is all set to lynch him but a sane voice
prevails: He was a brave man, inside. He stood before much honour, praises were
heaped on him.
The guilt and redemption of
the protagonists in this novel are played out in their lifetimes. Gikonyo rises
above his petty bourgeois mentality to forgive Mumbi and accept her child as
his own. As an atonement for his sin he decides to carve a stool with a woman
“big with a child”. There is a suggestion of reconciliation between Gikonyo and
Mumbi at the end of the novel. The expiation of the guilt brings about a
restoration of harmony in the community and in the lives of the main characters
in the novel. A Grain of Wheat.
So, in
the A Grain of Wheat main theme is Colonialism, Betrayal and Guilt and
Redemption. In the novel British Authority is powerful and Mugo is character
who takes side of both villagers and Britisher. Mugo betrays innocent villagers
and he kills Kihika because he knows the truth of Mugo. Mumbi also betrays
Gikonyo and she has a relationship with Karanja. In the ultimate analysis both
Mugo forge ahead and clear their own path through thickets of prejudice and
false belief. In the colonial situation Mugo, the subaltern voice, finds
expression and Ngugi secures his salvation in Christian terms through
confession of his guilt and its expiation.
Thank you
Bibliography
Krishnamurthy, Sarala . "An
Exploration of the Theme of Guilt." NAWA Journal of Language and
Communication (2007): 1 to 8.
Thiong, Ngugi wa . "Analysis of A
grain of wheat." The central action of A Grain of Wheat n.d.: 1
to 10.
Lutz, , John. "Ngugi's Dialectical
vision: Individualism and Revolutionary." Ufahamu: A Journal of
African Studies, 29(2-3) (2003): 29.
