Name :- Hitixa Goswami
Class :- M. A. Sem 4
Roll No :- 9
Beach :- 2019-21
Enrollment No :- 2069108420200013
Subject :- The African Literature
Assignment Topic :- character sketch in ' A Grain of wheat' by ngugi wa Thiong'o
Email :- hitixagoswami28@gamil
Submitted to :- S.B.GARDI Department of English Bhavnagar University
Word :- 1726
Character sketch in ' A Grain of wheat' by ngugi wa Thiong'o
Introduction
A Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o first published as part of the influential Heinemann African Writers Series. ‘A Grain of Wheat’ is a short but noticeable novel, having only one main incident. It came under South African Literature. It was written in 1967. It was written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. It contains some historical events in it. It was very firstly represented as events in this novel. It was also known as Kenyan novel.
About the Author
Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan writer, formerly working in English and now working in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Kikuyu-language journal Mutlir.
He himself said:
“I am a writer, some have even called me a religious writer. I write about my people. I am interested in their hidden lives and hates and how the very tension in their hearts affects their daily contact with other men. How in other words, the emotions stream of the man within interacts with the real type.”
In this novel he again raises the same question about colonization and colonized people and so this work is also known as his masterpiece. He tries to bring reality and realism in front of worlds with the help of all his works and this work is also adding the same in his patriotic movement for people and nation.
About the Novel ' A Grain of wheat'
“A Grain of Wheat" is a complex, powerful novel exploring the psychology of a hauntedman – haunted by an act of treachery to a hero of Kenya’s freedom movement.”
The novel ‘A grain of wheat’ is Ngugi wa Thiong'o's third novel. This novel was published in 1967. The novel has Marxist and Fanonian militant attitude. A Grain of Wheat is about the events that lead up to Kenyan independence, or Uhuru. It's set in the background of the Mau Mau rebellion. The setting is a Kenyan village. The title of the novel is taken from the New Testament, and refers to a passage from Paul’s first letter to Corinthians which is placed as an epigraph at the very beginning. This is a story about events and relationships leading up to a country’s struggle for independence, and the story, focusing on the quite Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret.The action of the novel focuses on the hero’s memory of the incidents of the “Mau Mau Revolt'', the movement began in 1946 Mau Mau rebellion an anti – colonial movement which historians says revolt and independence for the African nation.
The novel starts in a small village and it gives us details about the physical, psychological and political impact of the revolt on small village people. The novel can be summarized as a “Collective act of recalling and reflecting on the past '' that is a narration of a nation. We can also compare this novel with European and Latin American style – especially historical novels as a vehicle to construct a national conscience.
This novel A Grain of Wheat is divided into three eras that are;
The story of this novel is centered around the character Mugo. The plot revolves around his home village’s preparation for Kenya’s Independence day celebration, “Uhuru day”. On that day, former resistance fighters General R. and Koinange plan on publicly executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika. The entire novel tells about the history of Kenya and the Mau Mau revolt.
A Grain of Wheat was a turning point in the formal and ideological of his works. This text is multi-narrative lines and multi-viewpoints unfolding at different times and spaces that replace the linear temporal unfolding of the plot from a single viewpoint. The collective replaces the individual as the center of history.
In the novel A Grain of Wheat there are many characters in the novels, but Mugo, Gikonyo, Mumbi, Karanja and Kihika play very vital roles in the novel. The character of Mugo is a central character of the novel. These characters also play vital roles in the freedom fighting of Kenya and the Mau Mau revolt.
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o begins the novel with the character of Mugo, who is asked to speak at the Uhuru, which is another Swahili word for the Kenyan Independence. Mugo agrees and denies knowledge about another character’s death. Gikonyo, another character, who is married to Mumbi. Gikonyo’s rival is Karanja, whom Mumbi sleeps with when Gikonyo is away at a detention center, when came back after six years, Mumbai is pregnant and the presence of the baby causes their relationship to be strained.
Major Character of The Novel
Mugo
He is the main character and the hero of the British Concentration camps, where he led the strike. Once he also protects a pregnant woman when one guard was trying to beat her badly. Mugo is a farmer, and he was under her aunt’s care who was a drunken woman and however, Mugo himself feels that he is an outsider. In between we can say that Mugo has a different personality and also has respect for women and villagers. His characterization is stronger than Britishers.
Gikonyo
He is an ambitious carpenter and businessman. He was married to Mumbi, but when he came to his home to Mumbai at that time he became shocked by the news that Mumbai is pregnant. He was in jail and at that time Mumbai was alone as a caretaker of Gikonyo’s parents. Gikonyo was having a rival or an enemy named Karanja, who actually took advantage in his absence.
Karanja:
He is a young man and a friend of Kihika. Kihika was also in love with Mumbi. When Mumbi marries to Gikonyo he feels that he became alone in the village and there everything has been ended without Mumbi. He mostly focuses on his sorrows and desire for Mumbai. There he takes an oath with his friends for the movement but he was in favor of Britishers and he joins their governance and becomes one of the guards. Karanja rises as a chief of the area.
Meanwhile Karanja invites Mumbai to his office once and tells her that her husband is going to come soon. Because of weakness unfortunately Mumbi allows sex with Karanja but at a time she regrets and Karanja doesn’t get fulfillment of his love with Mumbi.
Then Karanja leaves to work at the library in Githima, where he is little more than a toy. The White men don’t have respect for him and black people hate Karanja. He becomes a man without the world. Mugo saves Karanja from almost certain death by his confession.
Kihika
He was Mumbi’s brother and embraced the movement as a young man. He is more religious person and he compares the struggle in Kenya to the Jews in Egypt and wants to be free. He believes in sacrifice and unity. He wants Mugo in the movement and he plans an underground movement in the town. But Mugo becomes the reason of Kihika’s death as he reveals the next plan to the Britishers and Kihika was hanged. Thereby Kihika dies and becomes martyr for the movement. We can say that Mugo is responsible for Kihika’s death and he must be punished somewhere. Wambuku is Kihika’s girlfriend but she is not interested in his patriotism and her friend Njeri falls in love with Kihika. Wambuku, married to another man, becomes pregnant but when being beaten by a guard, Mugo tries to save her. Although after a struggle she died.
Mumbi
Mumbi is the most beautiful woman in the village of Thabai. She was admired by many youngsters in the village but she falls in love with Gikonyo and they got married. She thinks that she will protect her husband when the officers come to arrest him, but she does not. Thereby she takes the entire responsibility of Gikinyo’s home and also takes responsibility of building a new house and working in the trenches while Gikonyo was away from her in imprisonment.
But after meeting Karanja her life is totally ruined and she goes back to her parents but also there she suffers and her parents throw her back because of her mistake. Then she even starts living her life alone and starts working on her own abilities. Thus here the example of this character is more in light if we do feminist reading of the text.
Waiyaki
Waiyaki was an early rebellion against the White men, who is rumored to have been buried alive with his head facing into the earth. And it becomes the main theme of the text “A Grain of Wheat”.
Here all characters like Mumbi is the only central character in the novel that is female. This fact is a message from Ngugi to the reader telling them that Mumbi is to be a significant part of the novel. She is also Kihika's sister. Kihika is the most idolized character in the novel. He is considered the leader of the people and leads the movement. With Kihika being like this, Ngugi brings Mumbi into the novel with a jumpstart on the other characters. She is of the same bloodline as Kihika so the reader can expect to see important things coming from her.
Conclusion
So, with the help of all the statements we can conclude this point in favour of all characters in this novel. As we discussed earlier, this novel's character is a very strong character. Here Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o tried to give a very powerful voice to her characters like, Mumbi. Without her presence this novel seems very dull or lacks interest.
Work cited
Ngũgĩ, wa T, and Abdulrazak Gurnah. A Grain of Wheat. New York: Penguin Books, 2012. Print.
Thompson, Katrina Daly, 1975-. A Trickster Translation: How a Grain of Wheat Becomes Tsanga Yembeu. 1999.
www.academia.edu/4720459/Analysis_of_A_grain_of_wheat
http://www.scribd.com/doc/85482524/Character-and-Voice-in-Ngugi-Wa-Thiongo-a-Grain-of-Wheat#scribd
Thank you…
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