Free Essays - A Grain of Wheat :: Grain of Wheat Essays

Throughout my life I have read many novels. This book was very interesting. This is a compelling account of the turbulence that inflamed Kenya in the 1950s and its impact on people's lives. A brand new perspective upon the emancipation of so-called Third World Country .On the verge of Kenya independence, both colonizers and colonized were bewildered and confused. White colonial agents lost faith on their lifelong commitment, and Kenyans were cast into a precarious future, which they had been longed for, and at the same time, worried about. National passion became a nostalgia censorship and those who did not contribute to this "exploit" or those who chose to save his own skin or family and betray his to the movement bore a brand "Cain" on their forehead forever. A vivid description of the struggle between nation and individual. Despite Ngugui's flashback format A Grain of Wheat is certainly an attention keeper. Kenya at the brink of Uhuru (freedom) from the British, as experienced th rough the eyes of some interesting and greatly entertaining characters. Amazingly in the midst of this historical event the story is filled with love and betrayal. This is a tragic situation, where there can be no winners. It does not have heroes, heroes do not exist in tragedies- rather it has real people with real feelings, who due to the nature of the system, and their beliefs brought about by years of conditioning must come face to face with brutal realities. The book painfully traces the genesis of the conflict, and as demonstrated with Mugo, everybody is affected, you cannot be a bystander, neither is the people necessarily evil, but rather is as a result of complex situations that comforts them. Though, we do not want to believe, its with the quilt admission by Mugo, that makes him great, and which inevitably starts a healing painful process that must be addressed. Jomo Kenyatta is played a very important role in the backdrop of the novel A Grain of Wheat Through his role in the history of Kenya, his role in the novel as some what compared to Moses and his influentially book Facing Mount Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta played a vital role in the demanding Kenyan self-government and independence from Great Britain. Together with other prominent African nationalist figures, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenyatta helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress in Great Britain in 1945.