A Grain of Wheat Essay

A mite of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiongo. The novel weaves several stories together during the democracy of emergency in Kenyas struggle for emancipation (19521959), focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is govern by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home villages preparations for Kenyas independence day celebration (Uhuru day). Former rampart fighters General R and Koinandu plan on publicly kill the traitor who betrayed Kihika (a heroic resistance fighter hailing from the village) on that day.First of all, Ngugi use many fibers to express the generate of the story as an African man the protagonist of this story is the loner Mugo, a hero of the British concentration camps where he led a hunger strike and he also tried to full point a village guard from beating a pregnant woman to death. Although he is thought to be a hero through the whole book, he is the traitor of Kihika betraying him to the British in a self-serving act to save himself.Als o Gikonyo, an ambitious carpenter and business man whos married to Mumbi. He confessed to taking the oath of the resistance while in a concentration camp, securing an early release except to find that his wife had borne a child with his hated rival Karanja while he was away. another character is Mumbi, the wife of Gikonyo and sister of Kihika. While Gikonyo was imprisoned she slept with Karanja who had been appointed village chief by the colonial power.Also, Karanja, a collaborator with the British and widely suspected to be the traitor who betrayed Kihika. In addition toKihika, a resistance fighter who conquered a police station and killed the hated District Officer Robson before being caught and hanged later being betrayed by Mugo. and John Thompson, an early British settler and administrator of Thabai, who believes in the ideals of colonial imperialism and persecutes dreary Africans. A Grain of Wheat is about the events that lead up to the Kenyan independence, or Uruhu.The set ting is a Kenyan village. When the characters Gikonyo and Mumbi get married, are in love and just started their lives, Gikonyo is sent to detention. When he comes back after six years, Mumbi had his rivals child. They cannot find the words to talk about the past, and a wall is created surrounded by them. Mumbis brother gets captured and hanged and after loads of events, the town realize that the one they thought to be the hero, was truly the betrayer.