Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Grain of Wheat, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism
The Individual vs. the Community
Guilt and Redemption
Christianity
Gender and Power
Summary
Analysis
In Mugo’s hut, Gikonyo finishes his confession to Mugo, saying he cannot well recall the next few days. Though he briefly believed in Mumbi’s virtue, her child is a constant reminder of her treachery. Gikonyo cannot stand to make love to her ever again, and bereft of his love for his wife, throws himself entirely into his work and making money. As Gikonyo leaves, he is still disheartened. “Mugo’s purity, Mumbi’s unfaithfulness, everything had conspired against him to undermine his manhood, his faith in himself, and accentuate his shame at being the first to confess the oath in [his detention] camp.”
Yet again, rather than realize that the ruin of his life has been much of his own making—even Mumbi’s unfaithfulness should not need to be such a humiliation for him if he would only listen to her—Gikonyo sees the world as having “conspired” against him. Gikonyo’s inability to accept the consequences of the life he has led chains him to his guilt, rather than allowing him to accept it and move on.
Themes
After Gikonyo leaves, Mugo goes to the door and calls for him to come back, but is only met with the stillness of the evening. He wishes had given some comfort to Gikonyo, but no words came out of his mouth. For a brief moment, Mugo considers what would have happened if he had confessed his own crime to Gikonyo, but banishes the thought. Stepping out into the night air to walk to a tea shop, Mugo reflects on the scriptures that Kihika had loved and often quoted. They stir in his mind a memory from 1955, two years after the Emergency was initially declared, before he was detained.
Mugo is still paralyzed by his guilt, and so cannot even offer comfort to someone else suffering from a similar burden. He is at least now entertaining the idea of confessing, however, and seems to recognize that this could bring him some kind of relief.
Themes
In the memory, Mugo works his piece of land, tending his crops. As he takes his noon rest, he fancies that he hears the voice of God calling him, as to Moses when he stood before the burning bush. Mugo answers, like Moses, “Here am I, Lord.” Mugo regards this moment as the “climax of his life. For a week later DO Robson was shot dead, and Kihika came into his life.”
Mugo, like Kihika, has messianic ideas about himself but lacks the willpower to follow through on them. Even so, his usage of Christian imagery to give purpose and significance to his life again demonstrates Christianity’s capacity to create and distribute meaning. This is exemplified by the fact that Mugo sees this point as the “climax of his life” when all he is actually doing is sitting in the dirt.
Themes
Mugo arrives at the tea shop and is greeted by a drunken Githua, hobbling on his crutches, who salutes him as Chief. Githua tells him the story, everyone in the tea shop listening, of how he was once a driver with two good legs. When the Emergency was declared, according to Githua, he found General R. and became a Freedom Fighter until a bullet took his leg off. Mugo is repulsed by Githua’s stump of a leg, yet “[feels] his sympathies now drawn to this man who was more worthy of praise than he.” Githua implores Mugo to “remember the poor,” so Mugo gives him some money and leaves.
Githua, like Mugo, will turn out to be a false hero, and it is notable that Mugo is here inspired by Githua’s past heroism. However, Githua’s use of his story to garner sympathy and beg for money cast a shameful light on his heroics, suggesting that the truth does not matter, the events do not matter, and even Uhuru does not particularly matter so long as Githua can find a little money to drink with.
Themes
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As he walks home, Mugo resolves that he will accept the responsibility of speaking at the Uhuru celebrations, he will be a leader of his community, and he will bury “his past in their gratitude.” Certainly, he imagines, God will forgive his transgressions so that he can do great deeds and save the people around him, just like he did for Jacob and Esau and Moses. That night, Mugo dreams of being in the detention camp, with all the prisoners and even John Thompson, toting his machine gun, crying out to Mugo for salvation. “How could he refuse, that agonized cry. Here I am, Lord. I am coming, coming, coming, riding in a cloud of thunder. And the men with one voice wept and cried: Amen.”
Although Mugo is delusional and his messianic ideas are laughable, his motivations make sense: perhaps what his people need more than the truth is another heroic icon. But setting up the dilemma as such, the author invites introspection from the reader and actual consideration of whether guilt must always be confessed for an individual to find redemption. The novel asks: can one find redemption not through the truth, but through burying the past and serving other people?
Themes
