A Grain of Wheat

by

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

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The Individual vs. the Community Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Colonialism Theme Icon
The Individual vs. the Community Theme Icon
Guilt and Redemption Theme Icon
Christianity Theme Icon
Gender and Power Theme Icon
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.
The Individual vs. the Community Theme Icon

A Grain of Wheat’s narrative is framed between the Gikuyu tribesmen Mugo and Kihika, who are fundamentally opposites. Mugo wants nothing more than to be left alone, uninvolved in Thabai’s conflict, while Kihika is the self-sacrificing leader of the freedom fighters. Through the contrast between their characterizations, the narrative argues that, although the desire to live independent and unburdened is understandable, it is virtually impossible—each person’s life is interconnected with those around them, which consequently makes them responsible for sharing the burdens of their community, even at the cost of great sacrifice.

Through Mugo and fellow villager Karanja’s characters, the author recognizes the desire to live a simple, private life, unburdened by responsibility to one’s community, suggesting that such a desire is not inherently wrong. Mugo’s primary wish is to be left alone, untroubled and unconnected to his community. Although such anti-social behavior at first seems pitiful, the narration describes it as the result of an abusive childhood, which has left him anxious and without confidence. By describing not only Mugo’s desire to be alone and unburdened by his community but also the source of that desire, the author leads the reader to be sympathetic to such a wish. Connected to this desire to be alone, Mugo has no interest in participating in national affairs or the fight for independence from the British. Describing his time in a detention camp, Mugo says, “In those days we did not stay alive because we thought our cause strong. It was not even because we loved the country. If that had been all, who would not have perished? We only thought of home.” Mugo thus represents the desire to simply live, independent of the world and its problems, taking no sides. Just as Mugo’s village audience is receptive to his speech, so too does the author seem to validate such a desire as natural and human. Karanja expresses the same desire as Mugo, though goes about it in a more blatantly self-serving way. Disenchanted with life after being rejected by his love, Karanja joins the homeguard, the British security force, because he believes it will result in less suffering for him than he would endure as a freedom fighter—effectively too, since Karanja is given imperial power and avoids the detention camps. In Karanja’s mind, he is justified by his duty to himself, saying, “Every man in the world is alone, and fights alone, to live.” Though similar to Mugo’s understandable desire to be left alone, Karanja’s betrayal of his countrymen for his own benefit seems blatantly selfish, since he not only refuses to fight for freedom, but sides with the colonizers.

Despite their desire for autonomy and freedom from social responsibility, Mugo and Karanja’s lives are inevitably connected to those in their community, demonstrating that it is not possible to live utterly independent, without responsibility for or connection to others. Though Mugo wishes to remain alone and uninvolved, Kihika comes to Mugo for shelter while he is being hunted by the British precisely because Mugo lives in isolation. Mugo is angered that Kihika’s very presence has drawn him into the conflict, forcing him to take a side, and he decides to secretly betray Kihika to the British in a bid to remain uninvolved. However, Kihika’s trust in Mugo causes the villagers to view Mugo as the new symbol of resistance after Kihika is killed, not knowing that it was Mugo who betrayed him. Mugo’s inevitable, unwilling involvement in the struggles of his community demonstrates the near impossibility of living one’s life alone, unburdened by the striving and struggling of those around them. Karanja, though he is detached from his brethren’s fight for freedom, still inevitably impacts his fellow villagers’ lives. As a member of the imperialist homeguard, Karanja minimizes his own suffering but becomes a source of suffering and oppression for the people of Thabai. Karanja’s selfish exchange –causing suffering to his people in exchange for his own safety—further demonstrates the impossibility of living independent of one’s community.

Kihika, in contrast to Mugo and Karanja, understands and nobly accepts his social responsibility to his community, though it costs him his life, demonstrating that to take responsibility for the people around oneself often requires great sacrifice. Kihika’s selflessness and courage to fight the British makes him a hero and a symbol of hope for his people, even though he admits to Mugo that he would rather enjoy “the comfort of a warm fire and a woman's love” than live in the wet forest and fight. Kihika’s willingness to set aside his desires for a simple, happy, unburdened life make him the most admirable figure in the novel and demonstrate the virtue of shouldering the burden of one’s duty to their community. Although Kihika is killed because of Mugo’s betrayal, the homeguard pursue Kihika so fiercely that it seems unlikely he would survive even without Mugo’s actions. The probability of this sacrifice is something Kihika recognizes even as a young man, when he leaves his lover behind to join the Mau Mau fighters in the forest. Kihika’s nearly inevitable death underscores that as virtuous and important as accepting one’s duty to their community is, it often comes at great personal cost.

The conflict that the story establishes between an individual and their responsibility to commitment is difficult, since the virtuous course of action is also one that demands great sacrifice. However, the hope that Kihika gives to his people through his selfless example indicates that such sacrifices are not only necessary, but meaningful.

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The Individual vs. the Community ThemeTracker

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The Individual vs. the Community Quotes in A Grain of Wheat

Below you will find the important quotes in A Grain of Wheat related to the theme of The Individual vs. the Community.
Chapter 3 Quotes

[Mugo] had always found it difficult to make decisions. Recoiling as if by instinct from setting in motion a course of action whose consequences he could not determine before the start, he allowed himself to drift into things or be pushed into them by an uncanny demon; he rode on the wave of circumstance and lay against the crest, fearing but fascinated by fate.

Related Characters: Mugo
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

At Githima, people believed that a complaint from [Karanja] was enough to make a man lose his job. Karanja knew their fears. Often when men came into his office, he would suddenly cast them a cold eye, drop hints, or simply growl at them; in this way, he increased their fears and insecurity. But he also feared the men and alternated this fierce prose with servile friendliness.

Related Characters: Karanja
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“Many of us talked like that because we wanted to deceive ourselves. It lessens your shame. We talked of loyalty to the Movement and the love of our country. You know a time came when I did not care about Uhuru for the country anymore. I just wanted to come home.”

Related Characters: Gikonyo (speaker), Mugo
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Unknown to those around him, Kihika’s heart hardened towards “these people,” long before he had even encountered a white face. Soldiers came back from the war and told stories of what they had seen in Burma, Egypt, Palestine and India; wasn’t Mahatma Gandhi, the saint, leading the Indian people against the British rule? Kihika fed on these stories: his imagination and daily observation told him the rest; from early on, he had visions of himself, a saint, leading Kenyan people to freedom and power.

Related Characters: Kihika, Gikonyo
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:

“I would hate to see a train run over my mother or father, or brothers. Oh, what would I do?” [Mumbi] quickly exclaimed.

“Women are cowards.” Karanja said half in joke.

“Would you like a train to run over you?” Mumbi retorted angrily. Karanja felt the anger and did not answer.

Related Characters: Karanja (speaker), Mumbi (speaker), Kihika
Related Symbols: The Train / The Iron Snake
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

In Kenya we want deaths which will change things, that is to say, we want true sacrifice. But first we have to be ready to carry the cross. I die for you, you die for me, we become a sacrifice for one another. So I can say that you, Karanja, are Christ. Everybody who takes the Oath of Unity to change things in Kenya is a Christ.

Related Characters: Kihika (speaker), Karanja
Related Symbols: The Oath
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

Though Njeri was a short girl, her slim figure made her appear tall. But there was something tough about that slimness. She despised women’s weaknesses, like tears, and whenever fights occurred at Kinenie [forest], she always fought, even with men. A cat, men called her, because few could impose their physical will on her.

Related Characters: Kihika, Wambuku, Njeri
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:

Gikonyo greedily sucked sour pleasure from this reflection which he saw as a terrible revelation. To live and die alone is the ultimate truth.

Related Characters: Gikonyo, Mumbi
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“As for carrying a gun for the whiteman, well, a time will come when you too will know that every man in the world is alone, and fights alone, to live.”

Related Characters: Karanja (speaker), Mumbi
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:

A big lump blocked Mugo’s throat. Something heaved forth; he trembled; he was at the bottom of the pool, but up there, above the pool, ran the earth; life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful; only for a moment; how dared he believe in such a vision, an illusion?

Related Characters: Mugo, Mumbi
Page Number: 146
Explanation and Analysis:

“It makes his life more interesting to himself. He invents a meaning for his life, you see. Don’t we all do that? And to die fighting for freedom sounds more heroic than to die by accident.”

Related Characters: General R. (speaker), Mugo, Githua
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The man who had suffered so much had further revealed his greatness in modesty. By refusing to lead, Mugo had become a legendary hero.

Related Characters: Mugo
Page Number: 171
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

[Wambui] believed in the power of women to influence events, especially where men had failed to act, or seemed indecisive […] Let therefore such men, she jeered, come forward, wear the women’s skirts and aprons and give up their trousers to the women.

Related Characters: Wambui
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:

“I despise the weak. Why? Because the weak need not remain weak. Listen! Our fathers fought bravely. But do you know the biggest weapon unleashed by the enemy against them? It was not the Maxim gun. It was the division amongst them. Why? Because a people united in faith are stronger than the bomb. They shall not tremble or run away before the sword.”

Related Characters: Kihika (speaker), Mugo
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:

“But what is an oath? For some people, you need the oath to bind them to the Movement. There are those who’ll keep a secret unless bound by an oath. I know them […] In any case how many took the oath and are now licking the toes of the whiteman? No, you take an oath to confirm a choice already made. The decision to lay or not to lay your life on the line for the people lies in the heart. The oath is water sprinkled on a man’s head at baptism.”

Related Characters: Kihika (speaker), Mugo
Related Symbols: The Oath
Page Number: 187
Explanation and Analysis:

I am important. I must not die. To keep myself alive, healthy, strong—to wait for my mission in life is a duty to myself, to men and women of tomorrow. If Moses had died in the reeds, who would ever have known that he was destined to be a great man?

Related Characters: Mugo (speaker), Kihika
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:
Karanja Quotes

Then, somehow, [Karanja] had not felt guilty. When he shot [Freedom Fighters], they seemed less like human beings and more like animals. At first this had merely thrilled Karanja and made him feel a new man, a part of an invisible might whose symbol was the whiteman. Later, this consciousness of power, this ability to dispose of human life by merely pulling a trigger, so obsessed him that it became a need. Now, that power had gone.

Related Characters: Karanja
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:
Harambee Quotes

Courage had failed [Gikonyo], he had confessed the oath in spite of his vows to the contrary. What difference was there between him and Karanja or Mugo who had openly betrayed people and worked with the whiteman to save themselves? Mugo had the courage to face his guilt and lose everything. Gikonyo shuddered at the thought of losing everything.

Related Characters: Mugo, Gikonyo, Karanja
Related Symbols: The Oath
Page Number: 241
Explanation and Analysis: