Patel Kinjal: : Examine the author’s use of flashback in his novel. Several characters have flashbacks to the beginning of the Emergency and of the Movement. How does this device work? Is it effective or infective? Why?

Topic: Examine the author’s use of flashback in his novel. Several characters have flashbacks to the beginning of the Emergency and of the Movement. How does this device work? Is it effective or infective? Why?

Name: Kinjal Patel

Paper Name: The African Literature

Paper No: 14

Roll No: 14

Semester: 4

Year: 2015

Submitted to: S.B.Gardi, Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji, Bhavnagar University. Gujarat, India

Gmail Address: patelkinjal.u21@gmail.com

About Author:

Ngugi wa Thiong'o (born 5 January 1938) 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 Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.

In 1977, Ngugi embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the general bourgeois education system", by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in the performances. His project sought to "demystify" the theatrical process, and to avoid the "process of alienation [that] produces a gallery of active stars and an undifferentiated mass of grateful admirers" which, according to Ngugi, encourages passivity in "ordinary people". Although Ngaahika Ndeenda was a commercial success, it was shut down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening. Ngugi was subsequently imprisoned for over a year.

About Novel:

"Mugo's throat was choked; if he spoke, he would cry. He shook his head and stared straight ahead." —Chapter 3, page 23

A Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The novel weaves together several stories set during the state of emergency in Kenya's struggle for independence (1952–1959), focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home village's preparations for Kenya's Independence Day celebration, Uruhu day. On that day, former resistance fighters General R and Koinandu plan on publicly executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika (a heroic resistance fighter hailing from the village).

Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released from prison, and fled Kenya. In the United States, he taught at Yale University for some years, and has since also taught at New York University, with a dual professorship in Comparative Literature and Performance Studies, and the University of California, Irvine. Ngugi has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His son is the author Mũkoma wa Ngugi.

Plot:

A Grain of Wheat chronicles the events leading up to Kenyan independence, or Uruhu, in a Kenyan village. Gikonyo and Mumbi are newlyweds in love when Gikonyo is sent to detention. When he comes back six years later, Mumbi has carried and given birth to his rival's child. Instead of talking about their trials, a wall of anger separates them. Mumbi's brother Kihika, a local hero, is captured and hanged, and his comrades search for the betrayer. Mugo becomes a hero through leading a hunger strike in detention, and the town wants him to become a political leader. Mugo, though, struggles with guilt and ultimately confesses that he betrayed Kihika.

At the beginning of the novel, as independence approaches, several visitors come to Mugo's door. They ask him to speak at the Uruhu celebration and become a leader, and also ask if Kihika mentioned Karanja, a worker for the white government who is suspected of betraying his friend, before his death. Kihika, a rebel fighter from the village, was captured and publicly hanged. Mugo denies knowing anything about Kihika's death and says he'll think about making the speech.

Gikonyo, one of the men who ask Mugo to speak, feels his life falling apart after coming home from detention camps. As a young man, he is deeply in love with Mumbi, and his rival is Karanja. Mumbi chooses Gikonyo, and they marry. Gikonyo, a carpenter, is happy, but he is arrested as a rebel. Gikonyo spends six years in concentration camps, even after he confesses his oath to the Movement, in order to come back home. He feels guilty about his confession. When he returns home, though, his wife has a child by another man, Karanja. Gikonyo refuses to talk about the child or to share a bed with his wife, and throws himself into work in his distress.

While Gikonyo is away, the town is punished. The huts are burned down and the people are forced to rebuild in a contained area. They are put into forced labor building a trench around the town, and they have no food. People are beaten, raped, and starved. During this time, Mugo protests a guard beating a woman in a trench and is arrested and taken away. Mumbi works hard and is faithful to Gikonyo, though she doesn't know if he's alive or dead. She finds out finally that Gikonyo is coming home, and in a moment of weakness, allows Karanja to have sex with her. Afterwards, she rejects him again, and never wants to see him. Karanja has embraced the white government to gain power.

Meanwhile, Mugo struggles with his own guilt. Before Karanja's death, he hopes to have a quiet life, building a home, business, and family. One day after shooting a government official, Karanja comes to his house and asks him to join the Movement. Mugo is afraid that either the rebels or the government will kill him. He turns Karanja over to the government, but immediately regrets it.

At the detention camp for intervening in the beating, Mugo truthfully claims to have taken no rebel oath. No one believes him. He is beaten mercilessly and inspires a hunger strike. Afterwards, the townspeople consider him a hero, but Mugo is driven by his conscience to confess at the Uruhu celebration, and later is taken away by the former Freedom Fighters to be punished. Also at the celebration, Gikonyo breaks his arm. In the hospital, he realizes that he needs to open up communication with Mumbi and that he wants to rebuild their marriage.

What is a flashback technique?

A flashback (analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events to fill in crucial back story. For example an early example of flashback is in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, where the main story is narrated through a frame story set at a later time.

Other examples are Odyssey and Paradise Lost in epics. Some of the stories in Arabian Nights like. ‘The Three Apples’. ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ and ‘The City of Brass also used the same device.

The Harry Potter series employs a magical device called a ‘pensive’ which changes the nature of flashbacks from a mere narrative device to an event directly experienced by the characters which are thus able to provide commentary. Cinema and TV use this, technique widely. The South African novel Á Grain of Wheat’ has this technique. This technique is usually used to clarify plot or back story, flashbacks sometimes act as an unreliable narrator.

Point of view:

The novel is told by an omniscient narrator, who exposes the point of view of different characters at different times, revealing their inside. Though the subject matter is dense, the author freely opens the character’s mind. Several events from the past are examined in flashback revealing the points of view from different characters.

The narrator only occasionally uses the first person, leaving the majority of the novel to be told in third person. In addition to the narrator revealing characters inner thoughts, the characters also tell their stories to each other.

Structure:

The novel is divided into fourteen numbered chapters plus four short named chapters at the end. The four named chapters at the end wrap up the stories of the main chapters. The novel shortly begins before the Kenyan Uruhu celebration, and it climaxes at the celebration itself. In between, it travels back in time and then returns to Uruhu, filling in all the events that lead up to the day of independence. Each character’s story is revealed in bits and pieces, throughout the novel.

Revealing stories in flashback:

The stories are intertwined, making a complex story with many threads. The two main story lines are there in the novel. There are some other stories- the story of the Thompsons, the story of Kihika, the story of Wambuku and the story of Njeri. There is also a story of the old woman and her deaf son. These stories intercept at different points as Mugo walks into the old woman’s room, as Mugo saves Wambuku’s life, as Mugo confesses to Mumbi as Gikonyo reveals to Mugo, as Mumbi reveals to Mugo.

Mumbi’s story reveals the lives of the people who stayed in Thabai when many were sent to concentration camps. She tells of the starvation, poverty, and enforced labor of those not even accused of a crime Gikonyo’s and Mugo’s stories reveals the experiences of those who were taken away. They both suffered unjustly. The Thompsons’ stories show the experience of the British who came to Kenya believing it was right to colonize Africa.

Nguigi deploys a narrative where the first story from the past that the real cause of Kihika’s death is a betrayal by a turncoat during the Mau Mau rebellion – is told on the commencement of the novel’s presents time, Sunday and in the next three days that precede the arrival of independence at Thursday midnight, Gikonyo would confide in Mugo on Monday, Mumbi to Mugo on Tuesday and finally on Wednesday the foremost secret of the novel Mugo’s betrayal of Kihika would be known by Mumbi through his confession. Now, let’s see some of the main characters dealing with the flashback.

Mugo:

"He wanted to shout: that is not it at all; I did not want to come back; I did not long to join my mother, or wife or child because I did not have any."

He realized his mistake as because of him Kihika was caught and killed. Later on he was arrested for stopping a guard from beating up a woman. He spent years in concentration camps enduring punishment. He led a hunger strike, Townspeople thought him to be a hero, but Mugo was eaten up with guilt. Finally, Mugo relieves his guilt by confessing his betrayal of Kihika by revealing his past to Mumbi.

Mumbi:

She was the most beautiful girl of Thabai. She married Gikonyo- a carpenter. While Gikonyo was in concentration camp she took all the responsibilities. She suffered a lot, remained hungry. She refused food from Karanja, her lover but later on took the food. Mumbi gave in to Karanja only once, in a moment of weakness when she learnt that Gikonyo was coming home. She immediately regretted. She could not several what happened to her to Gikonyo could express himself. Mumbi told her story later on to Mugo about the child.

Gikonyo:

"The African only came there to sweep the streets, drive the buses, shop and then go home to the outskirts before nightfall. Gikonyo had a vision of African businessmen like himself taking over all those premises!" —Chapter 6, page 61

He believed in the Movement, and was taken prisoner by government guards early in his marriage. He suffered severally in the camps; he almost lost his mind, at one point. He stuck his hand into barked wire. He missed Mumbi and longed for home and family. So he confused of taking the Movements oath. When he returned he found that Mumbi has a child by other man. Instead of communicating with her, he drove her out but then while in hospital he decides to rebuild their relationship. Gikonyo talked about his confession to Mugo later on when he went to his house to convince him for the speech on Uruhu.

Kihika:

When Kihika meets Mugo he relates his secret plan to him. He also told him that in disguise of an old man he killed a district officer- Robson but Mugo later on helped British in capturing him as he was afraid of being killed either by British or Kihika.

Dr. Lynd and Koina:

Dr. Lynd worked at the Githima forestry Research Station. She didn’t want to leave Kenya but she was afraid of the natives and hated them. She loves her dogs. She told the story of her traumatic experience and the death of her dog to Thompson. Koina was a former cook and a rebel who was believed to have killed Dr. Lynd’s dog. Dr. Lynd and Koina had different perspectives in seeing the story.

Throughout the novel the flashback stories run parallel with the present story of the celebration of Uruhu. Dr. Lynd, Mumbi, Gikonyo all felt the need of telling their past experience and connect themselves to the present. In the end of con of the novel Mugo also decided to confess. He had no peace of mind. The guilt of Kihika’s death made him restless. This way, many characters of the story are related to the past through flashback.

Ngugi, has effectively used the device of flashback technique. We find something missing in the present. The anxiety is aroused, and s past cannot be ignored, we find the characters revealing the responsible past that lead they present suffering. This device hits the right aim. It works for the author. Ngugi himself say:

“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 main within interacts with the real type.”

Ngugi successfully tells us the allegorical story of one man’s mistakes heroism and a search for the betrayer of a Mau Mau leader through multi- narrative, lines and multi-viewpoints. Interweaving many characters experiences during the struggle Ngugi has delineated a rare combination of present, past and future through ‘The Grain of Wheat’. From the beginning till the end of the novel the author used flashback technique intelligently, effectively and efficiently.

Reference:

1 .www.wikipedia.com

2. www.bookrags.com

3. Study material