Summary:
This is a 6 pages document covering the summary and reader review of the novel Weep Not, Child by the African author- James Ngugi. James Ngugi was born in 1938 in Kamiriithu, near Limuru, Kiambu District.
One of Africa's most accomplished and prominent novelists, Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in 1938 in an area known at the time as the "White Highlands," part of the British-ruled Kenya Colony. He is a Kenyan writer in exile.
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o began writing with various books and articles in English for newspapers such as The Sunday Post, The Daily Nation and The Sunday Nation under the name of James Ngugi.
The last book he wrote in English was Petals of Blood. He decided then to start writing in his mother tongue: Kikuyu. He wrote: “If a Kenyan writer expresses himself or herself in English -independently of the radicalism from which he or she writes-, he or she cannot directly reach the workers and the peasants of Kenya”. This context proves important in his early novels, which deal with the dilemmas of growing up in two worlds: as a Kikuyu/African and a Westerner/Christian. He was educated at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and the University of Leeds. His early works, Weep Not Child, The River Between, and A Grain of Wheat, depict the conflict of cultures and the role of Christianity, English education, and the increasingly oppressive treatment of the Kikuyu and other Africans, whose land had been taken by the colonists.
As a novelist Ngugi made his debut with ‘Weep Not Child’ (1964), which he started to write while he was at school in England. It was the first novel in English to be published by an East African author.
The story entails the plight of the African people.
Weep not, Child is a story about a young boy, Njoroge, as he grows up amidst the Mau Mau war and the conflict between the African natives and the British colonial rulers. The book is in essence about the hopes and dreams of a young boy coming being affected by the outside world and how the outside world changes a person.
Two small boys stand on a rubbish heap and look into the future.
One boy is excited, he is beginning school; the other, his brother, is an apprentice carpenter. Together, they will se rve their country - the teacher and the craftsman. In the novel Weep Not, Child, by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Njoroge is growing up amidst to the Mau Mau war and the conflict between the African natives and British colonial rulers. Education parallels the life of the Kenyan people.
Those who get their education, the intellectual ones, are looked upon as saviors of the African land. Njoroge, the dreamer and accomplished student, must decide where his loyalty lies.
In Kenya , those who receive educations are looked upon as intellectual saviors of the land. The ironic aspect of the education is that it is being handed down from British rule. Njoroge, the youngest of four brothers, wanted nothing more than to receive an education and provide for the welfare of his family. Njoroge takes his education seriously and excels to the next level.
Due to the fact that Njoroge is at a so-called “age of the innocence” he has the opportunity to get schooling.
The brothers before him have already made their tracks in the roles they are going to take in life . But this is Kenya , and times are against them.
In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and the two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, and the rest of their family, need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical man, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge, the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up.
The story is based entirely on the existence of
the family of Ngotho in which their views and ideas
are clearly expressed. The roles in which men and
women accept are very evident throughout the entire
book. Ngotho felt responsible for whatever happened
to this land. He owed it to the dead, the living
and the unborn of his line, to keep guard over this
shamba. The land sloped gently to rise again into
the next ridge and the next. Beyond Ngotho could
see the African Reserve. Ngotho was puzzled. Would
the prophecy be fulfilled soon? Would these people
ever go? It was said that they would eventually
return the way they had come.
Also, feelings towards the different cultures; which resulted in certain stereotypes helped in portraying the entire atmosphere in which each culture saw the world through their eyes. In the beginning of the book you are explained the atmosphere which is upheld throughout the book. The Black, Indian, and White people all have something in come, the want and need of power. Once they obtain this power, they will do anything to keep it and make sure lower class people never reach the status, which they have worked so hard for.
Conflicts have a vast impact upon the development of the plot in weep not child Weep not child, is novel by an African writer, Ngugi.
The plot of this novel is generally about a boy and the hardships he goes through in the course of his life. Conflict is one of the main themes of this novel, and it helps in the development of the plot.
The characterization of the people in the novel are mainly a result of the situation they are present in, which is mostly due to the conflicts surrounding each of the character. In the novel, conflicts have come in a variety of forms, e.g. political, cultural, and class struggles.
The most noticeable conflict present in this novel is the political conflict.
It can be seen that this novel is set at the colonial times; this was when the British were ruling over Africa .
“Later, our fathers were taken captives in the first Big War to help in a war whose cause they never knew. And when they came back? Their land was taken away for a settlement of the white soldiers.” Here it is seen that Africans dislike the British ruling there, and taking over their lands. Africans were controlled by their rulers; forcing them to speak European languages—they attempted to teach children (future generations) that speaking the foreign language was good and that native languages were bad by using negative reinforcement . Ngugi argues that colonization was not simply a process of physical force. Rather, "the bullet was the means of physical subjugation.
Weep Not, Child is a powerful, very moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women. Its author, Ngugi, is one of Africa 's most influential and exciting writers, and this, his second novel, is one of the best-known novels in Africa .
The novel also addresses the political conflict that was occurring in Kenya in the 1950's. The author incorporates a description of the power of the white rulers, the bitterness of the Africans at being enslaved on their own land and their attempt to rise up against the tyranny, and finally deals with the poor relations between the blacks and Indian merchants, who are looked down upon by the black community.
It is a very powerful story; dealing with Njoroge's life, his thoughts and his feelings but due to the length of the novel (136 pages) one only gets a fairly superficial explanation of the historical and cultural context of the book. Also, this novel is a book in translation, so some of the sentence and grammatical structure can be a bit tricky at times.
All in all, it is a very good book. |