EngL1401W - Spring 2007: Introduction to "Third World" Literature

The very obvious observation was that the women, or at least woman, Miriamu was given much more freedom to think. By "freedom to think," I mean that Ngugi wa Thiong'o wrote in much more detail and length what Miriamu's perspective was. Also, Miriamu not only had a different opinion to that of her husbands, but she also acted upon her belief by going against his will.

I think that Thiong'o puts his story in that particular order because he wanted us to see the perfect outcome and then show us what made them the way they were. He showed us a young couple slowly losing their happiness bit by bit, which made it more dramatic.

I feel both authors used the father or father-in-law to indicate masculinity. Once someone makes an object or being masculine, it makes them strong, powerful, prideful, which, to an African perspective, could relate to white men and colonialism. The difference in the two men, Okonkwo and Wariuki is their reaction to colonialism. Okonkwo, didn't really have a reaction to it's beginning, but he defied it by refusing to be taken by them. On the other hand Wariuki, cooperates and becomes one with colonialism, using it to better his economic status. These outcomes really change the reader's reaction towards the two men, Okonkwo, becomes a martyr and we mourn his death, whereas in Wariuki's case, we feel happy that Miriamu has given up silence and spoken against Dodge W. Livingstone, Jr., and consequently colonialism.

The "Religion of Sorrow," to me, was reminiscent of African culture with the traditional drums and music and dancing. It wasn't a complete opposite of African tradition. Relating to the paragraph and theory before this, the workers who follow this religion could signify other people who are whittling under the pressure of colonialism.

When Miriamu say's 'no' at the end, it says "they all thought her a little crazed." She regained her voice and was heard but definitely not understood.

I don't know if Wariuki's changed name and religion was a deliberate attempt to "re-write" himself, it was more, him doing whatever society dictated was a "better class." I found it really interesting that African people thought 'colonialized' Africans were better, it also struck me when Wariuki blamed his own people for his misfortune and that he saw white men as "permanent features of the land."

At the beggining of the story, Thiong'o starts with a very uplifting voice about how admired Wariuki and Miriamu are. I think he does this to set up a feel good story about the struggles of poor Africans. After the uplifting intro, we hear of wariuki's struggles, his battle to gain wealth all because he wants vengeance on his father in law. We see him become more distant from his wife until he fully embraces the one thing that at the start of the story he hated...Christianity. His wife had loved the fact that he was so different from other men. The story ends up being quite ironic, because he becomes the one thing he hates, hence, his wife won't marry him.

It was interesting that TFA and this story both involved a main character that wanted to make himself great only to prove others wrong. Okonkwo and Wariuki were both driven by vengeance. It seems like a common theme in what we've read so far in the class (in regards to African Lit). It seems like many of the characters want success only to get revenge on someone else and they always end up either dead or let down completely (saying that your intentions should be good and should not want just money???)

The religion of sorrow, in my opinion, seems to represent they direction that Miriamu wished her and her husband had gone. A religion that, to some extent, embraces their poverty, but will not change to the Christianity of the colonizers to get out of poverty. In other words, they were not willing to sell themselves out in order to gain wealth.