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Chapter 3
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
Back when Europeans and Indians fought for control over Kenya, a British agricultural officer drew the plans for a forestry research station in Githima. The officer is killed by the train, but the research station is completed and filled with European scientists and administrators. Years later, Dr. Henry Van Dyke is killed by the same train in the same spot, when he drunkenly drives his car into it. Karanja, a Thabai villager who works in Githima dusting books and writing labels, always hated Dr. Van Dyke, but is strangely horrified by his death.
Throughout the novel, the train functions as a symbol of British technology and progress as it makes its way across Kenya via colonialism. More often than not, the train is also associated with death or fear, suggesting that even for the British, their colonialist practices are a blight. While colonialism brings technological progress to Kenya, it also destroys Kenya’s freedom and encourages the British to resort to barbaric practices, destroying any sense of moralism they may have once possessed.
Themes
While Karanja is at his desk, painstakingly writing labels, another Kenyan named Mwaura enters, first brazenly insulting Karanja before telling him that John Thompson wants to see him. Karanja is infuriated by the man’s presence but does nothing. Karanja reports to John Thompson, who merely wants him to deliver a message to his wife Margery. Karanja hates such trivial errands and resolves to complain to Thompson about them, but delivers the message anyway. Karanja does not want to lose his good standing with the white people, since it makes his fellow Kenyans fear him, though he also fears them and knows that they despise and mock him.
Karanja, like Mugo and Gikonyo, is depicted as a weak man, gripped by indecision and cowardice, as exemplified by his failure to stand up to Mwaura or to John Thompson. It is notable that Karanja’s only sense of power is directly tied to his proximity to white people, which again indicates his own personal weakness. Where Lt. Koina believes in black power and Kenya’s ability to self-govern and self-sustain, Karanja submits himself as a dependent to white power.
Themes
Karanja rides his bicycle to Margery’s house, and she oddly invites him to stay for tea, apparently lonely and bored. Karanja is terrified of having tea with a white woman—particularly afraid of accidentally looking at her “pointed breasts”—but also hopes that another African will see him having tea with a white woman, which would certainly buff his reputation. Margery, meanwhile, is secretly thrilled by the alluring power she has over Karanja and how nervous she makes him. She asks him all manner of questions: how many wives he has—which makes him painfully think of Mumbi, whom Karanja loves but was rejected by—how he feels about Uhuru, and so on. Karanja hopes that she will give some hint of the rumor that she and John Thompson are soon leaving Kenya, but she gives none, and he cannot bring himself to ask.
Margery’s sexual allure and the power this gives her in the scene demonstrates that, like Gikuyu women, women in British society may also find alternative ways to exert power within relationships when it is not granted by society. Moreover, both characters in the scene also capitalize on the social power granted to white people. As a white woman, Margery’s alluring power is accentuated by her race; Karanja, though he fears Margery, hopes to capitalize on her racial power by his proximity, hoping that being seen having tea with a white women will make him seem powerful in the eyes of his countrymen.
Themes
After he leaves, Karanja finds Mwaura in a teahouse and apologizes for his earlier outburst, explaining that he was only upset because he believes his work of writing labels to be so critically important.
Karanja is depicted as both weak in his need to apologize and vain in his belief that writing labels on books—a menial task—is of special significance to his colonial employers.
Themes
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John Thompson sits at his desk, rifling through papers and pretending to be working. His thoughts drift to Uhuru, what a betrayal it seems, and the pride he had felt when the queen visited Kenya and shook his hand while he was still the District Officer. Now, it seems to him, the carefully-maintained research station and all of their hard work will fall to ruin within months when the white people leave.
John Thompson’s character serves primarily to show the colonizer’s view of their oppressive colonial practices. The author’s exploration of the antagonist’s mentality is important, since it recognizes that in the eyes of the British they are pursuing a moral cause, even though in the eyes of the Kenyans they are immoral oppressors.
Themes
From his window, Thompson watches Dr. Lynd cross the compound, followed by her bull-mastiff. She enters a building, but her dog lingers, barking at a group of black men. Thompson senses something bad is about to happen, but cannot move himself. The dog races for one of the men, looking as if he will tear him to pieces. The man is unable to run, but at the moment that violence seems inevitable, Dr. Lynd arrives and restrains her dog. John is “relieved and vaguely disappointed that nothing had happened.” He leaves his office and strides to the scene, finding Dr. Lynd and Karanja yelling at each other about the dog. In a panic, John tells Karanja in Swahili that he will take care of the situation, though he instantly regrets this.
Even John Thompson, whom Karanja views as powerful and fearful, exhibits the same indecision and failure to act as Mugo, Gikonyo, and Karanja. Compared to the recent depiction of his wife Margery as a character who finds power in her own ways and exhibits confidence, John seems weak. This constant contrast between weak, indecisive men and strong, assertive women exemplifies the book’s belief in women’s power, despite their socially disempowered position.
Themes
Taking Dr. Lynd aside, Thompson finds himself unable to admit his failure to act. Instead, Dr. Lynd tearfully talks about how much she hates black people, especially after an incident in which her houseboy, whom she trusted, arrived with three other men, tied her up, stole money and guns, and cut her first dog into pieces. The other two men were found and hanged, but the houseboy was never brought to justice.
Dr. Lynd’s account of being assaulted, robbed, and seeing her dog viciously murdered by Kenyans is unsettling. In a novel that takes a generally permissive attitude towards revolutionary violence, Dr. Lynd’s experience implies that sometimes, such violence may go too far. Even so, Dr. Lynd’s racism hardly makes her an object of sympathy.
Themes
They part ways and Thompson finds himself gripped by a nebulous sense of fear. His mind wanders back to the years when he, as District Officer, oversaw the detention camps, to “rehabilitate Mau Mau adherents to a normal life as British subjects.” During that time, a hunger strike and several beatings left eleven prisoners dead, which garnered international attention and resulted in his demotion and exile to the research station in Githima. As Thompson is ruminating, Karanja appears to announce that he has delivered the message to Margery. Thompson again tells Karanja he will resolve the matter with the dog, but internally curses himself for his weakness, thinking that he has stooped low indeed if he must even “pacify” Karanja.
Once again, though Thompson appears powerful to Karanja, he is both privately weak and has been shamed by his own government as well as the international community. This again demonstrates the difference between the image that one presents and the reality of their character. Thompson’s brutality as a camp overseer also forms the basis for a moral argument against British colonial practices, which so often resort to barbaric violence and cruelty.
Themes
