Significantly, John’s sense of purpose strengthens his relationship with his wife, making them feel as if they are caught up together in a grander event. However, as his ideals about the world begin to fail, his sense of meaning and purpose collapses. John’s loss of meaning foreshadows that which both Gikonyo and Karanja will experience when their lives turn out differently than expected. The title of John’s book is a reference to Shakespeare’s play
The Tempest, in which Prospero essentially “colonizes” an island and enslaves its two inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban.