Get premium membership and access questions with answers, video lessons as well as revision papers.

Discuss the men and women characters in Ngugi wa Thiongo's The River Between

      

Discuss the men and women characters in Ngugi wa Thiongo's The River Between

  

Answers


Faith
Women Characters
Different writers give different roles to men and women in their works. Ngugi Wa
Thiongo's works are populated by both men and women and the children and youths are
also represented by both genders. Women characters in the River Between, Muthoni a
young girl who dies early is fighting for her right to be a woman in the ways of the tribe
by getting circumcised although she is a Christian. The readers admire the way Muthoni
is assertive and rebels from her father who is a rigid Christian who reflects the religion as
one with dictatorial doctrines without explanation. From Muthoni we see a strong
character. From the same gender we are presented with a weak woman character Miriam
who is Muthoni's mother but cannot defend her daughter. She is only seen obeying her
husband Joshua but cannot stand for her children. When Nyambura the elder daughter
falls in love with Waiyaki the son of a traditional leader, she can only tell her to obey her
father.
Nyambura is not a strong character at first. She envies the courage of her sister Muthoni
which she doesn't have. She obeys her father and remains uncircumcised but she is not
happy. In the end she develops courage and follows Waiyaki declaring her love for him
against her father's wishes.

Men Characters
In the men characters Ngugi gives some of them strong character and others weak ones.
Joshua is the leader of the Christians and he is a rigid fanatic who follows everything that
he is told at the mission without question. He shows no love or concern for the non
Christians his children included. When his daughter Muthoni dies out of the circumcision
scar that refused to heal he fakes an inner strength saying that Muthoni chose to disobey
God. Joshua is a dictator in his house and the church. He declares that he has nothing to
do with the non Christians referring to them as people who are going back to Egypt. Egypt
is symbolic of the old ways.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 08:33


Next: Discuss the different styles used by literature writers in the post-colonial period in Kenya
Previous: Discuss the men and women characters in Ngugi wa Thiongo's Petals of Blood

View More Kenyan Literature Questions and Answers | Return to Questions Index


Learn High School English on YouTube

Related Questions