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Women Characters in Petals of Blood
In Petals of Blood, Ngugi gives some women characters roles that make them strong.
Nyakinyua is an old woman whose husband had died struggling for freedom. She is
strong and resistant. At one time she shits outside teacher Munira's house because she
doesn't accept strangers. She educates the youthful characters about the values of culture.
She teaches them how to brew 'Thengeta' a brew that was better than the ones that were
being brewed then. It is through Nyakinyua that we learn about tradition. When the
government sends tractors to build a road in Ilmorog she is opposed to the destruction of
a shrine. She dies before it is destroyed. Her death is symbolic of rebellion against
change.
Another woman character is Wanja who becomes a prostitute after dropping from class
seven when she is impregnated by Kimeria and her parents cannot understand her. She
becomes a strong character and is in the great journey from Ilmorog to Nairobi. She tries
to get a child but no man gets her pregnant until she gets pregnant by Abdulla a freedom
fighter.
Akinyi is another strong female character. She supports Karega in the workers strike
against Thengeta factory employers owned by some Kenyans and overseas friends.
We have weak women characters like Munira's mother and wife. They are Christians who follow religion blindly.
Karega's mother Miriam refuses to be seduced by Ezekiel Waweru her employer.
Munira's sister commits suicide because her father Ezekiel Waweru will not allow a
relationship between his daughter and the son of his worker. She rebels by committing
suicide because she cannot be convinced to leave what she feels is right.
Men Characters
Karega is a strong character. He leads a strike for factory workers to arouse awareness in
them about the oppression and exploitation of the employers. He stands for truth. Abdulla
is strong. He fights in the Mau Mau warfare and looses his leg. He hates collaborators. The weak male characters are like Munira Ezekiel's son. He is an escapist who cannot face life. He goes to Ilmorog as a teacher to escape from his problems but
they follow him. Another weak character is Chui who starts as a student in Siriana
mission. At first he can reason and he leads a strike in school. When later he comes back
as the head of the same school he is different and starts advocating for the same things he
had led the strike for. Money blinds Chui.
Another weak character is Kimeria. He impregnated Wanja and left her so that she turned
to prostitution. He became a collaborator and got rich from ferrying dead bodies of Mau
Mau fighters.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 08:43
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- MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At...(Solved)
MICERE G. MUGO: Digging Our Grave
My subconscious
Leaks out
A past
I have long buried
Marching under
Drenching rain Draining
heat Heavy escort
Fenced in on every side
By howling, vicious guards At the
crack of dawn
Miles from home
An unbroken file of men and women, Boys and
girls
Heading north
To Kirinyaga Forest trench White-
washed
In colonial propaganda
Loyalised
Venomed
Against blood-brothers A
raving guard Slashes at
Mumbi
As she halts
To shift her bundle From
shoulder to breast
“ In the name of Ngai I get
you bwana,
Spare my child!” she cries
On the slopes of the sacred mountain „ Ngai
sanctuary –
His children bend Low
Slaving Hungry Weather
beaten Crushed with
blows Digging day-long
A grave
A trap
For brothers In the
forest
A twenty –foot gulf Separates
Blood from blood
Grinning the expose Rows
of spikes That lie waiting
To crucify
Him who dares plan A
reunion
Curfew starts at sunset Away back in
the trench Journeying back in the
dark Cries of hungry children Tear
mother's hearts
While fathers
-castrated- Tamely
listen
And gaze at their toes
Survivors arrive At
midnight
At first cock-crow The pot
leaves the fire At third cock-
crow The daily March Again
begins.....
Under the sweat of Today
labour
We forgive the past
Impossible to forget
Questions
1. Explain the meaning of the title of the poem
2. What is the main theme of this poem?
3. What does the speaker reveal about the guards?
4. explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem:
(a) “Bundle” (line 25)
(b)“ a twenty-foot gulf separates blood from blood”(lines 43-45)
(c) “- castrated_” (line58).
Date posted: November 11, 2021. Answers (1)
- Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory...(Solved)
Tell me thou proud jigger,
Having stolen your way in
Need you beat your chest
In premature celebration?
Your flying brother
Sang a song of victory
Before he tasted the toast
And met his singing end.
We thought you had learned
To taste and not devour
Unmindful of other mouths
In the neighborhood of time
Come thou proud jigger
Follow the prick in my hand
And celebrate your death
Beside thy favourite toe
Explanation
Jigger is another word for chigoe, a tropical flea which burrows
into the skin of its host. A toast in British custom is drink to wish someone good health
or success. For example, at a wedding, someone proposes a toast to the bride and
groom whereon all present wills and, raise their glasses, repeat “to the bride and
groom”, and drink.
Toast in another sense is a slice of bread browned on both sides by radiant heat.
Questions
1. Who/What is the second stanza referring to?
2. Who does the „you‟ in the third stanza refer to?
3. What does the persona achieve by talking to the jigger as if it understands him?
4. What is the moral teaching of this story?
5. Give the meaning of the following lines as they have been used in the poem
(a) “In premature celebration?” (line4)
(b) “Before he tasted the toast” (line7)
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