Attempt a critical summary of the novel A Grain of Wheat

Sometimes he would have the warders whip Mugo before the other detainees. Sometimes, in naked fury, he would snatch the whip from the warders and apply it himself. (4 Grain of Wheat p. 1 17)

Further, he had saved a woman–Wambuku–and many others from being beaten in the trenches.

The novel A Grain of Wheat presents a very complex portrayal of the freedom struggle.

The villagers of Thabai, represent the ordinary people of Kenya who, with all their human frailties and foibles, were forced to make compromises under terror and torture but still upheld the cause. Kihika represents the revolutionary youth who saw a basic unity in the struggle of the colonial world and who sacrificed everything for freedom. Karanja on the other hand represents the collaborationists who are basically cowards and who put self before society. Gikonyo and Mumbi, once again representing thousands of ordinary people, magnify those personal relationships that went to pieces under the Emergency through sheer physical separation for long periods.