African Literature's Text A Grain Of Wheat and narrative pattern as Flashback Ted

1. African Literature
Flashback Technique in ‘A Grain of Wheat’
Presented by Dharma Gohel
Roll No : 09
Sem : 04
Email Id : dharmagohel71@gmail.com
Submitted to Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of
English

2. Flashback Technique
• A flashback is an interjected scene that takes
the narrative back in time from the current
point in the story.
• A connectivity of the present with the past.

3. Flashback in Literature
• To know character’s background
• To know the reason behind the character’s
present actions
• It first increase tension and later on give relief
by clear the entire narrative.

4. Examples of Flashback Techniques
• Paradise Lost
• Ramayana
• Mahabharata
• Odyssey

5. Flashback in A Grain of Wheat
• It set during the Kenya’s struggle for independence
• Focusing Mugo , a leading character
• A day of celebration for Kenya’s Independence
• Intended to execute the betrayer of Kihika, a heroic
fighter of the village.

6. Point of View of Writer
• Narrator : omniscient, who exposes the point
of view of different characters at different
times, revealing their inside.
• Though the subject matter is dense, the
author freely opens the character’s mind.
• The narrator only occasionally uses the first
person, leaving the majority of the novel is to
be told in third person.

7. Characters
• Mugo :
• Incident of Mugo’s help to a
woman.
• Kihika’s death or murder forced
him to confess himself.

8. Mumbi :
• Married Gikkonyo, a Carpenter
• Faced some poor conditions
• Confess the relationship with Karnja

9. Gikonyo :
• He believed in the movement
• At camp he felt lonely and lost his mindset
• Shocked to see the relationship of Mumbi
with another man

10. Kihika :
• Killed a District Officer-Robson
• Betrayed by Mugo due to fear of arresting
• A real man of the movement

11. Conclusion :
• Ngugi has effectively used the device of
flashback technique. We find something
missing in the present. The anxiety is aroused,
and past cannot be ignored, we find the
characters revealing the responsible past that
lead their present suffering. This device hits
the right aim.