Weep Not Child Essays

Weep Not Child Essays Weep Not Child Paper Weep Not Child Paper Essay Topic: Literature As I read through the novel Weep Not Child, by Ngugi wa Thiongo, I realized that there was a clear message of hope. As we progress through the novel we get an impression of a gradual loss of hope. In this essay I will discuss the possible message of hope that the book leaves us with. My first impression as I read through the first chapter is Njoroges dreams and hopes through education, Education for him, as for many boys of his generation held the key to the future. Njoroge was offered to go to school by his mother. It is a real privilege for him, because he is the first one out of his family, who is able to go to school. He knew that by going to school, he could provide a better future for himself and his family. As we read on we see that education starts to decay, and as we reach the end of this novel, Njoroge has been forced out of school, and is forced o work at an Indian Shop, which it was really bad for him, because when he was younger he said he would never work for an Indian Shop. As it was consider to be shameful. This demonstrates to the reader, that one of the main sources of hope has been destroyed. As we reach chapter 2, we get another sence of hope, the Prophecy. According to this prophecy, it tells us that a man will rise and give the land back, that once belonged to the black people. To the reader this seams improbible as it may not happen. And when you reach the end of the novel, you see this prophecy is very far from happening. Njoroge has very strong religious beliefs, we see this throughout the book, when he prays and asks God for help, with his problems. The rest of the African people are also religious in the way that they compare their situation with the situation of Moses and the Hebrew slaves. As we move on the novel, Njoroge starts to doubt his faith, when two military officers killed Isaaka his schoolteacher and preacher. This was the end of his education. He had lost his faith in god. Politics also gave Njoroge some hope. The strike made him along with many other black kids believe that they could gain independence. But as strike fails, Ngotho the father gets into constant conflicts with Jacobo, Father of Mwihaki. The fact that Jacobo is a traitor to the black people, gives me a feeling of hopelessness to any political solutions to the problem of freedom. Also Jomo a political leader who was fighting for black people independence, a man whom Njoroge compared with Moses, was also arrested. After we read this we get sense of despair. As they lose all their hope on independence. Most of Njoroges hopes and dreams have turned into despair. All he had was his family. But it gets slowly destroyed, Njoroges brother called Kamau has also been imprisoned for lifetime. His father Ngotho got into constant conflicts with his other Jacobo. He only had his 2 mothers which would support him, this could be said to be a glimpse of hope however I believe that the fact that Njoroge had to leave school and go to work to support the family, wipes out any possibility that this a message of hope. Ngotho would not come back. The death of Ngotho was of great shock to the whole family, and him being the piller of hope, on his death day, the hopes vanished and a feeling of despair grew.