Symbolism In 'The Return By Ngugi Wa Thig' O

In the story “The Return” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kamau possess a bundle that symbolizes his bitter past and all of his hardships. A symbol is an object or an action that stands for something else in addition to itself. The passage starts with the protagonist walking down a dusty road, holding onto a small bundle. After the bundle’s description, the author reveals the bad memories that goes along with it; “The bundle [held] the bitterness and hardships of the years spent in detention camps” (Thiong’o 135). This bundle survives through Kamau’s detention camp with fading red flowers. Since the bundle accompanies Kamau through the detention camp, it holds various traumatizing memories that Kamau holds onto. This bundle could hold the hope to get …show more content…
Considering the conversations between the detainees regarding their families, in the story “The Return” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o the prisoners feel detachment from their people and village left behind.The detainees feel a sense of detachment because they can not interact with their growing children and life in the village. Security Forces are responsible for dragging innocent village men into detention camps; “There was the middle-aged Wanjiku, whose deaf son [had been] kill[ed] by the Security Forces just before he himself was arrest[ed]” (Thiong’o 136). These men are taken away from their friends and family without a goodbye or fair trial. While spending countless days in the camp, the detainees only have one thing on their mind, “The others [had been] like him. They [had] talk[ed] of nothing but their homes” (Thiong’o 137). The miserable detainees long for their homes, including wives and newly-born babies. One man suffers from leaving his wife and soon to be born child, “I [left] her expecting a baby. I have no idea what has happen[ed] to her,” this quote shows that the prisoners have no way to communicate with the outside world (Thiong’o 137). The lack of communication distances them from their changing family and village. The detainees feel sorrowful for not being able to raise their own children. In a way, their lives are put on pause while in the camps. The author concludes that the detainees feel their lives will anew once they return home, “All of them long[ed] for one day- the day of their return home. Then life would begin anew” (Thiong’o 137). Anew means in a new or different way, meaning their lives will start fresh in a positive light once they are set free. In the short story “The Return,” the detainees in detention camps feel detachment from their village and families at