"the return"

When an individual is suddenly removed from his home, over the years of absence, a self-destructive dream of what his life used to be will manifest. When a person attempts to return to his past life, this flawless memory might be instantaneously shattered by the single most propelling yet restraining force of life: time. Time, although the substance of life, is ultimately what holds everything in the grip of an ever-changing state of being. This paradoxical force of change over time is a major theme in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s short story, “The Return.” Thiong’o is suggesting that things will inevitably change in life, and regardless of who we are, change is a force that we must contend with. The only way that humans can defeat time is by dying.
Set in the late 1950’s, “The Return” is a story about Kamau, a political prisoner who is apprehensive about his return to his home village. After being arrested for the Mau Mau Black Nationalist uprising, he lives in a relocati...