Simile: Wanja’s perception of Europeans
Wanja’s perception of Europeans' naked bodies is brought out through the particular comparison to the skin of pigs. When a woman she knew bragged of marrying a European, she explained, “I could not tell her that I thought of Europeans as naked bodies like the skin of pigs" (131). The use of this simile enhances imagery while at the same time showing how Wanja finds the bodies of Europeans disgusting and unnatural; it also shows just how much she needed money if she was going to engage with such creatures.
Metaphor: A Fire
Munira is initially less than pleased when Karega shows up for the first time, and he has to will himself to be a chivalrous host when he really wants to pursue Wanja that night. Yet as Karega talks and begins to reveal some of his and Munira's shared past, Munira admits: "I just felt strange inside: here I was, embers of curiosity stoked to a glowing intensity by his revelations" (53). The metaphor of fire is appropriate given what an important motif fire is in the entire text, but it is specifically powerful here because we can imagine a small, glowing ember that begins to glow with more intensity when stoked; this allows us to understand what is happening to Munira as he listens to the young man before him.
Metaphor: Ostriches
Karega is pleased to be teaching at the school, but he becomes increasingly aware of how futile the curriculum is for the students—how unrealistic it is in terms of raising national consciousness and answering the most pertinent questions about droughts and harvests and unrest: "he and Munira were two ostriches burying their heads in the sand of a classroom, ignoring the howling winds and the sun outside" (111). This is an effective metaphor, as it is easy to imagine ostriches burying their heads in the sand and compare that to the way Karega and Munira are ignoring what is really going on around them.
Metaphor: Outsider
Munira removes himself more and more from society, fraying his relationships as he becomes more involved in his Christian faith. At one point, Ngugi writes of Munira, "So he only watched, feeling slightly left out, an outsider at the gate of somebody else's house" (207). The metaphor of someone who does not live at a certain house but is standing in front of it, perhaps confused and lonely, is an apt way to describe Munira's growing estrangement and status as an outsider.
Metaphor: Wanja's Dreams
Wanja reflects on the choices she's made and the life she's led. She thinks, "And what a life! She had carried dreams in a broken vessel. Looking back now she could not even see a trail of the vanished dreams and expectations. It was Kimeria who had bored a hole into the vessel. That was true. But she had let him" (328). This is an effective metaphor, comparing having hopes and dreams with carrying some sort of liquid in a jar that is actually leaking the entire journey due to a hole. Wanja had dreams, yes, but Kimeria took them away from her and she was, she believes, complicit. Now that jar of dreams is more or less empty.
