61 pages • 2 hours read
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'oA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Flowers are a motif throughout the novel, beginning with the title itself. The phrase “petals of blood” comes from the poem “The Swamp” by Saint Lucian writer Derek Walcott. The poem describes the ugliness of a tree and its domination over a swamp, preventing the beauty of a flower beneath from ever truly reaching the light or blossoming. In the novel, neocolonial systems—wealth, greed, religion, education, government, and more—are the tree that prevents the beauty underneath—Kenya and its people—from ever blossoming.
The first mention of the phrase “petals of blood” comes when Munira takes his class outdoors. He attempts to explain the scientific parts of a flower but is instead interrupted by a child who exclaims “Look. A flower with petals of blood” (26). Munira’s reaction to this exemplifies the problems with education in Kenya. Instead of encouraging the students to consider nature and its beauty—and in turn, the questions that arise about man, God, and the law—he retreats back into the school where he has full control, vowing to never take them outside again. This is similar to the neocolonial education system throughout Africa: Instead of encouraging students to consider larger ideas like their position in the world, nature, and humanity, they keep them under strict control through a European education.
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Grain of Wheat
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Meeting In The Dark
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Devil on the Cross
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Dreams in a Time of War
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
I Will Marry When I Want
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Matigari
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
The River Between
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Weep Not, Child
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
African American Literature
View Collection
African Literature
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Colonialism Unit
View Collection
Education
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Power
View Collection