Ngugi Reader Response

                                                              Minutes of Glory

             Ngugi’s stories were very interesting to me. They mostly talked about gender bias and European colonization of Africa. These to ideas were very present in Ngugi’s short story called “Minutes of Glory”.

            In “Minutes of Glory” the main character Beatrice hates herself. She thinks she is ugly because she doesn’t fit into the European colonial mindset. She has dark skin, she is a little over weight and she is unconfident. There is another girl named Nyanguthu who is more confident. She didn’t care about her looks as much as Beatrice. She was also more eloquent than Beatrice. Nyaguthu was numb though and didn’t have a lot of feelings. Beatrice, however, did have a lot of feelings.

            Beatrice went to the city thinking automatically things would get better. The city was horrible and she became a barmaid/prostitute. There was a lorry driver that came in and Beatrice stole his cash. She bough herself shoes, hose, a dress, and earrings. All of these things were disposable which was interesting to me. She could have gone home and helped her family with that money. She could have bought herself a house. She could have done so many good things but instead she bought disposable items. This ties into colonialism, because she thought she needed these things to be a beautiful better person. I see this all the time around me. I work in a store so I see what people buy. Most of the stuff they buy is disposable. They don’t need it, they just want it. We see things on TV and they automatically want it. I can’t say that I’ve never bought things that were disposable, because I have, but I try to spend my money on things I need.

            Nyanguthu escapes away from the European dream. She keeps her traditional name which is very interesting. She didn’t give into the European dream and she was much happier. At the end of the story she wept from Beatrice. At first, I was confused about why she wept. Then I realized that she was weeping because she saw how pathetic the false victory was. Beatrice went back to the bar where the lorry driver was to show off what she had bought with the money she stole from him. She was arrested and so Nyanguthu wept. This happens to me a lot. I see people wanting to win small victories that don’t matter. Sometimes they are pathetic victories, yet I feel empathy for the people.

            The story focused on gender bias too. The only women’s power was to be able to have sex with men. Women and men see power rules differently in the story. This was interesting to me too because I see this all the time. There are a lot of men out there that see women as objects only and that’s what happened in the story. Also, men and women in reality do see power rules differently.

            I do believe that Ngugi is right when he talks about European colonization and gender biases in the world. There is a lot of both going on. People want items that are unimportant just because we think it’ll make us better. Gender biases happen all the time. I really enjoyed his critique of this story.

            I would tell anyone who enjoys stories about European colonization, gender bias, or just a great story to read this book. It was interesting and I really enjoyed the story and critiques Ngugi brought up. I would love to read more of Ngugi’s stories.