A Meeting in the Dark Essay Questions

How is John's life and behavior a metaphor for what is happening in Kenya?

John has embraced the British and their colonial rule in his country, although he is actually a member of the Kikuyu tribe who have a long heritage in Kenya and have traditionally been the ruling class of the nation. He has achieved what is termed the "white man's education" which means that he has gone as far educationally as he can possibly go in Kenya. Now he must go overseas to continue his studies, and better himself and his future. He has been raised by a somewhat distant father and a sensitive, loving mother. His father also approves of colonial rule and looks down on the Kikuyu people who do not do the same. The family have rejected their old traditions and rituals and taken on British lifestyles. This part of John's life is a metaphor for the way in which Kenya is being subsumed by British rule and gradually changed from a tribal society into a British one.

What does John expect Wamuhu to do about her pregnancy?

John acts as though Wamuhu's pregnancy was entirely her own doing, because all he can see is the constraints it puts on his life, without recognizing the constraints it will put on hers as well. At first, he asks her to keep the pregnancy quiet until he has left the village; that way, he will not be expected to stay behind and give up his education overseas. When she refuses, he asks her to say that the baby is another man's or that she does not know who the father of the baby is. Again, she refuses; to say that the baby is another man's implies that she is sleeping with two men at the same time, and to say that she does not know who the father is is worse, implying that she has slept with so many men that she cannot possibly narrow down the paternity pool. John expects Wamuhu to view her pregnancy in the same way that he does - as an inconvenience to his life, and as a threat to his future, and her reluctance to do this makes him lose control.

To what extent can John be considered a villain in the story?

Certainly, by the end of the story, John is no upstanding character. Having murdered Wamuhu and his unborn child, John experiences a "fall" similar to the one he recalls from the Bible. However, the story is not so interested in portraying John as a true villain. Instead, the narrative more closely focuses on John's indecision and struggle to choose between two disparate lifestyles. His manic state at the end of the story, while his responsibility, is also a result of the extreme pressure he feels from both the people of the village and his own father. As such, the true villain of the story becomes British colonization, which was responsible for creating these pressures in the first place.