Summary
John has a dream that two ghosts are fighting with each other. He wakes up covered in sweat and remembers that today is the day he must decide what to do.
He and his parents spend all day at the shops.
John wonders why he has always been so fearful of his father, and notes that everyone in the village is a little fearful of him. Stanley is a stern preacher who takes a fatherly approach to everyone in the village, meaning that he is strict and protective. He also wants his own family to be a shining example of a successful Christian life.
At nighttime, John travels once again to see Wamuhu.
As he walks, he hears quotations from the Bible echoing in his ear. He thinks about the fall of man and thinks he is about to be swallowed up by a hole in the ground.
John arrives at the meeting spot with no answer for Wamuhu. Instead, he offers her money to lie about the father of the baby. Wamuhu declines the money, which makes John only increase his offer. She keeps declining, John keeps increasing the figure, and soon he begins shaking her. He begs her to take the money and she refuses.
John is frantic as he chases Wamuhu and tries to "hug her by the neck," but Wamuhu "lets out a horrible scream and then falls to the ground" (70). John has killed Wamuhu and his unborn child, and soon all the villagers will know.
Analysis
In this final section of the story, the author incorporates symbolism into the mounting conflict both inside and outside John's mind.
The two ghosts in John's dream symbolize the tribal life and land he has rejected as well as the Eurocentric culture he has embraced at the behest of his father. The narrator says, "He recognized it as the ghost of the home he had left. It pulled him back; then another ghost came. It was the ghost of the land he had come to. It pulled him forward. The two contested. Then came other ghosts from all sides and pulled him from all sides so that his body began to fall into pieces" (66).
This symbolic image of the ghosts fighting one another once again emphasizes John's ambivalent and conflicted nature over where he belongs and what life he should choose. That the figures are ghosts also adds a portentous element to the story, as if no matter which path John chooses, he will face certain death.
While John walks to meet Wamuhu, he notes the land around him. "Once John would be fascinated and would yearn to touch the land, embrace it or just be on the grass. At another time he would feel repelled by the dust, the strong sun and the pot-holed roads" (66). This inventory of his surroundings showcases John's continuous wavering feelings about his village and its traditions. On one hand, John is attached to the community and finds it beautiful and calming. On the other hand, he is repulsed by its oppressive heat and run-down state. Again, John suffers from profound ambivalence brought on by the pressure to choose between two different lives, or more appropriately, two different deaths.
This moment thus foreshadows the end of the story, when John enters such a frantic state of desperation that he loses control over his actions. Thinking that he is hugging Wamuhu, he actually strangles her to death. In killing Wamuhu, John has effectively killed himself, sentencing himself to a punishment he cannot yet fathom. The story therefore concludes on a bleak note, suggesting in the end that the effects of colonization – and the divides it created – are lasting and debilitating for future generations.
