Short Story Response

In “The Return” by Ngugi wa Thiong'o , the main character, Kamau, returns home from internment after 5 years. When he is surprised to find so much has changed for the worse, mainly his wife and child had left. After 5 years most people would expect significant changes to have occured, so Kamau's surprise might seem unexpected. I believe that the reason Kamau expected everything to be "good" was because he subconsciously saw himselfs as the "hero" of his journey. In the traditional archetypal journey the hero typically returns from the jounrey to the "ordinary world". In Greek mythology Odysseus goes to war for 10 years before returning home. When he returns home to Ithica, he is also not recognized by anyone (including his wife). Eventually he is recognized and reunited with his wife. Since this is a particularily archetypal journey, Kamau may have subconsciously expected his journey to be similar, in that he was approaching a "happy ending".