Let me hurry and tell them that I’m back. Let me tell them that the years of roaming and wandering are over. We shall all go home together. We shall enter the house together. We shall light the fire together. After all, the struggle was for the house, wasn’t it? A home…a shelter…with children playing on the verandah or in the open air…Sharing what little we have…
-- Matigari (Part I: Ngaruro wa Kiriro - Wiping Your Tears Away)

Importance: This quote reflects the free indirect discourse approach that the author takes in this novel. Here, the reader is being presented with Matigari’s thoughts and perspective, but this internal monologue is not set off by quotation marks. The quote also represents the allegorical nature of the novel. Here, Matigari’s thoughts about the house are meant to be understood as a commentary on the nation itself. Thus, when Matigari suggests that the “struggle was for the house...