The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1987

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Story 14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 14 Summary: “Some Kinds of Wounds”

Gatsi, who works for a publishing firm, rents a room in Harare’s Highfield neighborhood from a former classmate, Kute. Though unemployed, Kute lives with his father, who provides him with a small allowance.

One day, Kute brings home a young woman he met at a bar. Having lost the key to his bedroom, Kute tries to pick the lock while the woman stays in Gatsi’s room. Gatsi learns that the woman comes from a small rural area like the one he hails from, and that her boyfriend is loosely associated with an antigovernment resistance group known as the vanamukoma. The boyfriend told her to look for him in Highfield if he ever disappeared. Kute promised to direct her to Highfield, even though they are already there. Gatsi realizes that Kute tricked the woman into coming home with him. Despite his disgust at Kute’s actions, Gatsi does not explain to the woman that they are in Highfield. Clearly uncomfortable, Gatsi picks up a book of poetry from his large stack of books in the corner of the room.

Having successfully picked his lock, Kute returns to retrieve the woman. After 40 minutes, Gatsi hears the woman crying. Five minutes after that, Kute returns to complain that the woman is pregnant, though that did not stop him from exploiting her for sex under false pretenses. Unable to contain his anger, Gatsi castigates Kute for bringing home vulnerable women virtually every day. Kute counters that he isn’t fortunate like Gatsi to have landed a competitive white-collar job, adding that he neither drinks nor uses drugs, and therefore sex is the only thing keeping him sane. When Gatsi suggests that Kute study harder, the argument escalates to the point that Kute accuses Gatsi of conspiring with his father against him.

Ultimately, Kute demands that Gatsi find a new living arrangement. Rather than lug all his books to his new lodgings, Gatsi gives his books away to friends.

Story 14 Analysis

Gatsi differs significantly from most of Mungoshi’s young, urban protagonists in that he seems reasonably healthy, emotionally and physically. He is not an alcoholic nor a drug addict, and he does not occupy his free time with predatory sexual affairs with young, vulnerable women. Even still, he is unable to avoid the moral corruption of the city, as he becomes an unwitting participant in Kute’s treacherous ploy to have coercive sex with a young pregnant woman on the run. Gatsi’s complicity is clear from the start, as he should know Kute well enough by now to understand his intentions with the young woman. Yet his complicity turns toxic and conspiratorial once he learns that Kute lied to the woman about the fact that she is already in Highfield. Gatsi’s refusal to correct this lie makes him just as responsible for the woman’s fate as Kute.

Gatsi’s reason for not helping the young woman may be related to his own complicated feelings of home. Like Moab and Bishi, Gatsi is overcome by memories of home when a certain smell reminds him of his rural origins. He recalls, “She reminded me of where I came from and suddenly the smell in the room was clearly a mixture of human sweat and soil and grass and leaves as we carted hay for the cattle. Once I knew what it was, I felt at home in it” (127). Yet he does not help the woman once he realizes she comes from a village similar to his own home; instead, the associations morph into guilt and fear. Gatsi acknowledges that he no longer possesses his “rural sense of hospitality” (127), and rather than trying to regain it, he is eager to see the woman leave as soon as possible so he can go back to his comfortable, uncaring urban life.

Later, Gatsi unleashes his discomfort about the situation onto Kute, accusing him of laziness. While it is true that Kute is a scoundrel, attacking him for being less successful does not get at the heart of what the man did wrong. In truth, both Gatsi and Kute are to blame for hurting the young woman, but Gatsi’s professional success makes him feel an unearned superiority toward Kute, despite his own treachery.