The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

The sun figures as a symbol in multiple stories, though most prominently in the title entry, “The Setting Sun and the Rolling World.” As Nhamo leaves his rural family homestead to pursue opportunities in the city, he likens himself to “the sun, burning itself out every second and shedding tons of energy which it held in its power, giving it the thrust to drag its brood wherever it wanted to” (102). Taken on its own, the metaphor is strikingly vivid, positioning Nhamo as a source of both boundless energy and generational wealth for his descendants. Yet just as vivid is the juxtaposition between the sun and the “rolling world,” which clarifies the vastly different perspectives of Nhamo and Old Musoni. As Nhamo flies through the air as the sun, the world rolls underneath him as he leaves it and its inhabitants behind in triumph. Yet to Old Musoni, who is fixed to the ground, the sun-as-Nhamo is in descent, leaving “a chilly wind” and “the cold cloudless sky” in his wake (102).

The sun makes another appearance as an evocative symbol in “The Brother,” when Tendai observes that “the sun was very friendly and lovely as it rose, it only got angry as it grew older and climbed higher in the sky.