Introduction
“Money, the Least of His Worries” is a short fiction story written by Hilda Gathanga. It describes a young man, Wambua, who wants to marry his girlfriend, Wanja, and reflects on his cultural financial obligations and expenses associated with modern weddings before being involved in a road accident. Based on this story’s analysis, it is apparent that its setting and mood significantly shape the narration and readers’ attitude to it through Kenya’s location, which determines culture and the tone of anxiety, hopelessness, annoyance, and despair.
Setting Place
Generally, the setting may be defined as a story’s place and time. Although in “Money, the Least of His Worries,” the time of narration is unclear, it is evident that the location is Kenya. As every country has its traditions, and Kenya is no exception, its wedding-related rules connected with money are depicted in the story (Gathanga, 2015). In particular, cultural obligations that should be performed by a man who wants to marry a Christian woman in Kenya include friend and family introductions, a deposit for a woman’s security, dowry payment, and the visit of her family to a man’s house (Gathanga, 2015).
Moreover, while all these traditions require expenses from a man, he should also pay for the wedding ceremony. On the one hand, as the story’s location presupposes its traditions, it shapes the narration. At the same time, Wambua was annoyed by heavy thoughts about how much money he would spend; he was inattentive enough to be involved in the road accident, leading to more serious consequences. On the other hand, the story’s location provides readers with insight into life in Kenya.
Setting Mood
At first glance, the story is slightly comic due to its end; however, it is full of anxiety, hopelessness, annoyance, and despair reflected through Wambua’s thoughts about wedding expenses. To emphasize the story’s mood, the author escalates Wambua’s concerns by describing all stages of the proposal, including expected spending and tension from his girlfriend, her relatives, and society in general. He has a lot of responsibilities and does not know whether he will get anything back from his wife, expecting “she would pay for it indirectly every day” (Gathanga, 2015, p. 246).
In addition, aiming to intensify Wambua’s despair, the author compares his situation with his father’s: “he had convinced his wife to live with him and ignore all those traditional processes” (Gathanga, 2015, p. 246). Thus, through its setting mood, the story is shaped as this mood determines its narration – the escalation of Wambua’s anxiety leads to the road accident and climaxes at Wanja’s house. At the same time, the mood allows readers to assess men’s worries related to their responsibilities in front of their families.
Conclusion
“Money, the Least of His Worries” is a short story about a young man whose thoughts about future marriage and related expenses lead to more problems. The analysis of this work demonstrates that setting, place, and mood shape its narration and readers’ perceptions. First, the story’s location and mood define the sequence of actions and contribute to the development of the narration. Moreover, they help readers get acquainted with Kenyan traditions and assess young men’s concerns related to their financial responsibilities.
Reference
Gathanga, H. (2015). Money, the least of his worries. In C. Le (Ed.), African short stories: Vol 2 (pp. 245-249). Handel Books.