The New Year, Dickens and the Aspirations of Kenyans

“The streets were full of motion, and the shops were decked out brightly.? The New Year… was waited for, with welcomes, presents, and rejoicings.? There were books and toys for the New Year, glittering trinkets for the New Year, dresses for the New Year, schemes of fortune for the New Year… The New Year, the New Year.? Everywhere the New Year!? The Old Year was already looked upon as dead… Trotty had no portion, to his thinking, in the New Year or the Old”. These are words from the novel, The Chimes, by Charles Dickens.

The novella, The Chimes, was published in 1844 and is built around a dramatic device of the chiming of church bells. Dickens’ philosophy seemed to be the adage that, “All sorrows in life are bearable if you can tell a story about them”. And in The Chimes, he writes about poverty, kindness and heartbreak. In the passage quoted earlier, there is a devastating sentence: “Trotty had no portion, to his thinking, in the New Year or the Old”. The New Year is here, and but Trotty isn’t a part of it. Sadly, even amid the season’s shimmering lights, there are many Kenyans like Trotty who are not excited about the New Year. Their lives are coloured by an ache to experiment new things like the way people long for new experiences in far-off places—to feel lively and to hope again.

The Chimes is not only apt for this season but also has many lessons for Kenyans. As the novella begins, Trotty is struggling with two opposing sides: the despairing part of him against the hopeful side. As the year 2025 begins, Kenyans also face two paths: the path of hope and the path of despair. For many Kenyans struggling economically and otherwise, 2024 was a slow year that moved from phase to phase towards its ultimate disappointing apex at year end—the days humming, running together in an uneven tune—the months dull with the want of all things.

Therefore, as 2025 begins, we have two ways to choose from. Two diverging paths is a common thread in literature. And to choose either path, one needs deep reflection as some Kenyans are doing now in the New Year with its accompanying “New Year resolutions”. Dante’s The Divine Comedy starts with, “Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark/ For the straightforward pathway had been lost”. Robert Frost writes that “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both… Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by”. The Bible also lays out two pathways, “Narrow is the way…Wide is the gate”. Two ways, paths, gates.

In 2025, Kenyans have the same choice: the way of despair or the way of hope. In The Chimes, Trotty is a humble messenger who has given up any hope in humanity. Like Trotty, some Kenyans probably feel discouraged as everything seems against them. “Everything is going against me!” cried the Biblical patriarch Jacob in Genesis 42:36. Many Kenyans could also be feeling the same, not just financially but in other areas like family and health.

For Trotty, in The Chimes, things went from bad to worse when his daughter, Meg, committed suicide. As a critic once remarked, “Suicide is a prominent theme in The Chimes—effectively, for it is the logical end for one who feels their life is not deserved… An acquaintance… commits suicide. And in a future where there is no hope—for hope is humanity’s attachment to life in times of difficulty—Trotty must watch, distraught, as Meg contemplates and finally goes to throw herself off a bridge”.

Since Meg is Trotty’s daughter, her suicide represents the death of Trotty’s hope. It is then that Trotty learns a lesson and his hopes rise and he says, “I know that we must trust and hope”. As the year 2025 unfolds, as much as Kenyans have a right to complain and blame the government, the government won’t solve all our problems. There is the government’s part (and we have a right to demand better services) but there is also individual responsibility for us to take charge of our destinies. Above all, like Trotty, we shouldn’t lose hope even if it means hoping against overwhelming odds.

The other lesson from Trotty is that we can be generous even if we don’t have much. Trotty is a poor man but he helps others who need temporary shelter. He says, “I’m a poor man, living in a poor place; but I can give you lodging for one night”.

In 2025, to borrow the words of André Aciman, may our lives be “finally transposed in the right key, retold in the right tense”. And in the words of Charles Dickens from The Chimes, “… may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you!? May each year be happier than the last…”.

?*The views expressed in this article are personal and do not reflect the views of Oxford University Press.