Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Foreign Soil, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Place
The Limitations of Hope
Communication and Misunderstanding
Solidarity vs. Prejudice
Summary
Analysis
Nathanial Robinson looks down at his reflection in the water. He’s wearing jeans and work boots; he’s a big man, but he’s gentle. He decides that Kingston Port hasn’t changed one bit. The water, breeze, and flat horizon are all the same. And even though there are more cargo ships out now, he can still smell “dat same crazy-fresh islan air[.]”
Nathanial Robinson’s world is simple and unchanging, but he doesn’t seem unhappy or bored: instead, he seems to take comfort in the natural beauty of where he’s from (Jamaica) and finds comfort in the consistency of “dat same crazy-fresh island air[.]”
Themes
In other ways, though, things are very different: “Since J fe Jamaica, de ocean bin callin’, nyah calmin’, de young man.” The sun used to calm Nathanial, but now it just annoys him, and he feels a perpetual sense of “unease deep deep down in im own self skin.” One year ago, Nathanial’s wife Clarise made him promise to learn one letter per week, starting with “A fe ackee.” Nathanial remembers how Clarise watched him trace the letter A as she cooked food. But Nathanial’s hands are awkward, and he’s struggled to write the letters. Clarise tells him he needs to take his time to learn the alphabet and learn everything right. If he does this, Clarise insists, then he'll eventually be able to read any book in the city library.
Though the island where Nathanial has spent his entire life has remained unchanged, other aspects of his life haven’t: namely, his wife Clarise has demanded that he learn to read, and ever since then, Nathanial’s attitude toward his home has changed. Now, the natural features that once calmed him only bring him “unease deep deep down in [his] own skin.” It seems perhaps that gaining literacy—though Nathanial clearly still has much to learn—has shifted Nathanial’s perspective. Though the island itself hasn’t physically shrunk, Nathanial’s world has grown.
Themes
Learning the alphabet was Clarise’s idea, though—not Nathanial’s. She wants him to be more educated so he can make more money. It’s hard for Nathanial to relate this person to the little girl she was 20 years ago—the person he met before his father died and he had to work to support his family.
Clarise hopes to move up in the world, and she thinks that education is the way to do this. Their home offers them few opportunities for economic or social advancement, but an education could be a ticket out.
Themes
Nathanial would return home once a year. In the time that elapsed between those visits, Clarise got more and more beautiful, and eventually Nathanial married her. After that, she announced that she wanted to move to the city.
Clarise isn’t the first character in this collection who has moved from a rural place to the city hoping to find opportunity: Millie, in “Hope,” did the same when she travelled to Kingston to apprentice at Willemina’s shop.
Themes
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After Clarise teaches Nathanial “A is fe ackee,” she makes Nathanial point out all the As on packages at the grocery store. Sometimes he can, sometimes he can’t; Clarise enjoys herself, but Nathanial feels humiliated. Clarise praises Nathanial’s efforts and tells him they’ll work on B next week. But to Nathanial, the “praise like an open-palm slap on de back ov [his] head.” He never felt like hitting a woman before he was married, but now, he does. Nathanial can understand her behavior a little bit—she’s probably bitter that he concealed his illiteracy from her when they were married. But Clarise also kept secrets from Nathanial—for instance, she swore that Nathanial was the first man she had sex with. But just before the wedding, Nathanial’s cousin found out that this wasn’t true. Even so, Nathanial still married Clarise, and he never told anyone about her sexual history.
Lack of communication creates tension in Nathanial and Clarise’s relationship, though Nathanial’s impulse to equate his lying about being illiterate with Clarise’s lying about not being a virgin doesn’t seem like a totally equal comparison. His anger at Clarise’s perhaps patronizing praise seems similarly defensive—he thinks he’s angry at Clarise, but in reality, he's perhaps angry and ashamed of himself for his illiteracy, and Clarise is merely a convenient scapegoat since she’s the one who communicated that his illiteracy was a problem.
Themes
Back in the present, Nathanial closes his eyes. He knows he’s dirty from working all day, and he knows that Clarise will want him to clean up when he gets home—she prefers “uncalloused” men, like the men who work at the bank. A wind blows through, distracting him; it “whisper roun im ear, like a chilehood sweetheart.” It’s been a year since Clarise taught Nathanial “J fe Jamaica.” Now, Nathanial can read and understand sentences. After they learned J, Claris brought down a small globe and pointed out the West Indian island. She asked him to locate the Js. Nathanial was shocked at how small Jamaica was on the globe. “Dis a small, small island we livin’ on, mi husband,” she told him before leaving him sitting there with the globe.
Clarise’s preference for “uncalloused” men, or men who work white-collar office jobs (unlike Nathanial, who is a dock worker) reflects her hopes for the future. She wants to move up in life and have economic stability. Though Nathanial claims to be bitter about having to learn to read, it's clear that this is only because doing so has expanded his knowledge about the broader world and brought his life into perspective: being able to spell and locate Jamaica on the globe has showed him how much world there is out there, and how small Jamaica is in comparison.
Themes
It’s Friday now, and Nathanial is done unloading at the dock for the week. He and his coworkers make sure that the loading and unloading process goes smoothly—that boats carrying bananas and coconuts reach London in time for the fruit to be at its ripest. Clarise has been telling Nathanial to get a new job. He's been with the Port Authority for years now and hasn’t gotten a promotion. Clarise knows why—it’s because he’s a grown man and can’t read. But she also knows that Nathanial is working on it so that he can get a promotion. But until that day comes, this is Nathanial’s life. He’s told Clarise that he won’t resign. He loves working at the port, watching things approach and leave the island. Sometimes, he feels “like [his] own self is part ov de globality ov it all.” When Nathanial told Clarise this, she snapped that “globality” isn’t even a word.
The idea of globalization, or “globality,” as Nathanial puts it, is at the forefront of this scene, with the mention of boats shipping fruits to London. Though reading has piqued Nathanial’s interest in the broader world—or given him a sense of its scope, anyway—he’s still more content than Clarise is to live out their life together in Kingston. Working at the port gives him all the “globality” he needs, and he doesn’t feel it’s necessary to improve himself or seek their fortune abroad in someplace like London.
Themes
Now, on Friday afternoon, most of the ships have already departed for the day. But the big ones are still waiting around in the port. One of the ships, Windrush Three, is the biggest that Nathanial has ever seen. The ship’s name tells Nathanial it’s from England. Nathanial bets that some of his fellow Jamaicans—Clarise included—would board the ship if they got the chance, genuinely believing that England’s streets “jus a-pave up wid gold.” They think that they’ll have a chance at a better life in England. “E is fe Inglan,” and “O is fe opportunity,” thinks Nathanial. But he doesn’t believe this. When he looked up England on the globe, he was shocked that a country that is always “rapin’ an pillagin’” everywhere else is so small.
Nathanial thinks that Clarise and other Jamaicans idealize places like England, where there are supposed to be more opportunities for economic and social advancement. When the story takes place, Jamaica is still a colony under British rule, so Nathanial also might view people who’d jump at the opportunity to go to England as disloyal to Jamaica and the interests of the Jamaican people. Finally, Nathanial’s observation that England is just a small island—just like Jamaica—speaks to the absurdity of borders and national power. Though England and Jamaica appear similar on the map, it’s England that is always “rapin’ and pillagin’” and places like Jamaica that are the victims of such atrocities.
Themes
Nathanial’s older brother Curtis left on a ship like the Windrush Three six years ago—in fact, it was the first one: the Windrush. It used to be a banana boat. But in Nathanial’s mind, that ship’s function didn’t much change: “de cargo’s still a-gobble up abroad by foreigner.” Curtis left Jamaica dressed in his nicest clothes, hopeful about the new life he’d have abroad. Nathanial hasn’t seen him since he left. He thinks, “B is fe bon voyage. P is fe possibility. D is fe dreams.”
To Nathanial, it makes no difference whether it’s immigrants or fruit that giant ships like the Windrush Three carries to England: either way the English will treat its shipment like cargo, dehumanizing immigrants and treating them like resources to exploit rather than people to respect. In this scene, Nathanial’s recitation of “B is fe bon voyage. P is fe possibility. D is fe dreams” is ironic: he’s pointing out a disparity between people like his brother who believe in opportunity and people like himself who have a better sense of how the unjust world treats immigrants and minorities.
Themes
Nathanial returns his thoughts to the water. “Oh, dis island,” he murmurs to himself. Anyone would be crazy to overlook its beauty and go looking “fe bettah ting.” Unlike his brother, Nathanial vows never to leave the island. He gets up then, walks down the pier, and heads home; Clarise will be making dinner about now. He thinks that even if he leaves this place, the letter H “always gwan stand fe home.”
Nathanial’s declaration that H “always gwan stand fe home” reinforces one of the book’s overarching themes: the essential role that place plays in a person’s life. Jamaica might not be as wealthy as other nations, but its culture and boundless natural beauty have made Nathanial into the person he is today.
Themes
Sometime later, Nathanial sits at his small wooden table and finishes the yams Clarise has prepared for dinner. Clarise, meanwhile, folds clean clothes and places them in the laundry basket. She seems distracted. When Nathanial teases her about it, she jokes that she’s swooning over the entire West Indies cricket team. Nathanial laughs. Then he gets up and moves to the lounge room, sinking into an old armchair. Clarise follows Nathanial into the lounge room. She hands him the newspaper and asks him if he wants to practice reading. Nathanial told Clarise to stop reading aloud from the newspaper weeks ago. He doesn’t want to hear about all the politicians debating about independence from the British. Ever since slavery, Jamaicans have done exactly as their British rulers demanded, anyway.
The issue of Jamaican independence continues to color the background of this story. Nathanial’s disparaging reflection that Jamaicans have bowed to British demands ever since slavery suggests that Jamaican people are still functionally enslaved to this day, even if the institution of slavery has long been abolished: put another way, Nathanial sees that in not insisting on independence, and in idealizing England as a fantastical world of endless opportunity, Jamaican people allow themselves to remain victims of British exploitation.
Themes
Nathanial looks at the front page of the paper and sees a photo of the cricket team. He asks Clarise why they’re on the front page. She explains that they’re getting a lot of coverage for playing in “Owstrayleah,” a place at the bottom of the earth that is so large it could fit all of the Caribbean inside it and still have plenty of space left over. Nathanial tells Clarise that A is not just for ackee now—now it’s for Owstrayleah, too. Clarise shakes her head as she walks away.
“Owstrayleah” is the phonetic spelling of the way Nathanial pronounces “Australia,” and it seems to be the “Big Islan” referenced in the story’s title. When Nathanial tells Clarise that A is now for “ackee” (a type of fruit) and for “Australia,” it shows how, despite his initial skepticism, learning to read is expanding Nathanial’s world and warming him to the notion that maybe it’s not so foolish and futile to dream of a bigger, better life someplace else.
Themes
Nathanial leans back into his chair and regards the newspaper some more. The cricket team on the front page looks so happy, “like dem in paradise[.]” It makes Nathan feel uneasy. “E is fe envy,” he thinks to himself. When he closes his eyes, he momentarily hears the sound of crashing waves—and the sound of “de people ov Owstrayleah cheerin’ im on an smilin’.” But Nathanial will never be a part of that. “Big, big island,” he thinks to himself.
As Nathanial sees the cricket team looking so happy and fulfilled in Australia, his happiness with his own home starts to shrink. He used to think that Jamaica would always be enough for him—that it would always be home –but now, the island seems small and limiting. At the same time, Nathanial doesn’t let himself get carried away with grandiose hopes for the future: he seems to sense that as a functionally illiterate, poor person of color, he doesn’t have the kind of opportunities that the cricket team has.
Themes
A few months ago, the South African cricket team toured England, which resulted in protests in response to “dat dreadful partheid business.” But in Owstrayleah (at least, according to this photo in the paper), it doesn’t look like anyone cares what color your skin is. Clarise, from the other room, calls out that the West Indies team has been playing in Owstrayleah a few days now, and everyone there loves them. They’re calling this season “Calypso Summer.” Clarise hums the Linstead Market song as she walks back into the lounge to join Nathanial.
Unlike South Africa, which until the early 1990s upheld a form of institutionalized racial segregation known as apartheid, Australia seems not to care about skin color. Of course, as other stories in this book (like “Shu Yi”) show, this isn’t exactly true—though laws might not overtly sanction racism, people of color still experience discrimination on personal and systemic levels.
Themes
That night, Clarise goes to bed early. Nathanial stays awake. Though he’s never much cared for cricket, he “labor one sentence at a time tru de sport section ov de paper.”
Despite his earlier skepticism about England, the idea of Australia and all the possibilities it offers enchants Nathanial—he’s so swept away that he labors through an entire article about a subject he doesn’t even care about to learn more about this strange, big island.
Themes
The next morning, Nathanial wakes to sun streaming in through the bedroom window and the smells of Clarise cooking breakfast drifting in from the kitchen. The newspaper is folded up on Nathanial’s bedside table. Nathanial walks over to the window, the image of the cricket team lingering in his mind. Outside, Kingston has already come to life; shop doors are open, and people are wandering the streets. It’s a typical Saturday morning. But this morning is different for Nathanial. Today, “Kingston feel insignificant small.” He thinks to himself, “R. R is fe restlessness.”
Everything about this Saturday morning is typical, and yet Kingston is irrevocably changed for Nathanial. Though just yesterday he vowed he’d never leave, learning and reading about Australia—and, in a broader sense, the act of reading itself—has given Nathanial a hunger for opportunity and a renewed sense of hope. Of course, it’s significant that Nathanial’s closing thought is “R. R is fe restlessness,” rather than “O. O is fe opportunity.” Though he now longs for more, he seems pragmatically resigned to the reality that his social, economic, and racial conditions may limit the trajectory of his life and the opportunities available to him.
Themes
