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
Harlem sprints out of the job shop just as the woman is about to call security. Usually, he zones out when he runs, but today is different. Today, he’s thinking about Mark Duggan’s mug shot-like photo from the newspaper: in it, Duggan looks “hard” and “angry.” The paper always includes a photo like this whenever the police shoot a Black person.
Harlem’s fixation on Mark Duggan (a real person who was shot by police in 2011) implies that he’s Black, like Duggan. The fact that he modifies his behavior to be alert and cautious as he runs, apparently in order to evade any altercations with police, highlights how place and environment affect a person’s life and how they navigate the world. In this case, the prejudice that Black people experience at the hands of London’s police makes Harlem more wary of police.
Themes
When Harlem reaches Finsbury Park flats, he’s not even out of breath. He walks inside his flat, showers, and trades his sweaty Tesco’s uniform for normal clothes. He finds leftover jerk chicken and sweet potato in the fridge and devours it. Harlem fills his backpack with spray paint cans, puts on his new hoodie, and starts to leave the flat—but when he opens the front door, a police offer is there. Harlem curses to himself; he should’ve known they’d find him. This might even be the same officer who got his brother Lloyd a few weeks ago (though Lloyd deserved to be locked up for beating his girlfriend, Janelle).
It's still unclear what exactly happened at the job office, but apparently police feel it necessary to get involved. Whether not their targeting Harlem is warranted or prejudiced remains unknown. Still, this scene builds tension, as the story opened with Harlem meditating on the officer-involved shooting of a Black man, Mark Duggan.
Themes
The Black officer accuses Harlem of “making death threats” to the women at the job office. Harlem scoffs at this. Earlier that day, he went to the office to try to quit his Tesco’s job, which doesn’t pay nearly enough for him to get by. But the “stuck-up” office woman told him he wouldn’t get benefits for three months if he quit. Then before he could stop himself, he lost his temper with her.
It's still not totally clear what happened at the job office—whether Harlem made actual death threats against the woman or merely lost his temper at her isn’t clear. In the book, Harlem uses harsh language to describe the woman, so the reader can assume he’s not totally in the clear—he probably did lose his temper in a rather extreme way. Regardless, that police would automatically go to his house seems a bit extreme and may be the book commenting on the over-policing of Black people and communities.
Themes
Just then, Harlem’s mum returns. Harlem goes to the curb to smoke a cigarette as his ma spars with officers. After a few minutes, they leave. But Ma stops Harlem before he can flee. She tells him he needs to get his act together—she and Harlem’s father didn’t move here “te raise delinquent children.” And if he keeps this up, he’s going to end up like one of those Black boys on the news.
Harlem’s mum’s angry remark that she didn’t move here “te raise delinquent children” mirrors the criticism the young Sudanese women’s elders directed toward her. Throughout the book, there are instances of parents, often immigrants, who want better for their children and have sacrificed much to make that happen—and then, when the children fail to live up their parents’ expectations of what they think a better life should look like, it creates conflict.
Themes
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Harlem wants to remind Harlem’s mum about Lloyd, but he stops himself. Ma still can’t admit that Lloyd is “inside,” and so she lies and tells people that he’s working in Trinidad. Ma orders Harlem to look her in the eye, but he can’t. Though it’s been 10 years since Harlem’s father left, Ma still compares Harlem to his no-good father anytime Harlem does something bad. In that moment, Harlem is so angry he could strangle his mum.
Harlem’s behavior is no doubt infuriating and stressful to his mother, but it’s not quite fair of her to compare him to his father. It’s possible that—consciously or unconsciously—she’s making the comparison out of her own misdirected, lingering anger toward Harlem’s father.
Themes
Despite his run-in with the police, Harlem still manages to reach Tottenham before Toby. Harlem sits down on the station steps and smokes as he waits for Toby, but he can’t stop thinking about Duggan. He suddenly feels anxious about Toby and texts him to see where he is. Toby responds immediately that he’s running behind but is now on his way. Harlem is annoyed; he’s going to “miss the action” if he waits for Toby any longer, so he gets up and walks down Woodgreen.
Tottenham is a neighborhood in London. In 2011, when this story takes place, it was the starting location of the 2011 England Riots (also called the London Riots), a protest in response in Mark Duggan’s death (and police brutality in general) that became violent. The reader can assume that this is where Harlem and his friend Toby are headed.
Themes
Toby runs up behind Harlem just then and apologizes for being late. They debate which way to go; Harlem suggests that take the back way, and Toby agrees, gesturing toward his packed backpack. Harlem discreetly unzips the backpack and sees Molotovs inside. He and Toby continue to walk. They pass a crowd of older African men outside the library; the men tell them to be careful. Harlem thinks it’s the men’s way of giving them “full permission to burn London to the fricken ground.” Toby laughs.
The Molotov cocktails (explosives) in Toby’s backpack build tension, perhaps foreshadowing the violence that will erupt at the protest Harlem and Toby are headed to. Foreign Soil features many stories where the younger generations are at odds with their elders, who disapprove of the ways they try to bring about change or simply carve out futures for themselves. In this scene, though, with the recent death of Mark Duggan on everyone’s brain, there seems to be a rare moment of agreeance and understanding between Harlem and Toby and the older African men gathered outside the library.
Themes
They stop as they catch sight of the massive crowd. There are people holding handmade signs demanding an end to police brutality. Harlem and Toby push their way to the front of the crowd. They see lots of police wearing riot gear. The crowd chants, “We are all Mark Duggan.” Harlem wishes they wouldn’t; none of them, and especially not Harlem, are Mark Duggan.
“We are all Mark Duggan” is an expression of solidarity, but Harlem takes issue with it, perhaps because to say that he is Mark Duggan is to accept the inevitability of his own subjugation under an unjust system. Harlem doesn’t want to have to be part of a tragic, unjust statistic to make lasting change happen—he wants to create the change himself.
Themes
Harlem notices the police officers listening intently to their radios and knows that something is going on. Toby disappears into the crowd, and then Harlem hears the smashing sound of the Molotov exploding. The crowd erupts and the police move in, trying to find the source of the explosion. Harlem feels Toby pass him a kerosene-soaked rag wrapped around a glass bottle, followed by a lighter. A police officer, addressing Harlem as “son,” advises him not to do something stupid—but Harlem just smiles. All around London, people like Harlem and Toby are fed up and ready to fight back. As Harlem flicks the lighter, he tells the officer that his name “is not son”—it’s “Harlem fuckin’ Jones.” Then he lights the Molotov.
Toby’s disappearance followed by the sound of the Molotov exploding strongly suggests that Toby was responsible for the explosion—and for causing the initially peaceful protest to erupt with violence. As with most of the stories in this collection, “Harlem Jones” ends ambiguously, and the reader is left to wonder whether or not Harlem will throw the Molotov he’s just lit. Harlem’s defiant response to the officer who patronizingly calls him “son” is significant. Earlier, he took issue with the protestors’ chant, “We are all Mark Duggan.” Now, he puts his words into action, speaking aloud his name and thus asserting his personal agency and power. Harlem doesn’t want to be a victim of police brutality and systemic racism like Mark Duggan—he wants to be an actor in its demise.
Themes
