Foreign Soil

by

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Foreign Soil makes teaching easy.
Themes and Colors
Place Theme Icon
The Limitations of Hope Theme Icon
Communication and Misunderstanding Theme Icon
Solidarity vs. Prejudice Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Foreign Soil, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Place

At its core, Foreign Soil is a book about place; as such, its stories examine how where a person is from influences their identity, the trajectory of their life, and their views of the world. For many characters, living in a place where they’re considered an outsider has a major impact on their identity. In “Shu Yi,” a young Black girl named Ava tries to hide the parts of herself that highlight her Blackness, like…

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The Limitations of Hope

Many of Foreign Soil’s stories feature displaced characters coming to grips with past and present traumas. The opening story, “David,” tells the story of a Sudanese woman (Asha) who watched soldiers shoot down her young son during a period of civil conflict. “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa” tells the story of Asanka, a young Sri Lankan boy forced to join the Liberation Tigers, a paramilitary group that made him commit unspeakable…

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Communication and Misunderstanding

Though the characters of Foreign Soil come from different countries, class backgrounds, and time periods, they all experience conflicts that arise from a failure to communicate effectively with others—and the misunderstandings that result from these lapses in communication. People misunderstand people for many reasons. Sometimes, it’s a language barrier: a character literally can’t understand what the other person is trying to tell them. Other times, characters choose to make assumptions about others instead of communicating…

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Solidarity vs. Prejudice

Many of the characters in Foreign Soil’s stories experience prejudice or ridicule, whether due to their race, class, gender, age, or immigration status. But the collection shows that all characters, even those who have themselves experienced prejudice, can hold—and act on—prejudices against others. In “Shu Yi,” a young Black girl named Ava refuses to stick up for Shu Yi, a Chinese student new to their majority-white, suburban Australian elementary school. Prior to Shu…

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