Foreigners Literary Elements

The first story and the third story are told from the perspective of first person subjective point of views and the second story is told from the perspective of a third person objective point of view.

Because these are short stories, there is no form and meter.

In the third story, David is described as always wearing a black coat. The narrator looks at David and sees him hunched over and thus thinks that maybe the coat is too heavy for him. The coat is used in this case as a metaphor to suggest the way in which the British society was oppressing the black people living among them.

Because these are short stories, there is no alliteration or assonance.

An ironic element is presented in the first story when the narrator talks about the funeral of Dr. Samuel who is described as a great man. Despite this, the funeral procession is described as being incredibly dull and simple, not suitable for such a person.

Short stories

The second story takes place in England in July in 1951.

The tone used in the second story is a violent one.

The protagonist in the third story is David and the antagonists are the Leeds police officers who beat him.

All the three stories have a common major conflict and is the result of the inability of the white society to accept the black among them and as being equal to them.

The second story reaches its climax when Turpin beats Ray in a boxing match.

The title given to the collection of short stories foreshadows the struggles the characters had to face when trying to get accepted by the European society in which they lived.

In the beginning of the third story, the narrator talks about David and how he must be a university man because of the way he dressed. This is however an understatement as it is later revealed.

One of the allusions made in the second story is the idea that the noble men, or the white rich men in Britain will never engage in fighting because they see themselves as being too good for this. The lower class was the one who fought while the upper one paid to see them fight. Thus, this alludes the idea that those who engage in fighting are almost every time from a lower class.

The term ‘’ebony’’ is used as a general term to make reference to black men.

We find a personification in the first story in the sentence ‘’This English melancholy morning.’’

We find a hyperbole in the sentence "the foreign threat was vanquished’’ in the second story when the narrator recalls how a black man tried to fight against a white British man and how he was seen as something that should be eliminated just because he was black.

We find an onomatopoeia in the sentence ‘’stern, almost impolite tone’’ in the second story.