Foreign Soil

by

Maxine Beneba Clarke

In “The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,” Dinesh was Asanka’s friend in Sri Lanka. They were both forced to serve as child soldiers with the Tamil Tigers. As punishment for running away, the Tigers locked Dinesh and Asanka in a potato chest and nailed it shut. It’s not totally clear what happened to Dinesh, as Asanka is too traumatized to think about his friend directly, but it seems that Dinesh died in the chest, and Asanka left his body behind—an act that continues to haunt Asanka.

Dinesh Quotes in Foreign Soil

The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Dinesh or refer to Dinesh. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Place Theme Icon
).
The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa Quotes

The head doctor said there was no blood, that he would never be locked in a chest or a fish hold again. But then the head doctor had walked out of here, left him behind, in the chest.

Related Characters: Asanka, Dinesh
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dinesh Quotes in Foreign Soil

The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Dinesh or refer to Dinesh. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Place Theme Icon
).
The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa Quotes

The head doctor said there was no blood, that he would never be locked in a chest or a fish hold again. But then the head doctor had walked out of here, left him behind, in the chest.

Related Characters: Asanka, Dinesh
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis: