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Summary
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
The narrator (the young Sudanese woman) sees a beautiful red bike in the Ted’s Cycle’s window display. When she and Ahmed were still together—and before they had Nile—she used to watch Ahmed and the other boys at the bike dump put together different parts of old bikes to make mismatched new ones; Ahmed’s mum used to get so frustrated with Ahmed for getting grease on his school clothes. The young Sudanese woman knows what Ahmed’s mum would say now: that children “born in this country” have no respect—that in Sudan, the mother of her son’s child would have married her son—and stayed with him.
Foreign Soil’s opening story introduces the collection’s most important themes: immigrant stories, the issue of preserving the traditions of one’s home country in a strange land (i.e., on “foreign soil,”), communication and misunderstanding, among others. Ahmed’s mother’s gripe about children “born in this country” implies that the young Sudanese woman (unlike Ahmed’s mother and the young woman’s other elders) was born in Australia, not Sudan. As such, elders like Ahmed’s mum feel the young people born in Australia lack empathy, understanding, and respect for the hardships the older generation endured on their behalf—and the rich cultural traditions they had to behind in the process.
Themes
The young Sudanese woman buys the bike, which has BARKLY STAR engraved on a bronze sticker along its side. There’s a baby seat strapped to the bike’s back rack. The clouds in the sky grow dark as the young Sudanese woman walks the bike out of the shop and down the street—the Melbourne rain is about to start. The woman pulls the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. She thinks about how much this bike will change things for the better: now, she’ll be able to keep up with Nile when he rides his tricycle. The woman decides it was worth the half of her welfare check it cost her—even if it means she’ll have to eat nothing but porridge and potatoes for the foreseeable future. In her head, she hears Ahmed’s mum criticize Australian-born children who feed their babies junk food.
Contrary to Ahmed’s mum’s criticisms, the young Sudanese woman does seem to have her child’s best interests at heart. She’s bought a baby seat for the bicycle to ensure his safety, and she bought the bike itself with happy outings with her son in mind. And though the woman is clearing struggling financially (as evidenced by the mention of a welfare check), she makes sacrifices to ensure that her son has a happy and fulfilled life. In failing to set aside their differences to communicate, the two generations prevent themselves from seeing the other’s point of view, instead making snap judgments and perpetuating conflict.
Themes
As the young Sudanese woman walks the bike down the street, an older Sudanese woman (Asha) stares at her in disbelief and asks the narrator if the bike is hers. The narrative switches to the older Sudanese woman’s perspective. The Sudanese woman can’t believe this young woman is walking around with a bike—after all, she looks like she’s “a grown mother too.” Also, the young woman reminds her of her son David. Back when David was seven, Masud, a mechanical engineer from her village, made David a bike from metal scraps. David loved the bike and rode it everywhere. Masud told him about “the Tour of France,” a famous bike race. He promised David that one day, David would become a famous bike rider and have a race named after him.
Having just had Ahmed’s mother’s criticisms floating through her head, the young Sudanese woman is primed to be on the defense when the older Sudanese woman asks vague but seemingly critical questions about the young woman’s bike. The older woman become a stand-in for Ahmed’s mum and all the other elders in the young woman’s life who have made snap judgments about her, her lifestyle, and her respect—or lack thereof—for Sudanese culture. Already, though, the reader can sense that the older Sudanese woman’s remarks are more complex than the younger woman might think. Her comments are linked with her son David in some way that has deep meaning for the older woman.
Themes
The older Sudanese woman (Asha) again asks the young Sudanese woman if the bike is hers. The young woman recognizes the older woman as Sudanese, interprets the older woman’s question as a “judgment,” and ignores her. But then she hears Ahmed’s mum’s voice criticizing Australian-born Sudanese children for disrespecting their elders, so she turns to the older woman and says yes, the bike is hers. When the older woman, aghast, asks what the young woman’s husband will think, the young woman wants to laugh at the older woman. But instead, she fakes a smile and says her husband won’t mind. The older woman retorts that the young woman probably doesn’t even have a husband.
That the young Sudanese woman hears Ahmed’s mum’s criticisms in her head just after her interaction with the older Sudanese woman confirms that she’s equating the two older women: they’re both first-generation immigrants who have a gripe with her for the simple fact that she was born in Australia, not Sudan. In addition, this scene further examines how heavily place—that is, where a person is from—affects their character, values, and how they experience the world and judge others.
Themes
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The narrative switches to the older Sudanese woman’s (Asha) perspective as she recalls how the army destroyed her village, which she feared they’d do ever since they took her husband two year prior. At first, everyone thought the Janjaweed might leave them alone. But one day, Amina, the woman’s friend (and Masud’s daughter) runs to the woman (whom she calls Asha) to tell her the army has just destroyed Haskanita and is headed to their village next. Terrified, the villagers prepare to flee. Amina asks where Asha’s children are—but Asha can’t find them.
The pervasiveness of violence in Asha’s native Sudan further establishes how significantly place shapes a person’s perspective. It helps to explain why she—and other first-generation immigrants like her—have such trouble connecting with the younger generation: they come from such different backgrounds and have experienced traumas the younger generations can’t begin to fathom.
Themes
The narrative switches to the young Sudanese woman’s perspective. Inwardly, she berates Asha—and older Sudanese women in general—for judging her for being unmarried. But Asha follows the young woman and continues to criticize her, asking where the narrator’s baby is. The young Sudanese woman hears a voice inside her head criticizing her for putting her baby in daycare and letting strangers care for him. Before she can stop herself, she offers to let Asha ride her bike down a side street, where nobody can see them. Asha calls the young woman “wicked.”
Note how much of this story consists of inner thoughts, not spoken dialogue. The young Sudanese woman and the old Sudanese woman are each bringing their own emotional burdens to their interaction with each other, yet each are keeping these emotional burdens to themselves—opening the door for more tension and misunderstanding.
Themes
The narrative switches to Asha’s perspective as she and Amina hurriedly prepare to flee their village. They stumble into Amina’s house and find David playing with Clement and Djoni. When Asha tells the boys it’s time to flee, David runs outside to find his beloved bike. Masud runs after David. Asha tries to follow him, but Amina won’t let her. The army has reached their village by this point, and Asha and Amina watch as their village goes up in flames. The women and the boys go to some bushes to hide. A couple hours pass. The boys fall asleep. Amina holds her hand over Asha’s mouth to muffle her crying.
The prevalence of David’s bike in Asha’s memories further suggests that her reasons for commenting on the young Sudanese woman’s bike aren’t really criticisms directed at the young woman at all—in fact, it seems that the bike has caused a traumatic memory involving her young son to surface, and this is why she’s so interested in the bike. It’s yet unclear what has happened to David, but his continued absence and the burning village strongly suggest that this memory doesn’t have a happy ending.
Themes
The narrative returns to the young Sudanese woman’s perspective. As the rain grows heavier, she plays back Asha’s insults in her head. She’s about to part ways with Asha to pick up Nile from kindergarten, but before she can leave, Asha grips the young woman’s wrist and tells that she has a second husband and is lucky—her first husband died back home. Now, she has five children. Though a good man, her second husband wouldn’t approve of her riding a bike—but he’s not here to see her now. Asha asks the young woman to hold her bag so she can ride the bike. The young woman laughs, assuming that Asha is joking, especially after Asha admits that she’s never ridden a bike before. But the young woman lets Asha ride the bike anyway.
Though Asha is only revealing the trauma of her past in vague bits and pieces, the young woman seems to sense that the bike is important to her in some way, so she lets Asha ride it. Asha’s efforts to communicate with the younger woman rather than criticize her, combined with the young woman’s decision to set aside her defensiveness, and feel empathy for Asha, helps to mitigate conflict between them.
Themes
The narrative returns to Asha’s perspective as she awaits David’s return. Suddenly, Asha hears the sound of David’s bike speeding toward her. She turns and sees three men chasing him, but he’s too fast, and eventually they give up. David smiles and laughs as he rides toward his mother.
Asha’s memory interrupts the main story taking place in the present with increasing frequency, highlighting just how significantly everything she went through in Sudan continues to affect her life to this day.
Themes
The narrative returns to the present. Asha is heavy, and it’s difficult for the young Sudanese woman to keep her steady on the bike’s seat, but they manage. Asha eventually catches on and takes off, pedaling fast until she’s hundreds of meters away from the narrator.
This scene mirrors the flashback scene just before it, where Asha watches David rapidly pedaling his bike toward her. These parallel scenes reinforce how Asha’s past traumas affect her present experiences.
Themes
The narrative returns to Asha’s flashback to war-torn Sudan. As David is pedaling toward her, a “red roar like fire” bursts from David’s mouth. He stops pedaling and falls to the ground; dark red seeps out underneath him. The soldiers who were chasing David cheer in the background. Asha sees that they are boys themselves.
The ”red roar like fire” that bursts from David’s mouth is the blood that erupted after he was shot. Just as disturbing is the fact that young boys shot him. Growing up in a violent, war-ravaged place forces young people to grow up fast and engage in violence themselves.
Themes
The narrative returns to the present. The young Sudanese woman watches in horror as Asha suddenly loses her balance and falls to the ground. She runs to Asha; when she reaches her, she sees that Asha is crying. Asha tells the young woman about David and how he used to have a bike, though she leaves out the part about his death. Asha’s admission makes narrator feel awkward—she thinks she’s supposed to know the significance of Asha’s story. She and Asha stare at each other as it continues to rain. After a while, the narrator hops on her bike to retrieve Nile from daycare. As she rides, she considers the bike’s new name: David.
Asha falling to the ground mirrors her memory of David falling to the ground when he was shot. Again, these parallel scenes illustrate how the traumas Asha experienced in Sudan inform her experiences in Australia. Immigrants like Asha might leave their culture and loved ones behind when they seek refuge in a new country, but their traumas follow them across oceans and borders. Though the young woman can’t understand the depth of Asha’s sorrow, she chooses to empathize with the woman anyway, and as a result, they share a moment of healing and connection. And in naming her bike “David,” after Asha’s son, the young woman shows respect and empathy for the hardships and traumas the older generation endured before her, thus symbolically resolving the conflict that opened the story.
Themes
