Foreigners by Caryl Phillips describes three separate stories based on historical facts and accounts of three black men who lived in Britain at different times. Their lives, while not literally intertwined, greatly inform each other because of the substance that Phillips' writing highlights in each. The focus of the text is not necessarily on defining what it means to be a foreigner in Britain but, rather, how British identity becomes dependent on non-whites (foreign or otherwise) to help define its own privileged group by treating all non-whites. -whites. White as foreigners. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The book clearly focuses on Afro-British, mainly Francis Barber, Randolph Turpin and David Oluwale respectively. Barber was Doctor Samuel Johnson's servant, living in England and attending Doctor Johnson's funeral at the beginning of "Doctor Johnson's Watch" (first chapter) in London. Early narrative discussions with the reader indicate that there is a status that the speaker aspires to maintain among his fellow countrymen, and establishes external perception as a point of interest. He speaks of his place in Dr. Johnson's wider circle, his apparent position as a "minor literary spirit in London society," and his distorted explanations for standing with the "less celebrated" outside Bolt Court (Phillips 8). It is after these initial discussions that he finally turns his attention to Barber and, with these ideas of status and perception in mind, describes Barber as “Dr. Johnson's faithful black servant. He goes on to expound what others in Dr. Johnson's circle thought of Barber: "a wastrel, a man who regarded his master's needs only as an afterthought" (Phillips 11). He then describes Barber as antithetical to these things throughout the rest of the chapter. In the second chapter, "Made in Wales," Randolph Turpin takes his boxing career to new heights, experiencing fleeting fame and fortune. Much of Phillips' depiction of this segment of Turpin's life and career focuses on how Turpin is perceived in much the same way that Barber himself often preoccupied his own mind with thoughts of how he was perceived by others. The third chapter, "The Northern Lights", outlines the aftermath of David Oluwale's immigration from Nigeria to Leeds in 1949 and, in its entirety, the third chapter is perhaps the most profound example of Phillips' commentary on alienation because the reader is given probably every perspective except Oluwale's. His story is told in its entirety by piecing together the perceptions that others have of him. The text constantly refers, both directly and indirectly, to this state of strangeness and describes its characteristics in relation to multiple people, places and things. Speaking of black boxers, the text reads: “They might fight for the title of the British Empire, but by all rights black boxers, even if they were, like Randolph Turpin, born and bred in Britain, were treated as foreigners and excluded from fighting for your national championship” (Phillips 91). They were simply used as a juxtaposition for white fighters until the racist restriction was lifted. More generally, a vivid and long description of the journey through northern England in the third chapter concludes: “Rows and rows of factories. Once you reached the bus station you would wait for the bus to take you home. To 209 Belle Vue Road and your room in a house full of strangers with their strange food and their strange music” (Phillips 205). These ideas about what.