Sam Selvon the Lonely Londoners

L O 3.3

Essay for English Assignment

This essay is a close critical commentary of a passage one (pp27-28) taken out of Sam Selvons novel The Lonely Londoners. It is written in a West Indian inflected dialect of English. The novel itself is about West Indian immigration into Britain post world war II times. The passage occurs in the first section of the novel. The passage describes the scene where Moses and Galahad enter the building ‘ministry of labour’ to register for an insurance card. The passage is written in third person narrative with little in direct speech in it. The passage mainly focalises on Galahads thoughts and perception of the welfare state building and also the importance of being employed.

Prior to the passage Galahad had arrived to Britain and met Moses at Waterloo station. Moses is the main character in the novel. There is a biblical reference to the name Moses. In the Bible, it was Moses who took the Jewish people to the promise land and in the novel Moses is the one who helps some of the immigrants settle into Britain and British life. At the beginning of the novel Moses was going to meet Henry Oliver who he gave the nickname Sir Galahad. ‘This is seen as an indication of the strong influence of British culture - particularly the literary aspects of that culture, including tales of legendary medieval knights-on Caribbean migrants educated in the colonies.’ (Dyer, 2002, p. 126). Upon his arrival, Galahad seems overly confident about his prospects, and Moses thinks he is naive. Moses offers him a place to stay for the night. And offers to help him find work, but Galahad, wanting to give off the impression that "everything all right," decides to go find work for himself. He doesn't get far before he runs into Moses again and so therefore Moses ends up going with him to the employment exchange. Galahad, qualified as an electrician, is told that there is no work available for him and was sent to...