The Foster Family & School
A New Home: The Fitzgeralds
After entering the care system, Alem is placed with a foster family — the Fitzgeralds. Mr and Mrs Fitzgerald are a warm, supportive couple who welcome Alem into their home. They represent the best of British society: open-minded, compassionate, and willing to treat a stranger’s child as their own. Their home offers Alem his first experience of stability since his father’s departure.
Sissay uses the Fitzgeralds as a contrast to the cold, bureaucratic asylum system. Where social services treat Alem as a case number, the Fitzgeralds treat him as a person. Mrs Fitzgerald in particular becomes a maternal figure, providing the care and attention that Alem has lost. However, the relationship is complicated by the knowledge that it is temporary — Alem’s future depends on the asylum hearing, not on the Fitzgeralds’ love for him.
The Fitzgeralds provide Alem with warmth, stability, and a sense of belonging. They represent the kindness of ordinary people, contrasting sharply with the impersonal asylum system. But their care is always shadowed by the threat of Alem’s deportation.
Alem at School
The children’s home is where Alem meets both the best and the worst of his new life. On one hand, he makes a genuine friend. Mustapha becomes Alem’s first real friend in England — another young person who understands what it means to be different. Their friendship is built on shared experience and mutual respect. Through Mustapha, Alem begins to feel that he might belong somewhere.
On the other hand, the home exposes Alem to racism. Sweeney, another boy there, is hostile simply because Alem is different. The play does not shy away from presenting racial abuse — Sissay shows it as an ugly, casual part of some people’s behaviour. This is important for AO3: the racism Alem experiences reflects the real prejudice faced by asylum seekers and ethnic minorities in Britain.
Sweeney is the play’s most overtly racist character. He targets Alem with verbal abuse and intimidation, viewing him as an outsider who does not belong. Sweeney is not a complex villain — he represents a type of prejudice that is learned, casual, and widespread. Sissay does not give Sweeney a redemption arc. His presence in the play serves to show that the threat to Alem is not only from governments and bureaucracy, but also from ordinary people who have absorbed racist attitudes.
In exam essays, Sweeney can be used to discuss how Zephaniah and Sissay present prejudice as a social problem. He reflects the hostile environment that asylum seekers face beyond the legal system — in schools, on streets, and in daily interactions.
Friendship and Solidarity
Against the hostility, Sissay places moments of genuine human connection. Mustapha’s friendship with Alem is significant because it shows that belonging is possible even in difficult circumstances. Mustapha has been bullied by Sweeney himself, so the two boys stand together. These moments prevent the play from becoming relentlessly bleak — they offer hope and suggest that solidarity can overcome prejudice.
The school setting also allows Sissay to explore Alem’s intelligence and adaptability. Alem is a bright student who wants to learn. His eagerness to succeed academically contrasts with the stereotype of asylum seekers as a burden on society. This is a deliberate choice by both Zephaniah and Sissay — by showing Alem as capable and motivated, they challenge the stereotype that refugees are helpless or undeserving.
The play sets two responses to Alem side by side: friendship (Mustapha in the care home) and hostility (Sweeney’s racial abuse). Together, these show the full range of British attitudes towards asylum seekers and allow the audience to reflect on which side they identify with.
Adjusting to British Life
As the play goes on, Alem gradually adjusts to life in England. He learns the rhythms of school, the Fitzgeralds’ household routines, and the social codes that initially confused him. But adjustment is not the same as acceptance. Even as Alem becomes more comfortable, he remains acutely aware that this life could be taken away at any moment. The asylum hearing looms over everything.
Sissay shows that integration is a two-way process. Alem makes an effort to fit in, but British society must also make space for him. The Fitzgeralds, Mustapha, and supportive teachers represent those willing to make that space. Sweeney and the impersonal bureaucracy represent those who are not. This tension — between welcome and rejection — is central to the play’s exploration of what it means to belong.
Ruth is the Fitzgeralds’ daughter. She shares her home with Alem, so the welcome he gets comes from the whole family and not only from the adults. Ruth also worries with her father about what will happen if Alem becomes part of the family, because the Fitzgeralds fostered a boy called Themba before and he died. In essays, Ruth can be used to discuss how belonging is built inside an ordinary family, and how fragile that family knows it is.
The Fragility of Belonging
The dramatic tension of these middle scenes comes from the contrast between Alem’s growing sense of belonging and the ever-present threat of its removal. Every happy moment — a friendship formed, a good day at school, a warm evening with the Fitzgeralds — is undercut by the knowledge that Alem’s entire life in England depends on a decision made by strangers in a hearing room. This fragility makes the audience emotionally invested in Alem’s fate and forces them to consider how it must feel to build a life that can be dismantled by a single ruling.