Moses

Moses, a Trinidadian immigrant, is the protagonist of The Lonely Londoners. At the outset of the novel, he travels to Waterloo station to pick up a stranger. While he is “vex with himself that his heart so soft that he always doing something for somebody and nobody ever doing anything for him,” Moses continues to help newcomers assimilate to London (2). He warns Galahad, the new arrival, that he will have to fend for himself in the British metropolis, but he continues to help the stranger find work and housing. Moses explains the nuances of British racism and cautions Galahad that it will be difficult to find a job that does not involve manual labor, because the clerical positions are reserved for white men.

Throughout the novel, Moses reminisces about the men he met at the hostel when he first moved to London. He became friends with Cap, a...