Five Past Twelve Character Analysis

One of Moses’s friends. Five is a Barbadian immigrant who is so dark-skinned that he earned the nickname “Five Past Midnight” because when a person looks at him, he or she says, “Boy, you black like midnight,” before adding, “No, you more like Five Past Twelve.” Before moving to London, Five traveled to Trinidad, where he dated a woman many of the local men thought was too light-skinned for him. As a result, they chased him away with “a tin of pitch oil” and a “box of matches,” threatening to burn him alive. After World War II, Five came to England and was in the Royal Air Force for three years before working as a truck driver making deliveries throughout England. Like many of the immigrants Moses knows, Five is somebody who, “from the time he see[s] you,” is “out to borrow money.” Similar to Cap, he’s also quite promiscuous when it comes to his love affairs, though he doesn’t leverage his relationships for money like Cap does. Instead, he eagerly seeks out parties, wanting only to have a good time when he’s in the city and not driving the delivery truck. He especially seems to enjoy giving his friend Harris—who throws upscale parties for high-society white people—a hard time, showing up at his “fetes” and turning them into raucous nights of dancing, drinking, and marijuana smoking.