Martha, By Zadie Smith

In Zadie Smith’s 2003 short story “Martha, Martha,” the line, “she just could not understand what kind of a girl this was, where she came from, what kind of conversation was normal for her,” (Smith 2007), encapsulates the attitude of Pam Roberts toward the foreigners in the Massachusetts neighborhood. Although she puts forward a front of worldliness and tolerance and romanticizes the exoticism of these people, there is an irony in her character: Pam is fundamentally a judgmental person—her verbal attempts to come off as inclusive and politically correct contrast with her internal thoughts. Pam surrounds herself with exotic items and individuals of cultures far removed from her Midwestern upbringing; within the first paragraph of the story, she’s listening to

There is a discrepancy between Pam’s apparent affinity for foreign things and how she actually acts when faced with an unfamiliarity. Despite Pam’s best efforts, Martha is nonplussed by the realtor’s attempts at virtue signaling, resulting in Pam being unsettled by this and revealing her true thoughts. On page 196, Martha, “in a tone somewhere between statement and question,” says “There aren’t any black students” when the conversation lands on the topic of the nearby university. Pam freezes up and begins talking about students of color going to school due to affirmative action and sports, specifically basketball, scholarships---seemingly talking about Black students. She finishes off her sentence by saying “It’s much, much better now,” and that “they’re completely here on their own steam now” (196), in reference to the many Chinese and Indian students, though Martha’s original statement was specifically about Black students. Martha does not even react to the monologue, nor Pam’s awkwardness about the topic being brought up in the first