In Zadie Smith’s first and third novels, White Teeth and On Beauty, respectively, Smith utilizes the plot point of having a husband cheat on his wife with a younger and white woman. Through this plot point, Zadie Smith explores the marital dynamics of two couples: Alsana and Samad Miah in White Teeth and Kiki and Howard Belsey in On Beauty. Howard and Samad both sleep with women who are very different from their wives; Howard has relations with Claire Bowden (who is white, very thin, and academic)
Zadie Smith's multicultural, post colonial novel has been widely discussed in the literary world. At the age of 25, Zadie Smith captures the immensely believable lives of an aging Bangladeshi Muslim man, a too-concerned middle-class white woman poking her nose in all the wrong business, and an adolescent half-Jamaican girl with self-esteem issues. Over the span of about 30 years, the three families in the book undergo a wide web of separate but somehow connected circumstances, and Smith became
the struggles individual go through, on a daily basis either to fit in or to reach ones goals. Struggles are due to gender, race or ethnicity, class, ability, and marginalization. We are going to be examining the works of Jamaica Kincaid “Girl”, Zadie Smith “The Girl With Bangs”, and Stephen Graham Jones “Discovering America” in order probe the different kinds of struggles the characters go through. In Smith’s “The Girl With Bangs” the unnamed narrator struggles with gender orientation. She is a
From the beginning of her novel "White Teeth," Zadie Smith presents the reader with realistic, current issues and humor which is significantly complimented by a time-resistant setting. Her word choice brings out a unique and intriguing personality for each character introduced so far in the novel. One of the major themes of the novel so far is the theme of those who endow various trifles, whether miniscule or gigantic these trifles play a huge role in the novels story. The Irony, cynicism, and idiosyncrasy
Zadie Smith's White Teeth Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, is chock full of potential deconstruction ideas; however, an exciting scene to deconstruct is in “The Final Space” chapter when the Iqbals and the Jones are on the public bus heading towards the FutureMouse exhibit. The most obvious binary opposite is that of parent or adult and child. Adults are without doubt the privileged binary. They signify knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and training of young ones along with patience and selflessness
In White Teeth, Zadie Smith warns against the dangers of purism and letting cultural background completely shape one’s identity while simultaneously paying tribute to the rich heritage and beliefs of her characters. It is a cautionary tale for immigrants but is never dismissive of their past. Smith is merely advising against tunnel vision and stressing the need to adapt to one’s environment. She shows the beauty that can stem from adaptation while warning that an inability to do so will lead to one’s
but a living reality. Zadie Smith's enlightening lecture, "Speaking in Tongues," encourages us to be proud of who we are and where we come from, including our unique languages and backgrounds. She shares stories that we can relate to and uses persuasive techniques like personal anecdotes, making comparisons, and using allusion and analogy to showcase the power of embracing different linguistic identities. Also, her change in tone while speaking helped influence us. Smith wants us to understand that
aspects that build up a person’s character and personality. These are the aspects that lead us to make decisions, to reason, and most importantly to make judgements. Zadie Smith’s writing involves various cultures and generations and these different perspectives resonate with human thoughts and feelings. In her short story, “Stuart”, Zadie Smith uses comparisons and various other literary techniques to portray the significance of creating judgements from only one’s perceptions; as well as, the importance
In her novel, White Teeth, Zadie Smith tells the story of two wartime friends, Samad Iqbal and Archie Jones, and their families in London. The story focuses on the latter half of their lives, while continuing to look back on their history as friends and comrades in arms. Alfred “Archie” Jones is an ordinary and uncertain man, preferring to make his most important decisions with the flip of a coin. The story begins with his ex-wife, Ophelia Diagilo, walking out on him apparently driven insane by his
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
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth epigraph “What is past is prologue,” means that what has occurred in the past has led up to what is happening in the future or present. Smith illustrates the struggles three families go through for identity, legacy, striving for a good future while holding onto the traditions of the past, and maintaining ones religion or beliefs. Through the text, the thematic significance of the past occurs often with the recurring flashbacks which sometimes goes as far back to 1857;
The Assumption on the Topic of White Teeth's Audience Zadie Smith’s world wasn’t a made up fairyland with an elven language, ethereal metaphors or green setting, no, within her novel, White Teeth, it was a clear reflection of what type of society that she lived in. A society where everything seen can be an interpretation of what society wanted out of you, a false representation that was found in the comfortable ideals of Euro-Centric beauty which were hard to attain yet were so sought out no matter
Finding Your Beach In her narrative essay, “FYB”, Zadie Smith expresses her belief that if one redirects their mindset to a more limited perspective and uses the limitless Manhattan mentality at certain times, one can arrive at their beach. A beach is a mentality, and Smith finds her beach by coming to peace with Manhattan’s beach. The idea of a person’s “beach” being hard to discover may be observed through Smith’s personal background, as it is almost mythical for this English writer living in
how most people perceive and process different feelings, emotions, and moods. Author, Zadie Smith, respectively, analyzes and differentiates between pleasure and joy and distinctively separates the two with regards to their quality and quantity. As she explains, pleasure most closely refers to a temporary state of satisfaction and contentment, it can be easily forgotten, and is often times preferred
An Orchestra of Voices: Zadie Smith’s use and explanation of voice in “Speaking in Tongues”. Every language, every culture, and every person has their own voice. Some people may have multiple voices, some people may have one. But we all have a voice. Our voice changes with us as we grow, experience new things, and essentially just move throughout our lives. Our voices don’t have to stay strictly the same forever, and these experiences are also ways we can develop new and additional voices. In
knowing they cannot survive without it. Disagreements or contradictory opinions between individuals can either gradually breakdown, or unite new relations. Similar circumstances are present between the characters in the novel On Beauty written by Zadie Smith. Several characters in the novel face struggles as they learn to deal with others, themselves, and society. First of all, Britain born Howard Belsey leads a fictional war against Monty Kipps, whom he considers his lifelong professional and cultural
Take the consummate ideals of beauty and clash it against the paradoxes of the human condition and you get Zadie Smith’s fresh and original “On Beauty”. “On Beauty” follows Smith’s critically acclaimed “White Teeth” novel in her writing style that is smart, observant and humorously ingrained with current politics. The novel centers around the rivalry between the liberal sharp-tongued Belsey family and the conservative close-knit Kipps family. Both patriarchs, Howard Belsey and Monty Kipps, are erudite
This conveys the idea of Zadie Smith’s personal narrative Speaking in Tongues about embracing ones equivocal character. Smith applies the use of symbolism, ethical appeal and conflict of man vs. self to persuade her audience that fitting in a society does not have to mean losing one’s language, or cultural background, rather fitting in can simply mean flexibility towards one’s belief. Embracing the spectrum of speaking in tongues can lead to a rewarding experience. Smith describes different viewpoints
In contrast, Zadie Smith does not directly write about loneliness through blindness but she forces the reader to elicit it out of the story. In the UK colour blindness is not considered to be a disability, but in other cultures colour blindness is regarded as a defect. Relatively little research has been done into the effects of colour blindness in everyday life. This is because until now the general population has been unaware of the difficulties that colour blindness can cause on a daily basis
Zadie Smith utilizes her writing to dismantle society’s simplistic views on life that she has internalized. Through anecdotes and contemplation of her daily life, Smith measures her understanding of the world against society’s conventional beliefs. She notes that society has a tendency to disregard the complexities of life and merely view life itself as a spectrum for the sake of clarity. Whether inspecting the difficult concepts of joy, the apathetic writer, or the hazy battle of Good vs Evil, Smith