In our modern world, diversity is not just a concept, 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 when we accept and celebrate our differences, we can bring people closer together and create a world where everyone feels respected and included. In Zadie Smith's lecture "Speaking in Tongues," …show more content…
This metaphor encourages listeners to appreciate and celebrate the diversity of languages and identities. Secondly, Smith utilizes analogy and a reference to explain how Professor Higgins' experiment with Eliza Doolittle results in her becoming "an awkward, in-between thing, neither flower girl nor lady, with one voice lost and another gained, at the steep price of everything she was and everything she knows" (Smith 1). This analogy shows the parallelism between Eliza's experience and the real-life struggles faced by individuals who are pressured to conform to societal expectations regarding language and identity. Smith's use of analogy helps the audience relate to the idea of losing one's true self and cultural heritage when forced to adopt a singular language or identity. In conclusion, Zadie Smith's lecture "Speaking in Tongues" delivers a powerful message about the importance of embracing linguistic diversity and resisting societal pressures to conform to singular language and identity
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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;
race and ethnicity is explored through the blackness which presents to the readers that as a nation we are all implicated in the construction of blackness and to present and show ways that the black art can promote and transform the constructions. Zadie Smith’s novel ‘White Teeth’ explores the interaction between a set of different ethnicities which make up different British life. Smith’s purpose in ‘White Teeth’ is to find an attempt in which to construct a new model of Englishness that’s suited
one. Zadie Smith argues for the conservation of libraries and, throughout the writing, utilizes many literary devices to support and strengthen her claims. One very prominent device that is copiously used in the reading is word choice. Smith uses higher-level vocabulary and phrasing in nearly every paragraph, but the introduction is where word choice plays
Malcolm Forbes once said “diversity: the art of thinking, independently together.” 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
either. The Britishness and the various other cultures being brought to its territory morphed together into a phenomenon of cultural hybridity that can rarely be found anywhere else in the world. In her 2000 debut novel White Teeth, 24-year-old Zadie Smith depicted the life experiences of the immigrants and the natives at that point in time and the struggles of both on the road to coexistence. She wrote,“This has been the century of strangers, brown, yellow, and white. This has been the century of
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
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Portsmouth: African Writers Series, 2000. Print. Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” Heart of Darkness: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. Fourth ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print. Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. New York: Vintage International, 2000. Print.