Good Vs Evil By Zadie Smith Analysis

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 realizes that life is not always as clear cut as it seems. Smith observes that the inferences that she has made about life due to her experiences, may not be in compliance with the common ideas. She realizes that she experiences more than the usual amount of pleasure on a daily basis everyday because “Small things go a long way” (Joy 1). This clashes with a society that with so many unreliable sources of pleasure “turns up [their] nose to [those] so readily available” (Joy 1). Narrating her daily encounters with delight, Smith observes that they range from food to “other people’s faces”. She characterizes them as small, simple, ephemeral aspects of life. She notes that “they have the general power to turn [her] day around”.

In the case of Monsters, If raised in a tolerant society, then a person may have understood that not all muslims were terrorists. However, in a society where anti-islam propaganda transformed the stereotype of the muslim male, all muslims were vilified. Smith admits that “[she] was for the war, at first. However, distinguishing what she believed against what she was taught to believe, she realized that the war as a whole does more harm then good. However, this simplistic idea of Islam as evil keeps the distinction between the heroes and villains superficially