Aguagaua

ZADIE SMITH


Zadie Smith’s born on 25 October 1975 is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels and the fist “White Teeth” is extraordinarily post modern. This novel hasthese notions: the modern against the post modern, real violence in a wanting of peace versus contrived violence in a wanting of war.


In “White Teeth”, Zadie demonstrates the problems of livingin a postmodern world, as her characters constantly collide with each other in the pursuit of meaning and truth. Smith’s characters struggle with their attempts to find happiness in a fractured andchaotic world. Her characters seek answers, seek meanings, but find themselves caught between various binaries: the religious and the secular, Eastern and Western value, the past and the present,internal and external history, randomness and predestination. The chaotic, mixed-up nature of life in a postmodern society is intolerable to these characters, a condition made evident


To dothis, Smith does not rely on a grand tale of heroism and personal discovery. Her novel is composed of vignettes, short stories, images, moments that are all heavily layered with adjectives with which we(the reader) find ourselves familiar.

Finally, there is one last theme in need of exploration. Immigration “It’s like that quote: ‘If I had to choose between betraying my country and betrayingmy friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.’ The choice between duty and country” This theme permeates the text. To whom is the migrant loyal: nation or family?

“WhiteTeeth” is a beautiful exegesis on the struggles of the modern and the post modern. It is a quiet existential fight for the past when the present is consistently interrupting and making decisions the pastdid not predict. It is the passing of generations who live with one foot in one land, and the other foot in this one. It is the tug of war amongst expectations, disappointments and every day...