Close Reading #6: NW by Zadie Smith, pages 97-99.
I chose to do this close reading on a rather trivial passage; interestingly mundane. It reflects Leah’s inner struggle as an outsider attempting to fit in to a dinner party where she doesn’t “belong.” It entertains the thought train that encompasses an introvert who doesn’t partake in the anecdotal conversations amongst dinner party friends. “Leah tries to explain what she does for a living to someone who doesn’t care. The spinach is farm- to-table. Everyone comes together for a moment to complain about the evils of technology, what a disaster, especially for teenagers, yet most people have their phones laid next to their dinner plates,” is a particularly genuine observation of millennials who conform in conversation when put into situations where sticking with the status-quo is important, yet so is “one-upping” the person next to you with who eats the most organic or who got the best rate on a mortgage refinance or where their kids go to school. Leah struggles with the cookie-cutter lifestyle of simplistic happiness while questioning her own in addition to the validity of those around her who appear to emulate “happiness” in her Northwest London world. Leah doesn’t want children and has had three abortions yet is married to a man who wants children and now views her uterus as a timer going to stop any moment. Is she happy? Is she bored? Does she want more? I think that’s the underlying message Zadie Smith is trying to sow into the minds of her readers. As we look around the table of our lives — amongst the friends, family, jobs, religions, hobbies, foods we eat, cars we drive, children we have or don’t, knowledge about topics of the world or of history we may or may not be privy to — we seek to judge or analyze those around us who are extremely similar or undyingly different, yet the only person we are truly doing that to in those moments — as Leah is doing — is analyzing ourselves. What is interesting in these pages are how those inner thoughts are highlighted through the outer actions of passing the green beans or heirloom salad while recognizing the subject of Islam being brought up and suddenly everyone is an expert or has an opinion. What a trivial thought we all have throughout our days, “wow, this person just knows it all, don’t they?” While in the same sense, how many times have we said or done something to that effect to fit into a conversation? Leah is very aware of those around her and spends a significant amount of time interpreting the scale of happiness of those around her, but looking in the mirror — she wouldn’t know true happiness from unhappiness in the slightest.
The Breakfast Social 