Analysis on Zadie Smith's Article Speaking in Tongues

Written by: rwlovett on February 6, 2012

In the article Speaking in Tongues by Zadie Smith, her attention getter comes off as being sort of random and annoying because of the way that she wrote it by being kind of snobby. A little bit further down, she says, “a case of bald social climbing.” This is sentence makes no sense at all to me, and I don’t see where she is coming from. She goes on to say that the “voice of the lettered people is English.” She later contradicts herself and says that lettered people can come from anywhere. Based on context I assume that lettered means being a scholar. She also repeats herself in the following paragraph by using this and that a lot such as of this voice and that and the story of this and that combine, and this new way of talking to that old way. I find it as being unnecessary repetition.

Throughout the next few paragraphs, she fills it with wordy language, topics that don’t fit in with the rest of her writing, and contradicting herself. For example, she says “We feel that our voices are who we are, and that to have more than one, or to use different versions of a voice for different occasions, represents, at best, a Janus-faced duplicity, and at worst, the loss of our very souls. She is basically saying that she lost who she was and that she lost her very soul because she didn’t keep both voices “alive.” The overall topic is most other languages conform into English, and then lose the original language, in the majority of cases. The word choice is questionable, since she doesn’t make sense at some points, and at others she is repetitive and off topic. Her organization is good, as she has an attention getter, a conclusion, and several paragraphs; it appears she has organized her work into chapters. She did a nice job, especially when talking about President Obama, about persuasion. I am not persuaded that most other cultures sort of melt into English culture, and that the President has gone through this melting pot as well. Her introduction was horrible, and she came off as being very unintelligent. On the other hand, as she got more into it, especially when talking about Obama, she really started selling what she was trying to get at; and that is the melting pot of culture.

Originally Published on Triond