Find Your Beach By Zadie Smith Analysis
The personal essay Find Your Beach appeared in The New York Review of Books the 23th of October 2014. It is written by Zadie Smith and features her thoughts on life and happiness. These thoughts originate from an ad across from her window and Smith gives us a tour inside her head, showing us how a New Yorker and an Englishwoman regards the concept of happiness. This non-fictional analysis of the essay will include an analysis of the tone of the essay, an analysis of the ways in which the Smith analyses the ad across from her window and lastly a discussion of Smith’s experiences in the pursuit of happiness.
The tone of Smith’s personal essay contains rather good artistic effects. She uses a great deal of humour in her description of the pursuit of happiness on Manhattan. “It seemed a gnomic message, deliberately placed to drive a sleepless woman mad.” (p. 1, l. 11-13) The use of humour makes it …show more content…
3, l. 32-37) Here she comments on the extreme individualization of society, where an intense version of “everyone is the architect of his own future” thrives. Later on she compares the self-empowerment of Manhattan with her annual summer visits to England. Here, Smith tells, it is quite the opposite: “When I am in England each summer, it’s the opposite: all I see are the limits of my life.” (p. 3, l. 46-47) and then continues with saying, that one would on the surface believe her to be happier in the realistic England than in the utopian Manhattan, but Smith tells us that she feel somewhat contrarily. She concludes with saying that even though Manhattan contains a fair share of sociopathic dreaming, where everyone chases his or her own desires and ideal life, this is also what makes living there great – people push each other to a grander greatness of soul and
The tone of Smith’s personal essay contains rather good artistic effects. She uses a great deal of humour in her description of the pursuit of happiness on Manhattan. “It seemed a gnomic message, deliberately placed to drive a sleepless woman mad.” (p. 1, l. 11-13) The use of humour makes it …show more content…
3, l. 32-37) Here she comments on the extreme individualization of society, where an intense version of “everyone is the architect of his own future” thrives. Later on she compares the self-empowerment of Manhattan with her annual summer visits to England. Here, Smith tells, it is quite the opposite: “When I am in England each summer, it’s the opposite: all I see are the limits of my life.” (p. 3, l. 46-47) and then continues with saying, that one would on the surface believe her to be happier in the realistic England than in the utopian Manhattan, but Smith tells us that she feel somewhat contrarily. She concludes with saying that even though Manhattan contains a fair share of sociopathic dreaming, where everyone chases his or her own desires and ideal life, this is also what makes living there great – people push each other to a grander greatness of soul and