Perspectives
Literary perspective
The novella The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith is a realist work of fiction. The realist literary movement aims to present events in a truthful manner, and realist fiction often descri…
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Current issues
The novella The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith presents the life of a woman who immigrates to the United Kingdom from the Ivory Coast to work as a domestic worker. The International Labour Organization estimates th…
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Texts that deal with multiculturalism in Britain
Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth published in 2000 also centers on multiculturalism in Britain and Britain’s relationship and attitudes towards immigrants. The novel follows the lives of two friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal, who are both World War II veterans. The novel presents London’s diverse cultural society and Britain’s complex attitudes towards the British Empire and immigrants from the Commonwealth. White Teeth has won multiple awards and has also been adapted into a TV series in 2002 and into a play in 2018 at London’s Kiln Theatre.
Another novel that presents Britain’s multicultur…
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Works with the same theme or by the same author
The short story “The Lazy River” by Zadie Smith also explores immigration and class differences. “The Lazy River” presents the perspective of a British person on holiday at a hotel in Spain, while in The Embassy of Cambodia, the main character, Fatou, briefly remembers what her life was like when she worked as a maid in a hotel in Ghana. When comparing the two stories, it would be useful to look at the setting of the hotel as seen from the two perspectives.
The short story “Loose Change” by Andrea Levy also explores the theme of immigration and the attitudes towards immigrants in the United Kingdom. The story looks at the narrator’s interaction with a girl who came to London after fleeing Uzbekistan and has no place to sleep. Similar to how the Derawals – who are also a family of immigrants – treat Fatou in The Embassy of Cambodia, the narrator in “L…