Rhetorical Analysis of "Speaking in Tongues" by Zadie Smith

Assignment 2.1

Smith terms are helpful in labeling Barry’s situation, circumstance, or ideology of the comic strip "Today's Demon: Common Scents". Berry has not specifically used the exact terms of Smith but the idea is very similar. Like Smith, Berry is trying to relay a sensitive message of how we communicate and show bias of different cultures, people, and languages.

Smith uses so many terms in her essay that can be transferred to Barry’s comic strip but the terms that stands out more for me are the following:

1. Masking
2. Multiplicity
3. Flexibility
4. Understanding
5. Duplicity
6. Empathy

Masking stands out for me because it is so common for people to mask their identity. Living in a multi culture society, we all want to be accepted as individuals. It is a part of the human nature that cannot be denied. At some point, we are willing to change ourselves, be it physical appearance, our speech, our dialect or our accent, our weight, if it gives the possibility of being accepted into the majority. Therefore, we become someone other than ourselves. It is more important to be accepted by others than not be loved at all.

I also chose Multiplicity as an important word that Smith and Berry use in their writing. It means –a large number or variety. In Berry, writing multiplicity is shown in every house Barry visits. Most neighbors used some kind of air fresher to cover up any smell of their original selves. This was done, to be accepting by others. Every home has it distinct smell or way of doing things. Smiths essay, also points out how multiplicity was not an options for society for some time just the opposite of Barry writing.

Flexibility is also important in Berry writing. Berry is pointing out how importance flexibility is living in a multi-culture society. The content of flexibility means - capable of being bent, usually without breaking; easily bent. Berry also states in panel 54 “of course the biggest mystery of all was my own house. I couldn’t smell it at all.” This panel is one of the most important facts of the comic strip for me because we as people sometimes forget we too have to focus on ourselves and realize our difference too. Rather than, focusing on and pointing out someone else’s difference from our own.

Understanding is the pinnacle point to combine all of the words above. It is crucial-important; turning point-defining moments; that can bring together these difference or continue to separate them. Barry uses her grandmother in panel 57 to explain the commonalities among society. Barry states, “You know, my darling, GOD has made every people! And every people makes Ta-ee! And every people Ta-ee smells bad! Ask this lady does perfume come out of her Pueet? N’Ako, I don’t think so, Darling! It is not God’s way. You tell her”. Therefore, we have more in common than not. Yet, if we do not accept, the commonality then the crisis of separation continues to exist.

Duplicity is a form of deceitfulness in speech or conduct; speaking or acting in two different ways concerning the same matter with intent to deceive; double-dealing. Barry use duplicity in the comic strip as well. On panel 56, one of the neighbors is degrading other nationalities. This neighbor describes common difference in detail about the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipino, and Blacks. It is obvious this neighbor is not comfortable with difference of other nationalities. Yet instill, she lives in a multi-culture society.

Empathy is the final word I chose to sum up the combination of words I chose. Without the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another then there is no opposability to contribute to change.

Intro of "Speaking in Tongues” by Zadie Smith

Assignment 2


Zadie Smith book “Speaking in Tongues” looked at how American biracial community faces a dual commitment to both heritages. She goes further to point out the bias or intolerance of un-simular cultures. Smith expressed this issue by characterizing it as voice. Ones voice represents skin tone, dialect, accent, and other attributes of one’s heritage. Her question to the reader was “how to combine biracialism” in America Society.

Living in a multiple culture society such as America there are so many ethnic groups and culture. Each culture is unique and diverse. For centuries, the differences of each unique culture have prevented the gathering of society as a whole. In Smith’s book there are those who live in Dream City have learned how to break down the communication bearer and speak in tongues.

The quotes that standout for me is the followings:

“Shakespeare’s negative capability is sociopolitical at root. Will had seen too many wild-eyed martyrs, too many executed terrorists, too many wars on the Catholic terror. He had watched men rage absurdly at rood screens and write treatises in praise of tables. He had seen men disemboweled while still alive, their entrails burned before their eyes, and all for the preference of a Latin Mass over a common prayer or vice versa. He understood what fierce, singular certainty creates and what it destroys. In response, he made himself a diffuse, uncertain thing, a mass of contradictory, irresolvable voices that speak truth plurally. Through the glass of 2009, “negative capability” looks like the perfect antidote to “ideological heroism”.

“Shakespeare was an artist and so had an outlet his father didn’t have – the many voiced theater. Shakespeare’s art, the very medium of it allowed him to do what civic officers and politicians can’t seem to: speak simultaneous truths”.

“You have no choice but to cross borders and speak in tongues”.