Zadie Smith's Personal Narrative Speaking In Language

Malcolm Forbes once said “diversity: the art of thinking, independently together.” This coveys the idea of Zadie Smith’s personal narrative Speaking in Tongues about embracing ones equivocal character. Zadie applies the use of Symbolism, ethical appeal and conflict of man vs. self to persuade her audience that fitting in a society does not have to mean losing one’s identity, language, or cultural background, rather fitting in can simply mean flexibility towards one’s belief, embracing the spectrum of speaking in tongues and all the rewarding experience it can bring.
Zadie begins her speech stating the conflict she faces within herself of losing her identity. “Recently my double voice had deserted me for a single one.” She no longer spoke her

My family comes from Pakistan, a place where people speak a only a certain way. Traveling there sometimes, felt as if I did not belong there. I lived there for a few years, tried to grasp their way of communicating, but was often told I was too “American” for them. After living there for a few years I started to develop their way of conversing, and then felt as if I had lost my original form. I would encounter many social gatherings where I did not know what would be the right way of speaking, but realized no way was the right way. A person speaks differently towards everything, they often speak differently with their friends then they would with their professor or family, but sometimes, no matter what their roots follow them, even if it an accent that comes up during a speech. A person never fully disconnects from their original way of communicating, they just get better at either concealing it or revealing it. My different voices led me to make more friends, explore possibilities. Instead of trying to hide out or being scared of not fitting in with the way society defines its norms. I was able to speak many different ways thus interacting with more people, maintaining connections in a stronger