A Psychological Study of Social Identity in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time

Abstract

The search for identity is the central theme to numerous literary works, often following the protagonist or another protagonist. This research analyzes the protagonist's growth throughout Swing Time by Zadie Smith, which, like the majority of published psychological works, is motivated by a search for the individual's "authentic self." It's only appropriate that the protagonist of this author's fifth novel, is experiencing adolescence. The British author, Zadie Smith, uses her highly regarded novel Swing Time to probe questions of black people's racial identity and their connections to people of other races. This study also investigates the challenges faced by people of color in the entertainment industry, among critics, and in the pursuit of social and economic mobility. A strong sense of community is difficult for immigrant groups to establish. The difficulties that immigrant communities in contemporary Britain face in assimilating to mainstream culture are depicted in nuanced detail in Zadie Smith's Swing Time. The researcher concludes that the narrator's influence from family and her own lack of personal understanding explain her inability to adopt a tolerant and reasonable attitude when confronted with a multicultural society. Smith, who is a diasporic person, uses the protagonist's search for identity to highlight the importance of having a global perspective.