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Community, NW and Buddha of Suburbia most hopeful. They make the readers…

- - - - So what happens when we fail to change?
        
        In NW by Zadie Smith we see the characters who fail to change personally and socially. Nathan fail to grow after his injury which left him to a life time of crime and poverty.
        
        Charlie and Eva lose their authenticiy
        
        Colonel Riggs lived in the old world not the drowned world. He clung to military order, hierachy, and routines.
        Strangman sees London as loot. Only trying to drain it so gain from it. Failing to see that London isn't London because of the landmarks and structures but because of the people and the culture at inhabits it.
        
        "The idea that you can just have pleasure pleasure pleasure, the hedonistic idea of escaping from
        the sort of, Victorianism of, of Britain at the beginning of the Sixties, by the Seventies the hedonism
        has become rather tiresome. It was a party, but of course parties have to end, and it becomes,
        decadent and cruel and empty.
        This is really the beginning, by the end of The Buddha, of neoliberalism, of the idea of constant
        consumption, and the sort of, Thatcherite-Reagan idea that you have to go shopping, of compulsive
        enjoyment, you know. So, we really move from the period of prohibition, you know, you can only
        have sex if you’re married and under certain circumstances and blah blah blah and all of that; by the
        end people are exhausted with the horror of having to have a good time all the time. And that was
        really the story of that period." Hanif Kureishi, interview with the British Library (May, 2016)
    - - In Buddha Of Suberia, Karim is faced with this challenge everyday. On one hand he is Indian and on the other hand he English. The two never seemed to blend well together
  - - - When does having too much become a problem?
        
        Thatcherism: The political and economic policies advocated by the former British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, particularly those involving the privatization of nationalized industries and trade union legislation.
        
        Tom Gradgrinds looses himself to escape financial pressures. He abandons morality, empathy and responsibility. His selfness leads to a town witch hunt of Stephen Blackpool. He sacrifices his humanity for personal gain
        
        Kiesha rebranded herself to Natalie. A name that is "race neutral". She "pulls herself up by her own boots straps" she goes to law school, marries an upperclass man, and produces his children. She looses herself in the process
    - - Kiesha vs Natalie
      - Sissy vs Lousia. Sissy represents the outside world where there's color and imagination. Louisa represents fact personified.
- - - - Natalie gets upset at Leah for opening her arms to a known scammer. Leah knows she was conned but she doesn't feel bad for it. She would rather be scammed than let a stranger suffer.
        
        "We were pommelling each other with our fists. Just as I raised my fist to hit him, I felt: why
        hurt another person? I dropped my hand instantly, and stood there, and let him beat me. I remember
        the feeling. It was a feeling of hopeless sadness. It was as if I became aware of something terrible;
        and of my own powerlessness" Virginia Woolf, “A Sketch of the Past” (1939)
    - - At said party, she learns the unfortunate passing of Septiumus. His death greatly affects her and sticks with her
- - - - Multicultural community depends on emotional openness, economic fairness, and acknowledging the humanity of others.
        
        Characters like Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan show:
        
        the difficulty of crossing class barriers even when race is shared
        
        economic inequality
        
        shared history
        
        misunderstandings
        
        solidarity
        
        The Buddha of Suburbia is the strongest argument that multicultural life is messy.
        London’s suburbs are full of immigrants, mixed families, shifting identities, and mixing cultures.
        
        The point is NOT that multiculturalism is easy. It’s full of racism, class anxiety, and identity conflict
        
        Multicultural communities are already happening.
        
        Karim’s identity becomes a blend that couldn’t exist anywhere but multicultural London.
        
        In The Drowned World London's community breaks down as the world regresses. People pull inward; society collapses.
        
        Multicultural community fails when we put individual survival over collective care.
        .
        
        In Mrs. Dalloway London is a city full of strangers, all living parallel lives but emotionally connected in invisible ways.
        
        A multicultural society is possible, but only if people learn to see the inner lives of others.
        Clarissa’s empathy toward Septimus (a total stranger) shows this potential.
        
        Hard Times argues that industrialization destroys community. People are reduced to “hands”, and emotional connection is suppressed.
        
        argues that systems built on fact-based education, capitalism, utilitarianism make human connection almost impossible.