Nardos Yosef

6 September 2016

Anlicker

English 1102

               The article assigned for us to read this week was by Zadie Smith called ‘Fences: A Brexit Diary’. I think it is important for the reader to know what Brexit is before they read this article. Brexit is an abbreviation for “British Exit” which is when the British citizens attempted to vote to leave the European Union. This action is not legally binding but the EU will have to let the British remove themselves from the operation. At first glance while I was reading these definitions, I thought this was a wild decision. What is Europe without Great Britain?

               The article begins with the author describing the town of North West London and the local primary school. The school is described a beautiful Victorian building that was well known for its diversity of all different types of students from different races and religions. She says that there was a change that she noticed-the wooden veil had gone up. The wooden veil was a sort of wall that separated the school from the outside. I did not know what she meant by that, but she continued to describe it as a sort of wall that separated it from everything else.  

               She transitions from the topic of the school to when she found out that the British voted for the Brexit, and compares her emotions from when the school shut down to now when England began separating itself from Europe. This metaphor helps portray what she felt when this happens-the reader can relate to her turmoil. She is also utilizing the rhetorical strategy of pathos which appeals to the emotion of readers in order to help them see her side of the argument.

Zadie Smith questions some of the possible reasons for Britain deciding to isolate themselves from the rest of Europe. Some possible reasons she states are immigration, inequality, a class war, or maybe even a European Union bureaucracy. She also puts into perspective how this affects other countries in Europe such as Northern Ireland or Scotland. She continues to accuse Great Britain of being a self-satisfying country who will throw away a union of many, many European countries that has been going on for hundreds of years for selfish reasons.

She finishes the article with more anecdotes from earlier in her life and continues to rightfully criticize Britain for their history in shaming the poor and having class separations. She tells the reader how she visited France after the vote. She finished the essay in a way that makes the reader think-she says that whether we continue to create disasters is up to “us” (Europeans) as a whole.  This speaks volumes and unites Europe as a whole in order to fix the continent of Europe.

After reading this, I agree with the author. This Brexit could possibly cause a domino effect in these European countries. Smaller countries may decide to follow in the steps of Britain and ruin the alliance that many parts of Britain have contributed to throughout many centuries.