Kiki's & Howard's fight

I think Zadie Smith does an excellent job creating her characters. Each character really has a lot of depth and becomes an actual person in the reader's mind. The characters are made fully human and even have little quirks, etc. that are totally irrelevant to the plot-line of the novel, but Smith includes them to make the characters more realistic.

The fight that Kiki and Howard have in the kitchen (I believe it's the kitchen) I found to be very, very realistic. I felt almost as if I was actually there, or more accurately as if I was one of the kids (since Zora and Levi are in the house at the time) overhearing every word said, flinching at Kiki's contemptuous intonations and flinching with every shout.

The dialogue between them fits perfectly with the characters that Smith has previously decided them to be. Kiki's personality shows through with the way she stresses her words (a fair amount of the words Kiki says in this section are in italics) and Howard's personality and position are clearly shown in the way he speaks to Kiki (especially with his wording). Howard is in a precarious situation; he is clearly in the wrong for cheating, Kiki is both furious with him and heart-broken, and he, himself, is angry because he does seem to want the marriage to continue but he does not want to be ridiculed any longer. To Howard, the affair happened a long time ago, it was a brief thing and then it was over. In his opinion, Kiki should be over it by now and it shouldn't be seen as that big of a deal.

In reality, though, Kiki only very recently found out that Howard was lying when he confessed about the one-night stand with a stranger (note that Howard only "confessed" after Kiki found a condom in his jacket pocket). Kiki had actually begun to come to terms with the idea that her husband had made a simple mistake with a stranger. But as it turns out, she can put a real face on that person. The fact that Howard cheated with a friend of theirs, a friend so utterly dislike Kiki, is extremely, unavoidably painful for Kiki. Howard does not at all seem to appreciate what she is going through and in my opinion I don't believe he has even tried to understand her position.

Kiki does not exactly take the high road, though, as evidenced by the nature of their fight. She openly takes stabs at Howard, criticizes him, and uses very vulgar language because she believes she has the right to belittle him due to all the pain he has caused her. Whether she has the right or not, Kiki is certainly able to take this route because Howard is in no position at all to object. He is thoroughly in the wrong for cheating and every move he makes, to Kiki, is fair-game for criticism. He is walking on eggshells which must be extremely frustrating for him, but Kiki keeps him there, almost as a form of retribution.

Personally, though, I don't blame Kiki. She is taking this whole situation very hard and she even weeps towards the end of the fight, in front of Howard, which I feel is very unlike Kiki. She also genuinely seems to feel that she failed to take everything into consideration when she married Howard (she keeps saying "I staked my life on you" (207)). She is not simply saying I wish I never married you, blah blah blah. She seems deeply hurt, genuinely betrayed, and completely let down by Howard's affair.

While the situation and this scene in particular is very sad, I think Smith does an excellent job of portraying the characters and making them interact very realistically.