Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in NW, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class Identity and Social Mobility
Geography and Human Connection
Sex and Relationships
Altruism
Summary
Analysis
Leah is with Michel, visiting her friend Natalie and Natalie’s husband Frank at the old Victorian house where they live. Leah begins to resent Natalie, who seems to have such a perfectly put-together life. Olive, the dog, is still alive and with them. Leah tells Natalie about how she keeps seeing Shar. Natalie doesn’t remember Shar from school. In previous accounts of the story, Leah hasn’t mentioned that Shar has a headscarf.
Leah is the only white person in this group of four, and that may be part of why she hesitates to mention Shar’s headscarf (which in Northwest London is often associated with Black culture). Perhaps Leah doesn’t want her husband and friends to think that she was judging Shar based on her clothes, or perhaps she knows that the three of them will all judge Shar more harshly if they know she was wearing a headscarf (due to the negative stereotypes some people associate with headscarves, including low social status).
Themes
Frank in particular seems to be from a wealthier world than the one Leah knows. Leah is sure she and Michel are boring Frank and Natalie, and she senses that Michel doesn’t register the other couple’s disinterest. Michel mentions a squat on Ridley Avenue that seems to house a lot of people working on the street. He brings up Nathan, who also went to Leah and Natalie’s school. Frank makes a reference to how Natalie used to go by the name Keisha, and this annoys Natalie.
Michel’s apparent inability to pick up on a social cue and realize that he and Leah are boring the other couple reflects his broader ignorance about his life. In fact, Michel’s whole marriage is based on ignorance: he believes that Leah also wants to have a child, just like him. Natalie is a character who wants to put the past behind her, even bristling at her old name, but the sudden reappearance of Nathan suggests that the past can come back in surprising ways.
Themes
Natalie asks Michel for advice for taking care of the hair of her daughter, Naomi. She jokingly threatens to cut it all off, and this scares Naomi. Michel gives a serious answer about trying coconut oil. Frank and Natalie discuss what type of school to send their kids to and whether it would be good or bad to have them at a boarding school full of white children.
Michel’s answer that Natalie should use coconut oil on her daughter’s hair is sincere advice, but it also unwittingly calls back to Shar’s accusation that Natalie is a “coconut” (white on the inside). Natalie wants to style her daughter’s natural hair instead of letting it become an afro like she did herself when she was Keisha. Shar’s insult of Natalie is unkind and an oversimplification, but it’s also true that Natalie is concerned about how both she and her daughter do or do not express Black identity.
Themes
Natalie goes in to get some banana bread, and Frank tries to make small talk. Michel mentions that he’s been getting into day trading, starting with some money that Colin left behind. Frank tries to warn him to be sure to start small. Afterward, Leah and Michel argue, with Michel accusing Leah of always treating him like an idiot.
Leah can see that Frank is acting in a patronizing manner toward Michel, who wants to become rich through day trading (a notoriously difficult thing for regular people to do that often leads to losing money). As later chapters reveal, however, Frank himself is no savvy businessman and got most of his wealth through inheritance.
Themes
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