NW

by

Zadie Smith

Keisha “Natalie” Blake Character Analysis

Keisha, who changes her name while at university to Natalie, is the daughter of Marcia, the wife of Frank, and the best friend of Leah. Keisha is Black and had a big afro when she was younger. She is initially less popular in school than Leah but benefits from her status as Leah’s friend, and Keisha envies Leah and her family. But Leah and Keisha begin to grow apart after Marcia discovers a dildo that Leah gave Keisha and forces the girls to stop seeing each other. Even apart from Leah, Keisha remains jealous of people who live more affluent lifestyles, and this is part of what initially attracts her to Frank, whom she later marries. Keisha’s decision to change her name to Natalie at university represents her willingness to change her identity in order to better fit in with society’s ideals (which are often connected to whiteness, a quality that the name Natalie suggests more than Keisha). Shar accuses Natalie of being “white” on the inside, and Natalie constantly struggles with how people perceive her based on her race. Ultimately, while Keisha achieves the higher status she craves, she learns that such things come with a cost, as she finds herself increasingly dependent on her husband Frank and unable to form meaningful connections with him when they’re not in public.

Keisha “Natalie” Blake Quotes in NW

The NW quotes below are all either spoken by Keisha “Natalie” Blake or refer to Keisha “Natalie” Blake. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Class Identity and Social Mobility Theme Icon
).
Visitation: Chapter 2 Quotes

— Come by tomorrow. Pay you back. Swear to God, yeah? Thanks, seriously. You saved me today.

Related Characters: Shar (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Michel
Related Symbols: Headscarf
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation: Chapter 5 Quotes

Leah believes in objectivity in the bedroom:

Here lie a man and a woman. The man is more beautiful than the woman. And for this reason there have been times when the woman has feared that she loves the man more than he loves her.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Michel, Shar
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation: Chapter 16 Quotes

— Why do you treat me like an idiot all the time?

Related Characters: Michel (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Host Quotes

“You rose up with these red pigtails in your hand. You dragged her up. You were the only one saw she was in trouble.”

Related Characters: Marcia (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Pauline Hanwell
Page Number: 202
Explanation and Analysis:

Keisha Blake thought to the left and thought to the right but there was no exit, and this was very likely the first time she became aware of the problem of suicide.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Marcia
Page Number: 224
Explanation and Analysis:

It was not that Ms. Blake hadn’t noticed the white people walking around with the climbing equipment, or the white people huddled in stairwells discussing the best method to chain themselves to an oak tree. She had experienced her usual anthropological curiosity with regard to these matters. But she had thought it was more of an aesthetic than a protest.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis:

Perhaps sex isn’t of the body at all. Perhaps it is a function of language. The gestures themselves are limited—there are only so many places for so many things to go—and Rodney was in no way deficient technically. He was silent. Whereas all Frank’s silly, uncontrolled, unselfconscious, embarrassing storytelling found its purpose here, in a bedroom.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:

“Then I realized the following: when some floppy-haired chap from Surrey stands before these judges, all his passionate arguments read as “pure advocacy.” He and the Judge recognize each other. They are understood by each other. Very likely went to the same school. But Whaley’s passion, or mine, or yours, reads as ‘aggression.’ To the judge. This is his house and you are an interloper within it. And let me tell you, with a woman it’s worse: ‘Aggressive hysteria.’ The first lesson is: turn yourself down. One notch. Two.”

Related Characters: Theodora (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Natalie Blake had completely forgotten what it was like to be poor. It was a language she’d stopped being able to speak, or even to understand.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Shar
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Willesden Lane to Kilburn High Road Quotes

“I wish we could have talked more often.”

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake (speaker), Nathan
Page Number: 368
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Hampstead to Archway Quotes

“Everyone loves a bredrin when he’s ten. After that he’s a problem. Can’t stay ten always.”

Related Characters: Nathan (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Theodora
Page Number: 376
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Hornsey Lane Quotes

Here nothing less than a break—a sudden and total rupture—would do. She could see the act perfectly clearly, it appeared before her like an object in her hand—and then the wind shook the trees once more and her feet touched the pavement. The act remained just that: an act, a prospect, always possible. Someone would surely soon come to this bridge and claim it, both the possibility and the act itself, as they had been doing with grim regularity ever since the bridge was built. But right at this moment there was no one left to do it.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Nathan
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation Quotes

In her daughter’s eyes Natalie saw her own celebrated will reflected back at her, at twice the intensity.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Marcia, Elena De Angelis, Naomi, Spike
Page Number: 391
Explanation and Analysis:

On a tatty sofa a Rastafarian gentleman sat holding a picture of his adult son.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Felix, Nathan, Lloyd, Naomi, Spike
Related Symbols: Albert Road
Page Number: 393
Explanation and Analysis:

“You, me, all of us. Why that girl and not us. Why that poor bastard on Albert Road. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Felix
Related Symbols: Albert Road
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:

“I got something to tell you,” said Keisha Blake, disguising her voice with her voice.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Felix, Nathan, Shar
Page Number: 401
Explanation and Analysis:
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Keisha “Natalie” Blake Quotes in NW

The NW quotes below are all either spoken by Keisha “Natalie” Blake or refer to Keisha “Natalie” Blake. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Class Identity and Social Mobility Theme Icon
).
Visitation: Chapter 2 Quotes

— Come by tomorrow. Pay you back. Swear to God, yeah? Thanks, seriously. You saved me today.

Related Characters: Shar (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Michel
Related Symbols: Headscarf
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation: Chapter 5 Quotes

Leah believes in objectivity in the bedroom:

Here lie a man and a woman. The man is more beautiful than the woman. And for this reason there have been times when the woman has feared that she loves the man more than he loves her.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Michel, Shar
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation: Chapter 16 Quotes

— Why do you treat me like an idiot all the time?

Related Characters: Michel (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Host Quotes

“You rose up with these red pigtails in your hand. You dragged her up. You were the only one saw she was in trouble.”

Related Characters: Marcia (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Pauline Hanwell
Page Number: 202
Explanation and Analysis:

Keisha Blake thought to the left and thought to the right but there was no exit, and this was very likely the first time she became aware of the problem of suicide.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Marcia
Page Number: 224
Explanation and Analysis:

It was not that Ms. Blake hadn’t noticed the white people walking around with the climbing equipment, or the white people huddled in stairwells discussing the best method to chain themselves to an oak tree. She had experienced her usual anthropological curiosity with regard to these matters. But she had thought it was more of an aesthetic than a protest.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis:

Perhaps sex isn’t of the body at all. Perhaps it is a function of language. The gestures themselves are limited—there are only so many places for so many things to go—and Rodney was in no way deficient technically. He was silent. Whereas all Frank’s silly, uncontrolled, unselfconscious, embarrassing storytelling found its purpose here, in a bedroom.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:

“Then I realized the following: when some floppy-haired chap from Surrey stands before these judges, all his passionate arguments read as “pure advocacy.” He and the Judge recognize each other. They are understood by each other. Very likely went to the same school. But Whaley’s passion, or mine, or yours, reads as ‘aggression.’ To the judge. This is his house and you are an interloper within it. And let me tell you, with a woman it’s worse: ‘Aggressive hysteria.’ The first lesson is: turn yourself down. One notch. Two.”

Related Characters: Theodora (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Natalie Blake had completely forgotten what it was like to be poor. It was a language she’d stopped being able to speak, or even to understand.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Shar
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Willesden Lane to Kilburn High Road Quotes

“I wish we could have talked more often.”

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake (speaker), Nathan
Page Number: 368
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Hampstead to Archway Quotes

“Everyone loves a bredrin when he’s ten. After that he’s a problem. Can’t stay ten always.”

Related Characters: Nathan (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Theodora
Page Number: 376
Explanation and Analysis:
Crossing: Hornsey Lane Quotes

Here nothing less than a break—a sudden and total rupture—would do. She could see the act perfectly clearly, it appeared before her like an object in her hand—and then the wind shook the trees once more and her feet touched the pavement. The act remained just that: an act, a prospect, always possible. Someone would surely soon come to this bridge and claim it, both the possibility and the act itself, as they had been doing with grim regularity ever since the bridge was built. But right at this moment there was no one left to do it.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Nathan
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Visitation Quotes

In her daughter’s eyes Natalie saw her own celebrated will reflected back at her, at twice the intensity.

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell, Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Francesco “Frank” De Angelis, Marcia, Elena De Angelis, Naomi, Spike
Page Number: 391
Explanation and Analysis:

On a tatty sofa a Rastafarian gentleman sat holding a picture of his adult son.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Felix, Nathan, Lloyd, Naomi, Spike
Related Symbols: Albert Road
Page Number: 393
Explanation and Analysis:

“You, me, all of us. Why that girl and not us. Why that poor bastard on Albert Road. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Related Characters: Leah Hanwell (speaker), Keisha “Natalie” Blake, Felix
Related Symbols: Albert Road
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:

“I got something to tell you,” said Keisha Blake, disguising her voice with her voice.

Related Characters: Keisha “Natalie” Blake (speaker), Leah Hanwell, Felix, Nathan, Shar
Page Number: 401
Explanation and Analysis: