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Visitation: Chapter 1
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 hears a doorbell and runs from her backyard to answer the door. A woman named Shar with dirty fingernails is begging for money. She and Leah are both in their mid-thirties. Leah invites Shar in for tea. As they’re talking, Shar realizes that they both went to the same school: Brayton. Shar talks about her abusive husband, whom she hasn’t seen in two years but who broke several of her bones and raped her.
If Leah believes that a person is the “sole author” of the “dictionary” of their life, then she would have to conclude that Shar is somehow responsible for the events that have led her to her current condition. But when Leah looks at Shar, she doesn’t see someone who has made poor decisions—she sees someone who resembles herself but has had a difficult life due to external circumstances.
Themes
Shar has three kids. Leah has none, but her dog, Olive, is staying nearby with a friend named Natalie that she knows from school. Leah can tell that Shar remembers Natalie (who used to go by Keisha and have a big afro) and doesn’t like her, accusing her of being a “coconut” (white on the inside). As Leah keeps talking, she admits that she just found out that morning that she’s pregnant. Shar feels Leah’s stomach and predicts that the child will be a girl who always runs away.
While the beginning of this chapter sets Shar up as a figure of pity, this passage complicates things by demonstrating how harshly Shar speaks of Leah’s friend Natalie. This passage also hints at Leah’s strained marriage: it is unusual that she chooses a near stranger as the first person to hear about her pregnancy.
Themes
Shar and Leah take tea, and finally Leah goes to get Shar some money. As Leah does this, her husband, Michel, comes home. Leah explains that his name is because he’s French. When Shar notes that he’s African, Natalie says he’s lived in Britain for a long time. Leah gives Shar thirty pounds (which she now says she needs for a cab to see her sick mother), and Shar kisses her on the cheek to say thank you. Shar promise to come back the next day to repay the money.
Shar’s changing story suggests the possibility that perhaps she is lying about why she needs the money—this is an early example of how it can be difficult to know when and how to assist people who are struggling. Michel’s background as a Black British man who immigrated from France shows how while Northwest London is just one part of one city, it has people with ties to other places around the world.
Themes
