"Sometimes it’s the strangers that sustain you" Comparative analysis of Zadie Smith’s Swing Time and Szécsi Noémi’s Egyformák vagytok ("You are the Same")

Abstract

The comparison of Zadie Smith’s novel Swing Time and Szécsi Noémi’s Egyformák vagytok (“You are the Same”) is justified by several correspondences. Apart from the biographical and bibliographical similarities, their central theme is alike: they both center on the controversies of the “childhood best friend.” These fictional worlds make us realize that quantitative female presence does not necessarily enforce feminine behavioral patterns, since patriarchal norms and beliefs are so deeply ingrained in our society that often even women are unable to recognize these, and hence involuntarily reinforce and maintain them.