Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix

The narrative immediately addresses one of the biggest themes in the book—gentrification—with the opening line:

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it’s a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first they want to do is clean it up. But it’s not just the junky stuff they’ll get rid of. People can be thrown away too, like last night’s trash left out on sidewalks… (1).

Zuri, the protagonist, provides the critical lens through which the narrative eyes gentrification. Zuri is critical of gentrification but also sees the benefits, noting, “My neighborhood is made of love, but it’s money and buildings and food and jobs that keep it alive—and even I have to admit that the new people moving in [...] can sometimes make things better. We’ll have to figure out a way to make both sides of Bushwick work” (33)

While Zuri can identify some pros of her Bushwick, Brooklyn, neighborhood attracting people with money, she struggles to come to terms with the inevitable class disparity that the gentrification process highlights. She notes that the Darcy’s “mini-mansion” could house five full families, helping to solve the area’s housing scarcity problem (53-54). Instead, it holds a family of four and their accoutrements of wealth, like flat-screen TVs and grand pianos. This is a stark contrast to the Benitez household, where the five sisters share the living room as a bedroom. Zuri is quick to point out the problematic nature of such class disparities.

Darius’s character serves to support Zuri’s argument through his snobby and elitist attitude. He expresses his displeasure at leaving Manhattan (9) and makes zero effort to integrate into the community, like when he refuses to dance at the block party. He also tells Zuri, “I’m not one of your boys from the hood,” implying that he’s better than the “boys” he’s referring to (42). Zuri, who takes great pride in her diverse neighborhood and all it offers—the sense of camaraderie, the parties, the closeness of the community—finds Darius’s attitude offensive and rude, even telling him: “Money doesn’t buy manners, right?” (43).

Darius is prejudiced towards his new Bushwick surroundings, while Zuri is fiercely proud of her community. The juxtaposition of the two characters directly parallels the book that Pride draws from: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The book’s subtitle, A Pride and Prejudice Remix, is a clear nod to the inspiration that Austen’s work provided. The opening words of Pride (“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that…”) are identical to those of Pride and Prejudice—another clear nod to Austen’s work.

The plot and characters closely mimic Austen’s original work: The Benitez family is Austen’s Bennett family (Janae represents Jane, Zuri stands in for Elizabeth, Layla represents Lydia, Kayla represents Kitty, and Marisol represents Mary). Darius Darcy is Austen’s Mr. Darcy, while Ainsley Darcy is Austen’s Mr. Bingley. Even pivotal moments in the plot are mirrored. For instance, the block party the Benitez sisters attend where Darius refuses to dance parallels a ball the Bennetts attend, at which Mr. Darcy refuses to dance.

These narrative, plot, and character parallels are drawn clearly, while telling the tale in a completely different century and setting. While Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is set in rural England at the turn of the 19th century, Pride is set in 21st century Bushwick, Brooklyn. In tracking Austen’s original narrative so closely, the novel clearly highlights the fact that some hurdles to love—such as class differences—are both universal and lasting.

As in Austen’s original, in Pride, the characters of Zuri and Darius will overcome the class gap between them and fall in love. Although this book emphasizes themes like classicism, gentrification, and racism, it’s ultimately a love story. The first five chapters set up this arc. For example, Darius is already cast in the role of the “white knight” when he saves Zuri from getting hit by a bicycle in the first chapter. The tension between them hints at an impending romantic tension. In Chapter 5, Darius expresses a proactive interest in Zuri, asking what the essay she’s working on is for, pointing to a growing attraction.

Although sharing some of the original themes of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice—such as class divides—Zoboi’s Pride introduces a new theme through its modern-day Brooklyn setting: race. The topic is broached immediately when it’s revealed that the Benitez sisters made bets on whether the rich family moving into the mini-mansion would be Black or white. It’s suggested right away that race matters. This is also seen in the first description of Ainsley and Darius as “fine, black teenage boys” (4).

The theme of race is also underscored by Zuri’s desire to attend Howard University, a historically Black university. Even the book Zuri is reading, Between the World and Me, flags the importance of race in the narrative. Between the World and Me was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published in 2015. The nonfiction book is formulated as a letter to the author’s son, reflecting on the reality of being Black in America. Like the way that Coates argues racist violence is interwoven in American culture, Pride argues that racism is tightly interwoven with classicism in the American cultural worldview—and illustrates how gentrification highlights these issues.