There are many characters in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, but there are two main families. Clara, Archie, and Irie make up the Jones Family. Samad, Alsana, Millat, and Magid are the Iqbal family. The two families interact throughout the story, changing each other’s lives. Family is an important part of who a person is. Archie has recently divorced his first wife, Ophelia, when he meets Clara. They had been married for thirty years but the relationship had never been a happy one. Clara too has a history. She has just left a serious relationship after her boyfriend converts to the Jehovah’s witnesses. Her own parents have not set a good example. Her dad does little besides sitting around on an armchair watching television while her mother is intensely participating in church events. Without an example of a happy relationship it comes as no surprise that Clara and Archie’s marriage is not a happy one. Their wedding ceremony was little more than a legal agreement. The only guests were the Iqbals and Clara met them on the day of her wedding. It is not long before Clara is disappointed. They are unpacking boxes after moving to a new house and Archie is struggling with boxes that Clara could easily lift three at a time. Watching him Clara realizes that while he is no knight in shining armor, he is a good man, and that is good enough. It does not take Archie long to move on either. Clara notices that he does not look at her the same way he did when they first met. He no longer looks at her with love but instead looks with a certain bored acceptance. Samad and Alsana’s relationship is of a completely different breed. Their marriage is arranged. They meet for the first time on their wedding day and Alsana does not seem to mind. She clearly ... ... middle of paper ... ... for his own mistakes through them and ends up disappointed. Alsana and Clara are stuck in unhappy relationships, married to men much older than them. Irie ends up with a white man and a child from another man. Millat and Magid end up on opposite sides of the argument on animal experiments and they both end up doing community service after Millat shoots Archie in the leg accidentally. Irie is following in the footstep of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, going to another land and dating a white man. Millat is following the lead of his ancestor Pande by protesting. Magid is following Samad’s example in fighting for a country that is not his own. As much as each wants to think they are escaping their pasts, they only are following in the footsteps of those who went before them. You cannot escape your past any more than you can have teeth without roots.
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel.
However, instead of allowing the corruption and grief of losing a significant figure in her life completely consume her, Leah embraces a new culture and turns to another male figure, her husband Anatole, for guidance. With new surrounding influences, Leah encounters various forms of separation, whether it be from her birthplace, father, or husband, and accepts all the drawbacks and loses that come along with the isolation. At the same time, Leah also challenges herself to overcome the loss and succumb to the loneliness that could potentially bring her closer to a new aspect of life never explored before. Through it all, Leah turns her experiences with exile into bittersweet memories sprinkled across the time span of her life for each rift allowed her to obtain a sense of self identity during periods of time free of human contact or, in Leah’s case,
Helen comes from a very low class family and community. Helen’s family is known as what is called “the ghetto”, although they may not have riches they have a great heart that unites them happily. Helen depended so much on a believed love who failed her. Helen never really came far on her education due to having everything with Charles. Charles lost interest on Helen, but she was blindfolded to see that her happiness didn’t exist. Charles has had an affair during their matrimony with a light complected woman who is mother of his two children. The woman had more power over Helen’s feelings because Charles realized his children needed him. Charles left Helen without much to do, kicking her out o...
D'Aguiar's central purpose is to make us reflect upon American society during the slavery era and to acknowledge its realities so that we understand the capability for evil that exists in society. D'Aguair has used Whitechapel and his memories to encapsulate the brutality and inhumanity of slavery. The succeeding narratives further our understanding of the society and these are presented in a manner that forces the reader to accept D'Aguiar's judgements. The characters represent all of the voices of the society including people from different races, social status's and both genders so that the reader can see the position society imposed upon all citizens. The forms of the individual narratives help us to understand the reality of society because they allow the characters to emerge as individuals, telling their own stories with undisguised honesty. The Longest Memory is told from the oldest to the youngest character showing how society instilled its ideals on each generation in an uncompromising manner and so the stories overlap and intertwine, to illustrate this D'Aguiar has used an overwhelming tone of sadness and despair to emphasise the negative feelings that society created.
Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things, such as their environment, personalities and their own minds, contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show.
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
During the course of this work, many ideas and themes are portrayed and readers are able to view subjects that surround the main topic of racial injustice and intolerance. With the three main narrators, Minny Jackson, Aibileen Clark, and Skeeter Phelan, the audience quickly gains an insight on how racial inequalities affected everyone. These thoughts help to form a plot that can easily keep readers entertained throughout the novel. During the course of the novel, there are many points in the plot that decide the actions and events other cha...
The book follows Dana who is thrown back in time to live in a plantation during the height of slavery. The story in part explores slavery through the eye of an observer. Dana and even Kevin may have been living in the past, but they were not active members. Initially, they were just strangers who seemed to have just landed in to an ongoing play. As Dana puts it, they "were observers watching a show. We were watching history happen around us. And we were actors." (Page 98). The author creates a scenario where a woman from modern times finds herself thrust into slavery by account of her being in a period where blacks could never be anything else but slaves. The author draws a picture of two parallel times. From this parallel setting based on what Dana goes through as a slave and her experiences in the present times, readers can be able to make comparison between the two times. The reader can be able to trace how far perceptions towards women, blacks and family relations have come. The book therefore shows that even as time goes by, mankind still faces the same challenges, but takes on a reflection based on the prevailing period.
At first, Walter starts as a man who does not have many traits and characteristics that a leader in the family should has. He feels frustrated of the fact that his mother can potentially support his sister, Beneatha, in her education career. Walter complains and feels depressed about his current life when he has many aspects that not many African men had during his time. Walter has a happy family, a loving wife, and an acceptable occupation. Unfortunately, Walter wants more in his life, and he feels hopeless and depressed when something does not go in his ways. Walter starts to change when he experiences and learns Willis’s betrayal, his father’s hard work, his son’s dream of becoming a bus driver, and his mother’s explanation about the Africans’ pride. Through many difficulties, Walter becomes the man of the family, and he learns the importance of accepting and living a happy life with his family. Like Walter, many African men had to overcome the challenges and obstacles. They had to face and endure through racism. These two ideas often led to many tragic and depressed incidents such as unequal opportunities, inequality treatments, segregation, and
Another very important character is Hetty Handful Grimke; Handful is a slave that is given to Sarah as a gift for her birthday. Handful, just like Sarah is a very opinionated and intelligent woman but she’s a slave. Handful doesn’t obey the rules that are set out for her; Handful learns how to read and write even though she’s not allowed to, and she has such pride in herself that she shows her owners that she can do it. That she is capable of doing anything they can, she has the courage to defy her masters even though she knows it will lead to her being severely punished.
Another link between these three characters is their family ties. They highly regard their elders, and consider the effects of the decisions they make on t...
In Zadie Smith’s first and third novels, White Teeth and On Beauty, respectively, Smith utilizes the plot point of having a husband cheat on his wife with a younger and white woman. Through this plot point, Zadie Smith explores the marital dynamics of two couples: Alsana and Samad Miah in White Teeth and Kiki and Howard Belsey in On Beauty. Howard and Samad both sleep with women who are very different from their wives; Howard has relations with Claire Bowden (who is white, very thin, and academic) (and then with Victoria Kipps, who is young, extremely beautiful, and one of his art students), and Samad has relations with Poppy (who is white, childish, and a school teacher). These couples’ plot events are similar, but the reasons and outcomes
Edna marries her husband, not out of love, but out of expectation of society and her family’s dislike of him. She is a young woman when they marry; she has never had a great romance. The closest thing to passion she
Right from the beginning of the story, readers are made to see Clara as a very educated young woman and strong-minded, though she is not portrayed as very intellectual. Unlike Obi, Clara is bound tightly to her tradition. Achebe portrays Clara's strong attachment to her tradition,to offer an index to the culture of class society in Nigeria. As the story goes on, Obi notices Clara's unhapinness as they drive through town and asks her what is wrong. After several attempts of trying to get her to answer, Clara replies saying,"I can't marry you." And explains saying," I am an osu." The fact that Clara says she "cannot marry" Obi because of her ancestry, does not only show her strong respect for her culture but also, her strong attatchment to her tradition. On hearing this, Obi screams "Nonsense!". The exclamation mark suggests Obi's strong dissaproval of the point Clara raises and also emphasizes his resentment. Here, Obi is portrayed as 'very' angry to bring out the fact that, he has fallen in love with a woman who can never be a part of the social class he belongs to...
When trying to understand these particular characters’ experiences, it is very important to consider their worldviews, which promote “[th...