Archetypal Gender Symbalance Of The Family In Zadie Smith's White Teeth

In her premiere novel White Teeth, Zadie Smith presents four distinct, yet overlapping, families: the Bowdens, the Jones, the Iqbals, and the Chalfens. Through these families, Smith subverts the archetypal gender imbalance of the fundamentalist religious family by contrasting the matriarchal Bowdens and Iqbals--who are Jehovah’s Witness and Muslims, respectively--with the secular, patriarchal Chalfen family. When Smith introduces her audience to the Bowden family, she places a great emphasis on their ardent dedication to their Jehovah’s Witness faith. A key feature of this fundamentalist faith is a worldview that relegates women to an inferior role within the family. Hortense Bowden often regurgitates these supposed truths about women’s inferiority,

She also expresses her desire not be limited within her Church because of her gender. She confesses to Irie that “‘Sometime I tink I could be one of dem dat teach, you know? Even though I am a woman...I feel like the Lord talk to me in a special way’” (Smith 321-322). She later reiterates this admission to Irie by telling her that “‘I still hope to be one of de Anointed evan if I am a woman. I want it all my life. I want to be dere wid de Lord making de laws and de decisions. [...] ‘I gat so tired wid de church always tellin’ me I’m a woman” (Smith 338). Despite all the factors in her life that tell Hortense that she be submissive, she has an insatiable need for agency. She also tells Irie that “‘My mudder was strong-willed depp down, and I’m de same. Lord knows, your mudder was de same. And you de same’” (Smith 338). Hortense expresses a legacy of strong willed Bowden women to Irie--a legacy of women who were subjugated by the men in their worlds--whether that be because of colonialism of religion--but who ultimately rejected that role. Hortense and the matriarchal structure and legacy of her family undermine the patriarchal expectations set forth by her fundamentalist Jehovah’s witness

Alsana faces the expectation of fulfilling her proper role as the subservient, good muslim wife; however, she subverts this tradition by actively fighting against her husband Samad and, therefore, maintaining her sovereignty. When Alsana expresses her support for her husband’s motion during a PTA meeting, the other wives look “over to her with the piteous saddened smiles they reserved for subjugated Muslim women” (Smith 110). This perception fails to take into account the conflict that occurs under the surface of their seemingly traditional marriage. Before she finally expresses support for him, “Samad pressed Alsana’s hand. She kicked him in the ankle. He stamped on her toe. She pinched his flank. He bent back her little finger and grudgingly raised her right arm while deftly elbowing him in the crotch with her left” (Smith 110). Physical violence is the hallmark of the power struggle within Samad and Alsana’s marriage; it is the manner in which Alsana expresses her defiance to the proper role that it is assumed she should take in her marriage. This physical violence is so common, in fact, that as they violently fight in their garden, their twins calmly watch, placing bets on who will win (Smith 167). This normalization of the violence further highlights how innate it is to their