Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Zadie Smith - White Teeth
- 'Make it more permanent.' - Samad uses his blood
to write his name and claim his place in his adopted
home, most aware character of his colonial history.
- Millat - second generation migrant,
doesn't feel part of society,
'stranger in a stranger land.'
- Maths equation to
justify time spent in
O'Connells, they want to
'own' a place, have
authority. Quality vs
Quantity. High and low
forms of culture.
- 'I guess the English in my side.' - lies
about ancestry, tells hearer what they
want to believe.
- Millat, Magid and Irie retake the city
-'knew the city breeds the mad', affects
people negatively. Indian with the
painted white face, 'with his face painted
white.' = mimicry
- Strong themes in the novel -
generational difference & gender.
- 'Thorough-bred' - positive description from Archie's
perspective. Invites racist undertones, problematic
comparison, wealth/beauty but animalistic
- Tube station notice - diffuses plans,
comic, cannot be argued with.
- Difference in gaze, Archie's on Clara and Irie's on herself.
Clara is defined in the male gaze.
- Irie also described with animalistic qualities - 'moleish
eyesight', wants to be an English Rose not Jamaican
hourglass. Critical thoughts of herself, voiced by narrator.
- Irie's drawing of her bodyshape before/after,
emphasis on the before = childlike
- In both Clara and Irie's introduction, physicality implied as very
important, tight clothes, stomach on display. Irie presented as
uncomfortable with herself, doesn't embrace her 'blackness.'
Her appearance isn't European enough by her own standards.
- Irie sees herself as a stranger in a
stranger land - black and white? Critical of
the world around her, revolutionary.
- First generation migrants have a closer
bond to their previous generations.
- Irie's attempt at family tree - trying
to make family important, wants
something her history can't offer her
- 'I guess my family's
more of an oral
tradition.' - no emotional
connection, different
values towards family
history.
- Conviviality theory - everyone
influences everyone else.
- Concept of neutral space - 'A
neutral place.', removal of this
space by Millat and Magid,
'brothers begin to argue... make a
mockery of that idea, a neutral
place; instead they cover the room
with history. Neutral places implies
non-neutral places.
- 'She knew the advert was talking to
her' - conscious of image.