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.
1. Millat - second generation migrant, doesn't feel part of society, 'stranger in a stranger land.'
2. 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.
  1. 'I guess the English in my side.' - lies about ancestry, tells hearer what they want to believe.
3. 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
4. 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
1. Tube station notice - diffuses plans, comic, cannot be argued with.
  1. 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.
1. Irie's drawing of her bodyshape before/after, emphasis on the before = childlike
  1. 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.
  2. Irie sees herself as a stranger in a stranger land - black and white? Critical of the world around her, revolutionary.
    1. First generation migrants have a closer bond to their previous generations.
2. Irie's attempt at family tree - trying to make family important, wants something her history can't offer her
3. 'I guess my family's more of an oral tradition.' - no emotional connection, different values towards family history.
Conviviality theory - everyone influences everyone else.
1. 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.

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Zadie Smith - White Teeth

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	Created by melissajkelly almost 11 years ago