Zadie Smith - White Teeth

Book Title	White Teeth
Author	Zadie Smith
Time period	Post-Modern/Contemporary  written in 2000
Genre	Realist fiction, urban fiction
Plot Summary	It begins with Archie’s attempted suicide which is interrupted. Archibald Jones and Samad Iqbal are friends from WWII where they served in a tank together and were stranded at the end of the war because their tank and radio had been damaged and they didn’t even know the war was over.  Later they become friends in London where Samad has married a traditional Bangladeshi wife (Alsani) and Archie has married a Jamaican woman (Clara) younger than himself when his first wife left him. Clara’s family is Jehovah’s Witness and her mother (Hortense) is fanatic.  Archie has a daughter, Irie, and Samad has twin boys, Magid and Millat.  Magid gets sent back to Bangladesh to become a proper Muslim but he becomes a secular atheist.  Millat becomes a Muslim fanatic in England.  Millat and Irie become friends of the Chalfans, a middle-class British family.  The father, Marcus, is a genetic scientist creating FutureMouse.  At the end, all the different elements come together at the introduction of FutureMouse and Millat shoots Archie while aiming at Marcus’s mentor which is a scientist Archie was supposed to have killed during the war but let go because he didn’t like killing people.
Themes	Paralysis Isolation Alienation Inevitability of Death Mundane life Race Religion Immigration Assimilation from one culture to another
How does this book embody the characteristics of the time period?	All these themes are contemporary themes. There is a lot of introspection and focus on sex. The characters never really communicate or relate to each other. Intertextuality-pop culture references Giving voice to marginalized people No clear ending to wrap it all up No clear heros or villains Intercultural
Ties to other works	Ties to modernist works such as Dubliners because it is urban fiction and discusses marginalized people such as the poor, women and children Very London-centric like Little Dorrit
Characters	Archibald (Archie) Jones-English, husband of Clara, father of Irie, former soldier, works for a mail order company designing ways to fold envelopes Clara Jones-Jamaican, Wife of Archie, Daughter of Hortense, mother of Iris, housewife, going to college, former Jehovah’s witness, married Archie to break away from her mother, much younger than Archie. Irie Jones-half white and half black, daughter of Archie and Clara, very dark-skinned, heavy, in love with Millat Hortense Jones Samad Iqbal-Bengali, Muslim, Husband of Alsana, father of Magid and Millat, waiter Alsana Iqbal-Bengali, Wife of Samad, mother of Magid and Millat, seamstress, is violent with her husband. Magid Iqbal-son of Samad and Alsana, sent to India to become a proper Muslim, comes back as a atheist, works with Marcus Chalfens. Millat Iqbal-son of Samad and Alsana, becomes a very militant Muslim, very handsome and sexually active Marcus Chalfen-British, wife of Joyce, father of Joshua, scientist, mentor to Magid, creator of FutureMouse Jonas Chalfens-British, son of Marcus and Joyce, becomes an animal activist because of the woman that runs the organization Joyce Chalfen-mother of Jonas, wife of Marcus, in love with Millat whom she is supposedly helping adjust to life