Zadie Smiths White Teeth - Essay Example

THEMES OF IDENTITY AND BELONGING IN WHITE TEETH AND TRAINSPOTTING The themes of identity and belonging in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth White Teeth has been analyzed as an example of the varied and multicultural society of the city of London today. The text studies the manner in which the White Teeth characters negotiate a sense of belonging and identity and how boundaries are developed or violated within that particular location. It also examines the hybrid identities of the characters and the malleable factor of that multicultural social space by centering on the ways the author portrays spatial configuration of inter and intra-family life (Fernandez 2009). White Teeth seeks to investigate the journeys and histories of the male characters to account for the problems men go through while acclimatizing to life in a country that has an influential and a memorable colonization historical period. The author reflects on the multifaceted impact that cultural history can have on identity thus examining the masculine experience. The story revolves around the generational evaluation of masculinity and the altering of the social codes to insist that there is not always a solution to the dilemma of constituting the gender and cultural identity. Similarly, the text examines the dialogic motion between an individual's beginnings or stabilities in the past and the successive pathways that join several route points. Therefore underscoring the vital intersections of the roots needed to negotiate masculine identities in the novel postcolonial world. The text uses humor and irony to ease some of the tension and to expose the difficulties that arise when a particular type of masculinity is thought as a fixed idea that men should live up to. Comical plethora and ironic scenes throughout the text are precisely used. They defuse cultural conflicts that are entrenched in and occurring from the politics involved in negotiating contemporary masculinity in the face of a multifaceted and compelling history of colonialism. The first generation of men in the text has adopted the values and social codes set out for them by the past’s British Empire placing an intensified significance on heritage and integration. Samad and Marcus have attempted to instill these principles in their sons. The text maps the desires of the first generation of men to negotiate purely masculine personalities in order to succeed in a community that is marked by nostalgia for a past greatness. These men signify confused masculinities in search of a cultural identity and a life that men in a community have guaranteed them. They were so dedicated to macho values during an imperialist regime establishment (Beukema 2008). Gender theme Readers are shown the gender theme where the young girl, Irie comes to understand the gender and race performance English standards through her interactions with other female characters. They comprise of being thin, strong, submissive and being willing to maintain macho expectations (Howland, 2009). Teeth theme Teeth are a symbol of people throughout the novel. Teeth are considered white no matter the race of an individual thus making them a humanity symbol. Teeth leave a particular lasting legacy and link individuals throughout time. Specific teeth actions represent the way humans experience life. For instance, molars are the grinding teeth, which assist in digesting food. Figuratively, they help in processing the information that is taken in and turn it into an individual's actions. The author uses molars to reflect that the twins take for the actions of their father and thus are destined to follow his example. Additionally, teeth can be lost quickly. Clara concurrently is rebuffing the Jehovah’s witnesses after losing teeth, hence losing part of her identity. Teeth are also a symbol of unity. The Indian people lose themselves to violence and fanaticism. They knock each other’s teeth, forgetting that teeth unite humans and are shared by all. Irie is perhaps the most frustrated character who feels deceived when she discovers Clara’s upper teeth are false and rootless hence demonstrating her lack of identity to her heritage. The two characters, Mad Mary, and Hamilton also assist to develop the book. Hamilton addresses children about keeping their teeth healthy. While his madness ultimately makes them run away, he has a genuine wisdom. He tells them that their teeth will fall off if they do not brush them, which means that if humans do not pay heed to where they came from, they will not know where they are going. Race and ethnicity theme The text’s characters are from a multicultural background inclusive of Jamaican’s, English and Bengali’s, who are caught between diverse cultures. In her teen years, Clara is trapped between honoring the heritage of her parents and exploring the pop culture of the west around her. Her teeth are knocked out when she strays from her heritage the first time. She is disowned by Hortense, when she strays the second time. Theme of belonging According to Fernandez (2009), the Chalfen family is presented as being the proper embodiment of Britishness. To be truly British, one had to be white, educated and middle class. The representation of the Chalfen family suggests that they have internalized the concept of Britishness and belonging, for instance, Joyce, asks Irie and Millat where they originally come from. In addition, Joneses and the Iqbal’s status of identity by contrast derive from a communally imposed sense of difference and non-belonging. The novel also represents a myriad of ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse characters, predominantly Bangladeshi, Anglo-Jamaican, and Jewish. They are amending, discussing and creating a sense of Britishness and a sense of belonging in London during the Second World War and periods of the war. The city is the background that channels social interaction and becomes the primary space of probability, a place where a homogeneous and unified view of Britishness is tested. Themes of identity and belonging in relation to Irvine’s Welsh’s Trainspotting. Trainspotting is a mocking and an adamant portrait of the heroin subculture in Edinburgh. The text is a group of young men's vision who opted to drop out of a well-mannered society in search of brief, luminous chemical joy. The concern in the text is with sin and salvation, with the free will exercise and the individual soul. According to the author, the novel is the voice of the disillusioned, postmodern, postindustrial Scottish. The voice of those who rejects the romance of the history of his nation in favor of a scathing attack on historic anti-Englishness of Scotland. The main characters of the novel are rebelling against the society, their surroundings, and themselves. The book directly scrutinizes social oppression of adults born in a colony like environment. The novel succeeds in describing the marginalized and fearful characters in a way that makes for a discordantly vibrant culture expression. Within this, the English are the voices of the personal characters and their way of conversing. The language used in Trainspotting and its central ideas such as self-awareness and responsibility for one’ self. The text centers mainly on Renton, a heroin addict who sporadically attempts to kick the junk. Renton and Spud, a fellow heroin addict, swindle the government of unemployment benefits so that they fund their habits. The text expresses cynicism. It believes that the world cannot be enhanced by an individual's actions, but humans live a kind of financial Darwinism. Those who are deemed fittest exploit others and turn other people's weaknesses into their competitive advantages. There is also skepticism about a conventional nature of traditional literary fiction. The text avoids numerous traditional realist novel traits therefore aligning itself with the written politics that fortify latest Scottish fiction. Scottish identity has noticeably been explored in the text. The text has traversed controversial themes by encompassing the experiences of sectarianism, opportunity denial, Irish republicanism, sex, football hooliganism, class divisions, and emigration. The novel works on a metaphorical level with the decline into heroin addiction of Tommy the footballer who among his peers seemed to have a chance at a reasonably bright future. He also has extensive repercussions for the Scotland state and its future. Additionally, the text explores the theme of exploration of the urban poverty and filth in individuals considered culturally rich in Edinburgh. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh offers an expansive interrogation of working class culture in Scotland. The themes of sectarianism and racism are mainly focused. The novel depicts the vague connection between the history of Scotland and colonialism narratives. What pervade the text are the changes in social values and the breakdown of community. The text's fiction explores the void left behind by the departure of more traditional concepts of class and community. The character Renton performs a rampant individualism act committing the ultimate betrayal at the end of the book. Comparative analysis of the two texts Both texts deploy the English vernacular resources to explore language politics in an age of decolonization, multiculturalism, and worldwide migration. Additionally, they both examine the state of Scotland and explore how the Scotland government affects individuals. They also show generational differences within families that migrated to Britain. Both authors also reflect on the compounding effect that cultural history can have on identity hence assessing the macho experience. The two novels center on the generational evaluation of masculinity. The relationship between the white teeth and Trainspotting and their relevant social, political and historical contexts Making use of uncertainties and anxieties concerning race and science that has characterized the twentieth century last years, Zadie Smith in her novel has expressed earlier concerns of epistemological uncertainty of politics of identity and familial relationships. ‘White Teeth' has positioned the text within a postcolonial or multiethnic perspective. The novel presents an alternative discourse to address queries of identity and nationhood. The text portrays a varied, multi-religious, and post-colonial London community that projects a comprehensive, multicultural worldview that seems at odds with the present trends in religious and cultural politics. The rejection of determinism, the embrace of hybridity and chance promotion as an influence on human life course explored through the separation and individual growth of two twin boys and the expectation of their father of them. All demonstrate a personally minded, comprehensive and multicultural global view (Graaf 2012). The text makes various compelling statements on hybridity in multicultural, postcolonial Britain. The novel presents a global view that is very much in favor of multiculturalism, a hybridity state in which people are no longer defined by the degree to which they stick to one culture or the other. However, they belong to a third category instead formed by the sum of a person's, ethnic, racial and cultural experiences. According to Bhaba, (2015), hybridity may be understood as the third space, which is dissimilar from the independent of its roots that enable postcolonial subjects to initiate novel identity signs. He states that identification of hybrid can be viewed in postcolonial subjects, and it goes beyond essentialism and dualistic divisions, and it embraces novel internationalism in and the after process of sublimation. Trainspotting redefines the apocalyptic attitude that has come to depict postindustrial Scotland. The text creates a discursive space, which permits for novel interpretations of the social problems that pervade the Scottish society. Specifically, the novel’s internalization of sectarian violence reveals a different, reflexive interpretation of the Scottish identity (Spavin, 2012). Scotland’s drug culture depiction seems to aggravate an already depressing post-industrial landscape. The novel appears to polarize its character along religious lines. The main character, Renton, is challenged with this sectarianism in his very own family. As Renton's brother is sent to Belfast to control Republican violence, Renton's anti-imperialism, and adherence to different social rituals seem to sympathize with the cause of the Irish nationalist. The author insists on the destructive role that sectarianism plays in the Scottish society parameters, a destruction that is internalized by Renton. Through the author’s depiction of Renton’s sinking spiral into oblivion, certain disclosures are to be deliberated that address the Scottish identity. The relationship between contemporary British fiction and the experience of living in modern Britain Modernism tends to refer to a cultural, intellectual or artistic state as it is mainly influenced by the Western Europe disillusionment induced by World War II. It lacks a clear central order or unifying principle and symbolizing extreme intricacy, contradiction, uncertainty or diversity. In the contemporary British fiction, there are no easily recognizable development lines, hence different from the early 20th century. It is only possible to speak about specific authors, some sharing specific topics and techniques in their work and to outline a few prevalent trends. Reference List Asnes, Tania. Shelby, Christina ed.2006. "White Teeth Themes." GradeSaver, Web. 24 February Beukema, T. 200). Men Negotiating Identity in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. Bhaba, H. K. 2015. Cultural policies as Catalysts for Creativity Fernández, I. P. 2009. Exploring hybridity and multiculturalism: intra and inter family relations in zadie smith’s white teeth Graaf, R. 2012. Irony and Politics of Ethnicity in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth Howland, E. E. 2009. A search for authenticity: understanding Zadie smith’s white teeth using Judith Butler’s performativity and Jane Austen’s satire Spavin, R. 2012. “In the Cause ay Oblivion” Self-Annihilation and Apocalypse in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting Read More