zadie smith white teeth

Zadie Smith's Portrayal of Racism in White Teeth

Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2001) is called debut novel in literary world and particularly its time. Because from the moment it came out, it had a good reputation by the society and also it is a composite and paradoxical work since White Teeth represent depiction of characters make up from diverse races and solemn groups in England, twentieth century. The novel, as a literary genre, is a mirror of society, illustrating heterogeneous aspects of life. There are three main family characters in the novel: the Jewish-British Chalfen, the English-Jamaican Joneses, and the Bangladeshi-Muslim Iqbals. The characters are confronted with conflicts between assimilating and preserving their cultures. This depictures a multicultural society, but it also reflects on the subjugation experienced by certain characters, who are marginalized due to their differences from mainstream society or racial. White Teeth demeanour towards multiculturalism through the description of oppression. It is about various ethnic and cultural identities as a result of racism that comes to the fore more in the novel. White Teeth generally deals with issues of racism, ethnicity, and culture. This essay aims to clarify how these themes such as the color of the teeth, female independence, and multiculturalism mentioned in the White Teeth novel helped Smith, the author of the novel, to portray racism.

First of all, Zadie Smith develops the theme of the color of the teeth in “White Teeth.” The teeth, which is one of the themes in the novel, is not described as uncomplicated as it is known. The position and importance of the teeth colour in the novel and the way it helps to explain racism are quite different. Throughout the novel, teeth symbolize people. Teeth are emblematized as a universal theme of humanity; besides, they have a significant role. It makes a reference that the color white in the title of the novel attributes to the white and very shiny teeth of people of black or other races apart from white. To give an example from White Teeth, Mr.Hamilton, who is a soldier, tells a memory of war that they are not seen as enemies by blacks thanks to their white and bright teeth, although they were on the enemy side and their skin color white, they were not killed as they had shinning and white teeth. That is to say, the color and whiteness of teeth are extremely substantial and distinctive regardless of race. While a person feels yourself belonging to a society or a civilization, a person is separated because of the color of his  teeth and the person does not feel a sense of belonging anywhere. ”… he was a social chameleon. Beneath it all, there was a never-ending anger and pain, a sense of not belonging anywhere that is unique to people everywhere”(Smith, 2001). So, there were discussions of racism between whites and blacks. The social contact of the teeth separated them and always made one side superior or the other inferior. Although the whites tried to gain the upper hand over them, they never allowed it (Taylor,1994,p.26). Use of ‘them’ in the paraphrased statement refers to the races with dark skin color and the color of the teeth. For the sake of example from White Teeth, the professions of blacks and whites consist of an upper class or a lower class due to the color and whiteness of the teeth, likewise black people can be a footballer or a filmmaker owing to their teeth are brighter and whiter, but this is not the case for white people. They can do shop-owner or curry-shifter. Thus, as can be seen in this novel, the colour of the teeth theme shows us racism distinctly. This stereotype, racism, also exposes discrimination and corruption among white and black people.

Another momentous theme to consider and that will help Smith delineate racism in the novel is female independence. The main action of the novel takes place between the 1980s and 1990s. In these dates, feminism goes into the public consciousness, and this social movement changes the women in White Teeth. The novel investigates a culture setting in which women are able to grasp a kind of attained liberty and strength, although they are at the same time restrained by the system in which they live. If we give an example from this novel, Clara Jones and Alsana Iqbal, the novel’s main female characters, are indicated as understanding and hardworking, but eventually subject to forces of racism and male supremacy and also resign to unsteady, marginalise positions in society. They always had a modesty towards their husbands or youthful loves but their husbands or teenage loves did not think so, their husbands or boyfriends at all times consider themselves superior to women as a man.” These people, who can sacrifice all their faith in sexuality, all their sexuality in power, can sacrifice their fear of God for pride, knowledge to allusion, a veiled respectable head to glamorous orange hair.”(Smith,2001). At the beginning of the novel, even though Clara Jones, who is one of the main characters of the novel, tries to swallow all the oppressive and dogmatic rigid religious beliefs of her teenage love, Ryann Topps, the factionalism between woman and man forces Clara and break up her teen love and thus gains her female independence and also she continued her life with a stronger and solid personality. That is to say, this inequality between men and women affects both sides after a while and creates racism as it makes the male race more superior than the female also the basic rights of women and female independence were lost due to the supremacy of men. Women need psychological security, love,belonging, and self-confidence, so that they do not feel powerless and can stand up stronger. (Maslow, 1994, pp.125). The main female characters, Clara and Alsana, in the novel did not have self-confidence, self-love and faith at first owing to the continued dominance of men and towards the oppression of women, even this went on for a long time, but towards the end of the novel, women started to revolt as  their situation was getting worse and more and more discrimination, and also unbundle were getting worse. Throughout the novel, the female independence theme can be prominently seen. The superiority and oppressive position that the man feels towards the woman continues to a point and eventually creates turmoil, also, this is a direct or indirect indicator of racism. 

Last but not least, a theme that helps in declaring racism is multiculturalism. White Teeth depicts the lives of Londoners of different ethnicities, various class positions, and different cultural backgrounds. For example, while the Jones and Chalfen family are more established Britons who benefit from their status as “authentic” white English nationals, the Bowdens and Iqbals are migrants. The novel suggests that racism is deeply embedded in British culture also, the novel, which deals with these cultural differences from Bangladesh to England, shows different cultural structures, people from different cultures and their attitudes, thoughts, and also efforts to adapt to new environments. When people migrate and come from different places, they experience the problem of exclusion by other societies. As a result of this, interracial differences occur, and racism begins to appear. The hybridizing culture and values cause despair among emigrants (Çelikel, 2011, pp. 47). They do not feel a sense of belonging to the place and community they live in. As racism derives them apart, they are all the time marginalized by the others, the British. While this is the case at the beginning of the novel, this mentality begins to change towards the end. With the merging of societies, it was possible to put forward new ideas (Rogers, 2008, pp. 45-61). Furthermore, while the younger characters including Millat and Magid in the novel do not encode or trascend racial conflicts, they ensure an alternative, and substantially, some positive image of race relations.” And we can learn about each other through each other’s culture, can’t we?” (Smith, 2001, p.156). Thus, little by little, everyone starts to embrace each other. Though racism and racial differences cause a lot of conflict by means of multiculturalism, White Teeth also provides an image of peaceful culture and people and also shows an optimistic view of racial and cultural exchange.
 
I have drawn a conclusion from the themes pointed out in this essay, such as the colour of the teeth, female independence, and multiculturalism, which helps Zadie Smith to portray racism. Many themes helped Zadie Smith to define racism, but the color and whiteness of the teeth reveal the conflict between black people and white people, besides between 1980s and 1990s women’s revolt due to the pressure identity of men over women and the emergence of female independence and also the adaptation disorder of immigrants from different countries to the British and the emergence of multiculturalism as a result. So the themes studied in this paper help Smith a great deal in portraying and clarifying racism.

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Zeynep Erden

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Ezgi Erk