Aguilar

The Reliability of Chance

Sydne Aguilar

Submitted for
English 508W
The Writing of Criticism: Joys of the Keyboard

Dr. Edith Frampton

San Diego State University

December 2017
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The Reliability of Chance

"The best-laid plans of mice and men /Go oft awry"

-Robert Burns, “To a Mouse”

How much of our life is determined for us before we are even born? Not enough to

matter, I believe. Life is one big game of chance, no matter how much we try to establish some

sort of order out of it. Throughout Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth, we see how the characters’

delusions regarding genetics and birthright can have unforeseen consequences that often lead to

unhappiness and disappointment. These outcomes are perhaps most evident in the characters of

Samad Iqbal and Marcus Chalfen, both of whom have the great desire to “eliminate the random”

in their lives. Samad and Marcus are used to argue that although a person can try to control

aspects of theirs and other’s lives, these plans will ultimately unravel due to chance and the

erroneous nature of humans. By looking at these characters, we can further explore the concept

of determinism versus free will in White Teeth, and the reaching effects that this debate has had

in the real world.

Determinism and freewill play important roles in the lives of the characters of White

Teeth. Determinism is defined as the belief that all events in life are pre-determined by

previously existing causes (Covelo, 621). Thus, life is predictable, and none of the choices that

we make along the way will sway our path. On the other hand, free will (or self-determinism) is

the idea that our choices directly influence our lives, and so our life paths are changing

constantly/accordingly. Genetics and heredity have no real influence on us once we are born.

Therefore, a person is responsible for their own actions, and any subsequent consequences that

may come from them (McLeod). In post-modern literature in general, genetics may be used as a

symbol of uncertainty, for people to question their birthright and how much heredity actually

affects their identity.

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“Far from being tapped by a pre-destined resemblance to their progenitors, the characters

of these stories on the contrary find themselves endowed with unexpected and sometimes

outlandish traits, traits which then go on to influence their lives in decisive ways. In a

reversal of more Naturalist (i.e. deterministic) approaches to characterization, such works

may focus on the idea of the fluke as a reminder of the element of randomness and

chance at work in all identity construction” (Covelo 622).

This is especially true for the characters of White Teeth, to whom the concept of determinism is

comforting, in that order and control in nature reign supreme no matter what they do. Ultimately,

these characters are forced to confront these beliefs, and accept that their lives are actually ruled

instead by the instability of human choice, a concept that is more responsible for the framing of

their identity than genetics or “fate”. By doing this, White Teeth leads readers into thinking about

determinism and chance on a broader scale (Covelo 622).

Samad Iqbal is probably White Teeth’s most prominent example of thinking about genetic

predisposition as being the main factor that would determine his life’s path. Samad was born and

raised in Bangladesh as a pampered schoolboy, with a mother who loved him and had sent him

off to study biology at university. Samad’s background meant everything to him; he was

extremely proud of his heritage and believed he was destined for greatness, preferably as a war

hero like his great-grandfather, Mande. Unfortunately, Samad’s expectations and plans for his

future managed to delineate vastly, starting with him getting his wrist shot through by a bullet. A

brief human error resulted in a permanently dead hand. Because he was no longer useful to the

Bangladeshi army, he was then sent to do menial grunt work, where he met Archie. At this point,

Samad was already feeling cheated from the glorious military life he believed he was destined

for. By the time WWII ended, Samad had nothing to show for it but his mangled appearance.
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“[Samad] looked down at his useless hand with its five useless appendages; at his skin,

burned to a chocolate-brown by the sun; he saw into his brain, made stupid by stupid

conversation and the dull stimuli of death, and longed for the man he once was: erudite,

handsome, light-skinned Samad Miah” (Smith 96).

But for however inclined we are to feel sorry for him, the delusions of grandeur/entitlement he

continues to exude throughout the novel quickly gets rid of any pity. Samad thinks himself much

more important than he actually is; even his self-realized “transgressions” (masturbator,

adulterer, etc.) indicate the habits of just an average, middle-aged, disappointing man. He made

the mistake of thinking that his genetics meant he had greatness in store for him, failing to realize

that life isn’t deterministic, but instead governed by chance, no matter how much you wish it

weren’t. Samad is a hypocrite of the worst kind; he is a devout Muslim, but doesn’t follow the

church’s teachings. He does not live by the expectations he has of others; he feels sorry for the

others in England, the “sinners” who don’t know Allah like he does; this includes his own sons.

Samad spends most of his time drinking beer in O’Connell’s, the grimy pub that never changes.

In this sense, the stagnant pub parallels Samad’s life.

Samad not only tries to control his own life’s path, but also the trajectory of his twin

sons, Millat and Magid. After having a hallucination that his sons saw him out with his affair,

Poppy, he (out of guilt) decides to ship one of his sons off to Bangladesh to relearn their roots.

He feared that the farther he strayed from the righteous path of a good Bangladeshi, so thus

would the twins. “The further Samad himself floated out to sea…the more determined he became

to create for his boys roots on shore” (Smith, 161). After wrestling with which son he would

send away, Samad eventually chose Magid, because he was the good child, and so could

probably be “molded” the most. It is because of Magid that Samad first starts to realize that his
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well-laid plans have started to crumble around him. He receives a letter from Magid one day,

declaring his intent to study law in England. Samad is incensed, and rants to Alsana about Magid

dashing all of Samad’s hopes and dreams for him, saying “That is the very reason I sent the child

there—to understand that essentially, we are weak, that we are not in control…this is not my life,

this is his life. This life I call mine is his to do with that he will” (Smith 240). In saying this,

Samad is arguing against free will, and angry that Magid has refused to let his genetic fate dictate

his plans.

Another proof of Samad’s determination to believe in fate rather than chance is

evidenced in his approach to the Muslim religion. He perpetuates the idea that “…nature itself is

Muslim, because it obeys the laws the creator has ingrained in it” (Smith 240). When faced with

humans and the unpredictably of their free will, Samad relies on Allah to lead him on the right

path predestined for him, even though he knows he is not the best Muslim (or even person).

Samad prays five times a day and preaches Allah’s message to others, yet justifies sinful things

he takes part in, like drinking and committing adultery with Poppy. Samad constantly pushes his

faith on Millat especially, something his son resents him for, calling him a hypocrite. He wants

so badly to be known as a good Muslim, but in reality, the only place he really strives to excel is

at his waiter job. “Outside the doors of the [restaurant] he was a masturbator, a bad husband, an

indifferent father, with all the morals of an Anglican. But inside, within these four green and

yellow paisley walls, he was a one-handed genius” (Smith 118). With these constant warring

realities going on in Samad’s mind, it is really not surprisingly that he eventually breaks down.

Towards the end of the book, Samad is shown weeping to Irie about how his life and his family

has been a failure. “Allah knows how I pinned all my hopes on Magid…he is nothing but a

disappointment to me. . . they have both lost their way. Strayed so far from the life I had
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intended for them. . . you try to plan everything and nothing happens in the way that you

expected” (Smith 337). He also questions his worldview as a whole, saying “I begin to believe

that birthplaces are accidents, that everything is an accident. But if you believe that, where do

you go? What do you do? What does anything matter?” (Smith 337). Samad has begun to realize

that chance is more at play in his life than fate, even if he doesn’t want to think that way.

Like Samad, the character of Marcus Chalfen also exists under the philosophy of “you

eliminate the random, you rule the world” (Smith 283). His eugenics work on mice, christened

FutureMouse, involves Marcus attempting to do just that. Marcus is playing God to these mice,

creating beings whose very bodies do exactly what Marcus tells them, and “…always with the

firm belief in the perfectibility of all life, in the possibility of making it more efficient, more

logical, more Chalfenist in the way it proceeded” (Smith 260). To him, his project is just the

beginning of perfecting the human race, of getting rid of chance and establishing determinism as

the natural way of things. “The FutureMouse represents…a new phase in human history, where

we are not victims of the random but instead directors and arbitrators of our own fate” (357).

Marcus’ character is disturbing because he is a normal (albeit socially weird) husband and father

living in England, yet his work can be said to almost parallel the Nazi eugenic program and

concentration camp experiments during WWII. “Nazism was ‘applied biology,’ stated Hitler

deputy Rudolf Hess…aimed at strengthening the “national body” by eliminating biologically

threatening genes from the population” (The Biological State). In the article “Nazi Eugenics”,

author Jennifer Llewellyn wrote “Eugenics was a social theory popular with many scientists,

philosophers, and writers in the early 20th century. Their fundamental belief was that human

populations could be improved through manipulation of their genetic make-up” (Llewellyn).

Nazi Germany’s goal was to make a “perfect” human (Aryan) race, achieved through the
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removal of those with undesirable traits (genetically-related illnesses) from the population. This

included those with physical disabilities, mental health issues, or other chronic illnesses. For

those that fit the bill, they were forbidden to procreate, and were sterilized. Once the war started,

the Nazis introduced a euthanasia program called Aktion T4, which would allow “specially-

appointed doctors to deal with “incurable” patients by “granting [a] mercy death after a

discerning diagnosis” (Llewellyn). This was usually carried out with drugs. By the time Hitler

suspended the program due to complaints from the general public, over 80,000 people had been

killed.

Dr. Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor infamous for conducting horrible human

experiments at the concentration camps. Referred to as the “angel of death,” he would handpick

twins, dwarfs, and anyone else with physical characteristics that piqued his interest, sending

them to the experiment blocks to be worked on (Remember.org). His patients were usually killed

after he was done with them. Even with all of this torture, Mengele never was able to prove any

concrete evidence of “perfecting” a human in a positive way. And while Mengele and Nazi

Germany are usually referred to when talking about failed eugenics, America is not exempt from

unwanted experimentation, as discussed by journalist Adam Cohen in an NPR broadcast. Early

in the 20th century, America sterilized thousands of people in order to weed out the “feeble-

minded” and prevent their procreation. Not only did the Nazis borrow some of these ideas from

American eugenicists, but the sterilization effort influenced the 1924 Immigration Act, which

discriminated against the influx of Italians and Eastern European Jews (Cohen). While Marcus

Chalfen experimentations didn’t extend to humans, he also shared the notion that sacrificing a

few was necessary to help the many. “One mouse sacrificed for 5.3 billion humans. Hardly

mouse apocalypse. Not too much to ask” (Smith 283).

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In Roxanne Covelo’s article The Genetic Fluke, she declares that White Teeth takes place

in a universe where chance reigns supreme.

“Although characters cling to the idea of an ordered and controllable universe, the

genetic fluke arises as one of many troubling signs to the contrary. Such characters’ plans

are flawed from the outset, since they are motivated by a belief in order, rationality and

human perfectibility that is shown to be unfounded” (Covelo 636).

Smith demonstrates the novel’s genetic flukes in Samad and Marcus’ sons, Millat and Joshua,

and the way in which they have deviated from their parents. Samad is a (somewhat) devout

Muslim who works as a waiter, rendered disabled and one-handed since the war. In contrast, his

son Millat is a beautiful, popular kid, capable of getting any girl he wants. Throughout the novel,

Millat is shown to run with the “bad” crowd that comprises KEVIN, eventually culminating in

his attempt to shoot Marcus at his eugenics rally. We also see Marcus’ son Joshua, though as

much a Chalfen as Marcus, become involved in an animal rights group. Joshua shows up to the

same eugenics rally as Millat to protest his own father. Each father and son pair share the same

genes; why, then, are they so different from each other? Once again, determinism is shown to

obsolete here in the face of the boys’ free will.

Finally, similar to the characters of White Teeth, Pip of Great Expectations is shown to

suffer at the hands of chance. Pip’s entire life was centered around the fact that he was

“destined” to be become a gentleman and marry Estella, all sponsored of course by Miss

Havisham. But from the moment Pip ran into the convict in the cemetery, his predestined fate

was changed. This encounter prompted the convict to sponsor Pip in secret, thus derailing Pip’s

expectations for a specific future he felt was owed to him. Peter Brooks’ essay centers around the

point that Great Expectations “doesn’t just include plot, but is also about plot; about our need to
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plot out our lives and the pointlessness of this pursuit” (Frampton). Both the characters of White

Teeth and Pip are in search for a plot, for the ultimate meaning of their lives. Throughout the

entirety of the book, Pip tries fruitlessly to plan his life out according to how he felt it should go.

Living in the country as a poor blacksmith’s apprentice, Pip sees Miss Havisham as his ticket

out, and focuses his efforts on her. He felt that his life was pathetic only when he became aware

of Estella and Miss Havisham. “See how I am going on. Dissatisfied, and uncomfortable, and –

what would it signify to me, being coarse and common, if nobody had told me so!” (Dickens

228). He feels immensely unsettled when the life plan is turned upside down, even though he

was the one perpetuating the idea of such a life. Chance intervened in the marshes with the

convict, and dictated Pip’s life from then on out; there is no escaping.

Reading through these novels, it is unsettling to realize that we have total control of our

lives, that every decision or event that happens to us can change the course of our lives forever. It

scares me to think that we don’t have control, that life is one big toss-up. Those who do try and

control their lives usually end up failing spectacularly, especially in the case of Samad and Pip.

But at the same time, it is a comfort; yes, my life could change at any moment, but isn’t that kind

of exciting to think about? No matter what one’s genetics might predict, only you can determine

where your life is going to go. A true self-made person, having no one to answer to but yourself.
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Works Cited

Brooks, Peter. “Repetition, Repression, and Return: Great Expectations and the Study of

Plot.” New Literary History, vol. 11, no. 3, 1980, pp. 503–26. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/468941.

“The Biological State: Nazi Racial Hygiene, 1933–1939.” United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007057.

Cohen, Adam. “The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations.” NPR,

24 Mar. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/03/24/521360544/the-supreme-court-ruling-that

led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations.

Covelo, Roxanne. “The Genetic Fluke in Zadie Smith and Philip Roth: Order, Chaos, and Utopia.”

Neophilologus, vol. 101, issue 4, 2017, pp 621–37. Springer Nature,

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11061-017-9534-8.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Chapman & Hall, 1861.

Frampton, Edith. “Psychoanalysis, Brooks, and Great Expectations.” English 508W. San Diego

State University, 7 Nov. 2017, San Diego, California. Lecture.

Llewellyn, Jennifer, et al. “Nazi Eugenics.” Alpha History, 3 Mar. 2015,

alphahistory.com/nazigermany/nazi-eugenics.

“Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine.” The Holocaust History – A

People's and Survivor History, remember.org/educate/medexp.

McLeod, Saul. “Freewill and Determinism.” Simply Psychology, 2013,

www.simplypsychology.org/freewill-determinism.html.

Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. Random House, 2000.