University Of Rijeka

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of English Language and Literature

Academic year: 2014/2015

Essay:

Representation of the Iqbals in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth

Student: Darija Turković

Course: Modern British and Irish Literature

Course Instructor: Dr. Aidan O’ Malley

 Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth is abundant in varieties; the most obvious one is referring
to the roots which within this novel intertwine in so many ways that it’s impossible not to
notice them. Different roots often imply different religious backgrounds and religion is what I
plan to focus on in this essay of mine. Naturally, I won’t be dealing with all the characters
depicted in the novel; my plan is to analyze the Iqbal family. The Iqbals seem especially
interesting to for more than one reason. Firstly, they are Muslims and Islamic belief is
somehow always thought to be the most fanatic one. Secondly, it seems challenging to
explore the stereotypes about so called “real” Muslims and see whether this book offers the
epitome of that type. And last but not least, the Iqbal family gives us a chance to see how the
same religion manifests in different generations.

Samad Iqbal is one of those people who always take pride of their culture and heritage. He
always talks about his ancestors with great respect, especially when it comes to his great
grandfather: “True actions, not words, Magal Pande has sacrificed his life in the name of
justice for India.” 1 Besides his roots, one of the things Samad likes to brag about is certainly
his religion. He claims to be a proper Muslim who obeys all the norms propagated by his
faith. However, as the story evolves and we get to know him much better, we realize that
Samad is not actually the type of devout man he claims to be. It all starts with trivial thing like
eating pork, but later on he becomes obsessed with his kids’ music teacher Poppy Jones and
ends up having an affair with her. This situation can be interpreted in many different ways.
The first thing that can come to your mind might be that Samad is a mutated Muslim whose
behaviour was influenced by western people whose style of living is completely different
from the one he was initially used to. Living in multicultural and modern London must be
way different than living in conservative and slightly stagnant Bangladesh; Samad at one
point even says that he and his whole family have been corrupted by England. 2 Muslims in the
East are conservative and traditional, living strictly under the rules proposed by their religion.
They are severe and rigid; see nothing else beside their own culture. This, I believe, seems to
be the most common stereotype when talking about Islamic religion. Is there really some
“pure” Muslim who has never crossed a line or committed a sin? Can it be that the east is
abundant in perfect and flawless Islamic guys who feel constant treat by their god and do
nothing to upset him? And the most important question which pops out here is: How does a
Muslim from Bangladesh differentiates from one in London, Turkey, Sarajevo etc. What I
believe is the main problem here is the fact that we’re watching at Samad and his sins with
1
Smith, Zadie.White Teeth, pg 158. (Note: Pdf version of the book was used for the purpose of this essay)
2
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth, pg 88.
disapproval and not trying to understand that he is only just a human being, a man with flaws
like everybody else. Everybody makes mistakes, the Catholic, the Jewish, the Jehovah’s and
we seem to justify it all, so why would it be a problem with Muslims then?

Samad’s sons make detached episodes within this book and can be analyzed as separate
characters. Let’s start from Magid. He is the older son worshiped by his parents, the one who
will have a bright future. He is sent to Bangladesh as his father’s redemption for the sins he
had made. Ironically, Magid returns as a scientist, atheist, in other words, as a proper
Englishman and this is a representation of Samad’s clash or juxtaposition between his
expectations and reality.3 How is that possible? Earlier parts of the novel suggest that Magid
was ashamed of his roots and always somehow wanted to be englishfied (like when he said to
his school mates that his name is Mark Smith). This aspiration of his to become more English
was perhaps reinforced when his father sent him to Bangladesh. He detached him from his
home, friends, culture he used to and tossed him into something completely different. I
believe that Magid came back transformed because of his own tendencies to become
englishfied, but mainly for his father. It looks as if he wants to piss Samad off and prove that
despite of his perfect plan of redemption and salvation, he can’t make up for his father’s
mistakes. It’s an indirect rebellion what Magid is doing to his father. As far as Millat is
concerned, he differentiates form both his twin brother and father. Millat is the younger son,
less ambitious than his brother and therefore the one who isn’t likely to achieve a great
success in the future. Millat is also a rebel, but his anger and fury are demonstrated openly
and directly. He consumes alcohol and drugs, he’s involved in various street gangs and his
main goal is to seduce girls. Millat is therefore thought to be a failure in the eyes of his
parents. Even though he joined KEVIN (fundamentalist Islamic organisation), he didn’t have
any interest in rules it propagated, his only aim was to achieve popularity through it and, of
course, to mock and ridicule his father.

What we realize here is that the author was pretty scarce when it came to depicting Samad’s
life. Not only his life was ruined by the mistakes he had made, but both of his sons have taken
the wrong way and there is nobody left who could save him. The claim by Andréia Azevedo
Soares, thus seems quite legit here: Zadie Smith spares no one; her comedic gaze is turned on

3
Anthony Quinn: The New England
sceptics and religious alike. (...) Zadie Smith “parodies the biological determinism of much
hybridity discourse through its depiction of Samad’s transformation in Britain”4

When reading this Zadie Smith’s novel, it’s easy to fall into traps. Traps regarding social,
cultural and religious prejudices. Each and every one of us feels a certain way about people
from the east and people from the west. Quite often, we don’t even examine or question the
stereotypes we’ve been taught and blindly follow all the things that somebody has implanted
into our minds. I believe that this novel’s main goal is wiping out those prejudices. This
literary piece really offers a huge rage of contrasts. After seeing how people from the same
country feel differently about their home (Alsana thinks that Bangladesh can bring her
children no good and Samad believes that it’s the only place where they can cay grow up as
decent people), twin brothers who become enemies (Magid and MIllat), surrounding which
should create a conservative Muslim, but ends up with a modern atheist (Bangladesh)
contradictory to the western city who transforms Millat into a fanatic Muslim (London), we
realize that there is no some unique pattern when it comes to a certain culture, religion or
surrounding. We comprehend that people change regardless of the place they live, family they
were raised in or the religion someone forced them to follow.

The fact that Zadie Smith has through this novel broken the common social stereotypes is also
one of the reasons why she gained such a huge popularity. I believe that, after reading this
novel, vast majority of the readers actually started to look differently on people of different
races, faiths and cultures and, more importantly, started to realize that it’s not about people,
but humanity just like the title White Teeth suggests.

4
Andréia Azevedo Soares: Hybridity gets fashionable
Works cited:

1) Zadie Smith: White Teeth (PDF version)

2) Anthony Quinn: The New England, taken from:

https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/04/30/reviews/000430.30quinnt.html

3) Andréia Azevedo Soares: Hybridity gets fashionable, taken from:

http://www.lablit.com/article/551