An Analysis of White Teeth by Zadie Smith

As he begins to understand the people in his life and their actions, Jack learns that one can rarely make sense of an event until that event has become a part of the past, to be

While constructing the standpoint inquiry framework, Smith changes the perspective about traditional sociological theories. One of her critiques,

Her stories are fiction, but they use aspects from people she has encountered in her daily life. Lower and middle class characters appear the most frequently throughout her works. The way she uses these ordinary people and transforms them into dynamic characters is unmatched. She uses very lengthy and in-depth descriptions of her character’s inner qualities that shape who they are. She uses these descriptions to show the inner workings of the character’s minds through an omniscient view (Entzminger 685-66).

Yet the past is always brought forth with the present. The “ghosts of his past” (Mizner 309) are symbolic of mistakes made and forever embedded in life. One could say time heals wounds however time does not erase wounds. One can see this reference to time in the way Helen’s sister the legal guardian of Honoria nearly has a breakdown when she thinks Charlie is still the same as he once was (Mizner 314-315). The details of her sister’s death are

Smith and Bradford use religion as a literary tool to persuade the reader towards their own interests. There are similarities and differences in the motivation to use religion by these two authors, yet the use is still prevalent in their writings. The reasons for these similarities and differences are found in the greater interest of each individual author.

Because Smith never offers up any backing for his word, the reader is left to speculate how he came up with all his information and why they should believe anything he has to say. Smith goes on and on, mentioning example after good example while never once backing up what he has to say.

The events from the past matter because they have already occurred and some will likely repeat in the future. The past is a group of mistakes and successes that someone can learn about and learn from so that they do not make the same mistakes:, instead, they create more successes. The literary devices that the author used in this novel are symbolism, imagery, and allegory. In Jack Gantos’s narrative Dead End in Norvelt, he uses the theme of remembering history to demonstrate that past mistakes should be learned from, and therefore, avoided;. Yet, also allowing people to grow and improve their overall human nature.

You're given the basic facts at the start, but the interpretation of them--who did what, who felt what, why, when, where, how--keeps shifting as pieces of the past are revealed.

In both of these stories knowledge of their past has been withheld from the people so that they would not do it again. Personally I think that knowledge is the key to preventing the people from making the same mistake

The book Silencing The Past is about how people “silence” the past through selective memories to benefit us in the present. We pick out certain events and either dramatize them or play them down to the point of no importance. This paper is about both our played up dramas and our forgotten realities.

For instance, by using the relationship between the past and present to influence Amir’s character development, Hosseini demonstrates how despite one’s best efforts, there is no way to escape the memories of the past. Memories follow individuals wherever they go and can torment individuals for the rest of their lives. Hosseini reveals how Amir’s past decisions shape his character development and his decision­making as the story progresses. When Amir was young, he was

truths” plays a crucial role in developing the storyline and plot structure of the novel.

There are several important ideas and most interesting thoughts that are poised by Smith that communicated to me directly. Some of the most important ideas that Smith depicted were a result of events that he experienced. He was able to observe traits from others who believed they “knew” a religion and he was actually able to explain to them the difference in sentences and phrases that one was able to understand and comprehend. It is important for one to not only study a religion and practice it but for one to be devoted to the religion. Religion is a part of life, and to live you must have religion in your life. In his article he continuously states that he is not defining the religion although he may not realize that he actually is. He is defining the religion as a concept in which an outside reader is able to understand. “The man of religious faith lives in this world. He is subject to its pressures, limited within its imperfections, particularized within one or another of its always-varying

Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, is chock full of potential deconstruction ideas; however, an exciting scene to deconstruct is in “The Final Space” chapter when the Iqbals and the Jones are on the public bus heading towards the FutureMouse exhibit. The most obvious binary opposite is that of parent or adult and child. Adults are without doubt the privileged binary. They signify knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and training of young ones along with patience and selflessness, and are allowed to use bad words without penalty. They have all the answers. Children signify selfishness, constant bickering, needing to be taught to not interrupt, to share, to play nicely with others, and are always contrary. In

Throughout the novel, we see how secrets and a guilty conscience can change and influence one’s being, and how these experiences can influence