Themes of Identity and Heritage in White Teeth

In his essay, “Pretty like a White Boy: The Adventure of a Blue-Eyed a Ojibway,” Drew Hayden Taylor discusses his negative life experiences, and decides that he will no longer classify himself as either a White, or Native person, though he is of dual ancestry. Though he aims his essay at the Everyman, he assumes that the reader has knowledge in Native history. Taylor, the comedian mentions that he never knew his White father, and it is likely that he was raised in First Nations household. This assumption supports the ethos of his essay as a whole. While examining the thesis, Taylor makes jumps in logic that are difficult for the reader to follow, on the path to his conclusion. Taylor’s style is consistently lighthearted, and his essay is structurally sound, however, due to errors in logic, his essay appeals to the heart alone.

Allegory is when a writer extends symbolism to every part of a story to communicate a secondary meaning that parallels the literal meaning. A common example of allegory is “The Tortoise and the Hare.” On its surface, this is a story about a tortoise that, unexpectedly, beats a hare in a footrace, but the underlying message is that those who devote their attention to cultivating a skill surpass those who are born with natural talents. Allegory has been used for a variety purposes, but among the most common is pointing out and critiquing the flaws of society. Any metaphor that is extended throughout an entire story to communicate a meaning that is separate from the literal is allegory.

The main character is a girl named Usha, who was young when she moved to the United States. She grew up abiding to Bengali culture and lifestyle in Massachusetts. As she gradually matures to an adult and her own person, it's shown that Usha struggles to find a balance between the American culture that she's surrounded by and the Bengali culture that fits the mold of her family.

1. In the articles "Where Are All The Dentist"? and "History Of Teeth" by Kristin Lewis proves that there were many problems with dentist over a long period of time. The first quote proves that having bad dental care caused deaths. "Dejed died of a bad tooth" (Lewis 13). This proves that having bad teeth in history caused many deaths to people. Bad teeth caused deaths because dentists back in time did not have the right tools to fix a tooth problem so the dentist could not fix the problem. So they patient had to live with the bad tooth witch later then caused deaths. Another quote from Lewis also proves that money was a big issue witch caused bad dental care. "Many Americas cant go to the dentist because of the cost" (Lewis 17). This also proves

The article “History Of Teeth” and the informational text “Where Are All The Dentists” by Kristian Lewis, talks about how access to good dental care is important. One example to show people need access to good dental care is George Washington, he had fake teeth. The article states “George Washington had only one tooth left by time he became president-a fact that bothered him greatly” (Lewis 13). This shows why people need access to good dental care because, George Washington disliked that fact that he was missing so many teeth, if someone is missing that many teeth then, their gums would hurt as well as it would be hard to eat. Another example is kids often get cavities that are untreated. The informational text states “What's more, one in

Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, published in 2001, exploits the reality of creating a cultural unification, a form of blending into one, and bleeding out the individuality withheld in mankind. To show that in expelling cultural heritage burns the past, setting forth a position of defining reality to be misunderstood, as expressed throughout the Postmodernist Literary Movement. This literary movement was notifiable for its expression of reality being altered based on the development of ones’ mentality, thus causing the belief that mankind could not fall into a general category, as no one person was the same. The uniqueness in Smith’s style is set forth by the growing inequality underlying the 1990’s, a time of cries of the world “ending”

“You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence (Smith).” Zadie smith has presented many short stories and nonfiction pieces throughout her time. She was born in North London in 1975 to an English father and a Jamaican mother (Nabokov). At a young age she started writing poems and stories; later as she got older she studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge when she began writing her first novel, White Teeth (Britannica). Years later she published two more novels called The Autograph Man and On Beauty. She became a tenured professor at New York University and her current novel NW was published in 2012.

“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.” (W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk) In Du Bois’ novel, The Soul of Black Folk, he writes about double consciousness and shows the readers that black people have known their whole lives how to manage in both “White America” and “Black America”. Du Bois shows the awareness of being both an American and an African-American. This novel centers about a minority in a world where he understands what it’s like to be both an American and black at the same time. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth is very similar to this concept of double consciousness, as it includes not only a mixed-black

The idea of having perfectly white teeth has been an issue almost everyone has encountered before. There have always been different remedies for getting your teeth the whitest with one of the newest inventions being whitening strips.

His chosen terrain lay between the realms of theology and psychology, and allegory provided the means of his explorations. . . . Concerned with individuals as specimens or types, he endowed his characters with solemnly stylized features and then studied their anxiety, or doubt, or guilt. He placed them amid settings and objects that gave symbolic expression to their inward states (83-84).

Trump. Brexit. Charlottesville. Stringent immigration quotas. All are directly and indirectly sited by Zadie Smith in “On Optimism and Despair” as occurrences that seek to engage multiculturalism in oppressive fashion. Despite these examples that carry a deterring nature about them, Smith hesitantly concludes multiculturalism lives within society, just in an unpredictable and undesirable manner. These unanticipated events pose an obstruction to Smith’s theorized society in which multiculturalism thrives within each population, as described and given breath in her novel, “White Teeth.” However, even though I agree with Smith in her assertion of a fledgling but present multiculturalism, I would contend that when these situations of infamous oppression arises, multiculturalism’s strength propels.

Pulling from the base of the molar, I could feel every single pull of each root as the tooth fought back. The smell of his wretched breath filled every inch of my nostril. Even with the surgical mask on, it smelled of rotten flesh and copper. It took every bit of strength I had just to get this one tooth out. I couldn't begin to understand why I agreed to this case. After much dedication to fulfill the man’s needs, I was finished. It had only taken three and a half hours to accomplish.

An allegory is a way to express generalizations about human existence using a story. In this case a portrait of a cave is used by Plato to demonstrate how humanity is trapped here and unable to move. They do not see and therefore have no knowledge of the sun or light (which I think is really symbolizing truth or true knowledge). All they know of their existence is the fire and puppet shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. I think the purpose of this allegory is to cause the reader to ponder these questions: Can people gain knowledge if they have never seen the light? Are we humans, those who have come out of the light and into darkness, or have we come out of the darkness into light (causing us to be dazzled, overwhelmed, and unable

The title, White Teeth, an already interesting title to read, made me think what that could mean. “White” could possibly be referring to clean or cleansing and “Teeth” I thought of eating or chewing, breaking down things. The overview on the back of the book is so questionable, “On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon,” my first thought was during holidays the suicide rates increase because of loneliness and depression. I have never felt alone enough to make me contemplate suicide, however I am just wondering what happened that was so bad that he is trying to commit suicide. Next week I'm going to dive more into and try to uncover what or who caused him to come to the conclusion of ending his

Allegory – The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to