Essay on Zadie Smith's White Teeth

There is a fine distinction in the fabric of DNA that separates men and women- one has the opportunity to give life and one does not. Although beneath skin and flesh is the foundation of a body, the bones. What every human being also shares with each other is the ability to cast emotions. However throughout history, men have been brought up to be seen as if they have little to no feelings at all and women are to be too emotional. Everyone has the potential to feel pain at some point in their lives. Objectification is the central concept dear to feminist thinkers. Many think that objectification is something that remains in history, but it continues to be a problem in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald applies this to the characters in his book: The Great Gatsby. The underlying theme of the podcast: Relationship Radio dealt with the objectification of human beings. Aidan Buckner, Olivia Lujan, and Penelope Tucker’s three podcasts: You Can Buy Me Love, Daisy, Money and Usage, and Puppy Love tie the notion of objectification through the relationships: Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, George and Myrtle Wilson, and Tom and Myrtle Wilson through the book The Great Gatsby.

Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.

In Zadie Smith’s The Girl with Bangs, we follow an unnamed female narrator as she chronicles her whirlwind relationship with the titular Charlotte Greaves. Though we do not get a glimpse into Charlotte’s point of view, Smith makes it obvious what type of girl Charlotte is, not only in the way she treats the narrator, but how she treats everyone around her. Their torrid affair begins shortly after Charlotte’s boyfriend, Maurice, has been called away for a dream job in Thailand. He left her with a flimsy promise asked of Charlotte to ‘wait for him’. This proves an impossibility for the mercurial Charlotte and her insatiable lover, who would let Charlotte get away with murder for one more touch of her bangs. This relationship does not last for

This morning I woke up and looked in the mirror and noticed that my teeth were not as white as I like them to be. I think to myself, I need to call and make an appointment to get my teeth whitened with my dentist. Teeth whitening is an example of Cosmetic Dentistry. Cosmetic Dentistry is different than regular dentistry in the sense that regular dentistry deals with oral hygiene and the prevention, diagnosing and treating of any oral diseases. Cosmetic dentistry however focuses on improving a person’s teeth, smile, and mouth. General dentistry deals with what needs to be done whereas Cosmetic dentistry is

As a blue car approaches the speaker, he experiences anxiety to the point that it “made [him] sweat” (18). The speaker in this moment suddenly fears society’s judgment of him, and his judgment comes in the form of two children his age. The children appear to be arrogant toward the speaker, and they “smirk” at his situation and appearance (22). Standing on a roadside with blackberries in hand, the speaker realizes his “unfitness” in the money-driven world, and his ideal childhood setting is disheveled by the “smirk” of strangers (22). At this moment, society jolts the speaker out of his daydreams and into adulthood. Wealth and power seem to be illustrated in the speaker’s view of the passing car, and with the car, the speaker seems to compare his life of berry-picking to that of a comfort-filled automobile. The car, a sign of power in society, brings coldness into the speaker’s life through the portrayal of air-conditioning, and as a result, the speaker no longer “[limbos] between the worlds” of the rich and the poor (17). His mind realizes the children superiority, and he becomes aware of society’s standings at this early age. His place becomes final- just a poor boy selling

Thus, he treats her like a child and “laughs at [her]… ” and calls her a “‘...little girl’” (Gilman 90, 94). For these two female characters in “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, their struggles are a direct result of male dominance, and their coping mechanism escorts them away from the world that devalues them.

Before interment, the girl was a curious, active character but throughout the story, and her prolonged isolation, her self-identity and personality undergo many changes. For example, in the beginning when her mother reminds her they have to leave their home, taking only what they can carry in their arms, the girl declares, “ ‘I already know that’... She wore a white cotton frock with tiny blue anchors and her hair was pulled back in two tight braids. She tossed her books on the sofa and told the woman [her mother] that her teacher, Mr. Rutherford, had talked for an entire hour about prime numbers and coniferous trees” (12). This quote demonstrates how

“And with your mama, Miss Hinchcliff, standing there like three scoops of vanilla I can’t even cuss! What am I gonna do? The geek posters are all over town!”

The narrator of Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, who is implied to be a mother, reveals much of her worldview through the story’s dialogue. In this dialogue, she both instructs and scolds her a girl who is implied to be her daughter. The instructions that the mother imparts to her daughter in Girl offer a deep insight into what the mother believes is good for her. In teaching these lessons, the mother is preparing her daughter for what she believes is her daughter’s future. Thus, these lessons are setting the expectations that she has for her daughter within her world.

Many times throughout history it has been shown that people are shaped and molded into what society calls, “perfect people.” Jamaica Kincaid is the author of the short story titled, “Girl.” In her story there are two characters, an authoritative mother and her young daughter. Throughout the story, the mother expects so much of her daughter in various ways. She teaches her how to cook, what to wear, how to behave, and many other attributes she views to be significant for her daughter’s role in society. Kincaid elaborates the theme of how to be the “ideal,” or “flawless” woman in a society, along with being respected through the literary elements of diction, imagery, and mood.

James Burnham sternly commented on the theme of un-romanticized sex in the novel. Dewey Dell and Addie are seen as guilty of this charge; their rejection of maternity as a consequence of sex deems them unnatural, contributing to the theme of “moral nihilism”4 that pervades the novel. Thus, early criticism, still largely dominated by conservatively patriarchal

In Lives of Girls and Women, people grow out of reading. As the protagonist Del says, reading “persisted mostly in unmarried ladies, would have been shameful in a man” (Munro, 117). As in The Bell Jar, women in Lives of Girls and Women who are educated and who are professionals are seen as masculine and immature. Mature and marriageable women learn to use make-up and to flaunt their physical beauty. Del overturns this rule by memorizing poetry and doing well academically. Both Esther and Del feel that academic achievements best define and express their sexuality, though not necessarily enhancing their sexual lives. While the bored, rich girls in The Bell Jar spend most of their time painting their nails and getting a tan, Esther feels out of place among the idle and the fashion-conscious. Her friend Doreen admits that at her college, all the girls “had pocket-book covers made out of the same material as their dresses”(Plath, 5). The night that Doreen returns drunken from the apartment of a stranger named Lenny, Esther closes her door on her friend but does not have the heart to lock it. Thus, Esther successfully shuts out the false societal values of female sexuality for a while, but acknowledges that her form of sexuality must co-exist with that of Doreen and of other females in her society.

Women characters also depict the feminist critical approach throughout the novel. Society views women as being inferior to men. For example, The Awakening states that Mr. Pontellier, “… looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage,” (3), which shows he does not appreciate his wife. He treats Edna as if she was an object that he owned, and had full possession of. Although it takes a while for these women to break free, they end up realizing

An example of this notion is shown in Hope Leslie when Governor Winthrop, the landlord, reacts to Hope, the tenant, coming home late and refuses to reveal her reason why: “...Winthrop was not accustomed to have his inquisitorial rights resisted by those in his own household, and he was more struck than pleased by Hope’s moral courage” (184). Evidently, Winthrop’s reaction proves that women with “moral courage” are unladylike because moral courage is a manly trait. On the other hand, Esther Downing, another character in Hope Leslie, embodies the cult of true womanhood. Esther’s mere look at her love interest Everell is described as “a look of...pleased dependence, which is natural... and which men like to inspire, because --perhaps -- it seems to them an instinctive tribute to their natural superiority” (219). So, “Esther’s look … of dependence” confirms that the expectation that all women are supposed to have the same behavior, gestures and personality is meant to not only please men but to also hide their true form. Therefore, the cult of true womanhood presents an internal battle in female writers and Sedgwick presents this womanly struggle through the contrast between Hope and Esther. Society wants women to be quaint housewives but publishing a book defies the cult of true womanhood. Thus, defying the qualities rooted in the cult of true womanhood causes high risk of

who wants to get away from her own mother, and a Bengali man who is