Critical Analysis of White Teeth: Narrative Form, Themes and Messages, Characters’ Lives

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  1. What is unique about the narrative form in which each novel is written?
  2. How does this form lends itself to the novel’s themes and messages?
  3. How do the different characters’ lives intertwine?
  4. How does one character’s experience influence and transform another?

What is unique about the narrative form in which each novel is written?

White Teeth’s ability to switch time periods and characters in a chronological flow at the same time, allows the readers to see how every sequence in one’s life ripples and changes others. The excessively descriptive stance that Smith takes by criticizing the appearance and personality traits of every character creates an even more omniscient, wide lense of the character’s reality. Smith focuses on encompassing descriptions to inform the readers of the circumstances as she sees them. Since in Mrs. Dalloway, the audience can’t see the characters progressions over drawn out periods of time, like in White Teeth, Woolf makes the narrative be dependent on the characters’ thoughts and perceptions. Virginia Woolf focuses more mainly on Clarissa even though the story is told through the thoughts of the random individuals that appear throughout the story the main person‘s past present and future that is focused on Clarissa maybe Richard Peter Clarissa‘s daughter and this directly contrasts to how in white teeth every characters Past present and future is being displayed. this creates a different lens of you in both books because the scale is different Clarissa is like a part of a very large puzzle that is her life.

How does this form lends itself to the novel’s themes and messages?

The satire and comedy that Smith adds to White Teeth brings out the nuances of how a multicultural family adjusts to living in London. She takes sex, religion and tradtion into a comedic lense to juxpostion Samad’s persistence to uphold tradition with frequenct racial backlash. “A racialist,” as Mr. Hero denied being, is a type of the outside backlash that the characters deal with, comedy adds balance to a rich and dense story. Smith used the lengthy progression of time to utilize characters ability to change, grow, transform, and mature, which all ultimately shape a character’s identity. In white teeth, the importance of continuing the progression of characters allows for readers to see how important one character is to the creation and existence of another. The book has a variety of character vocal points, all which could be seperate novels, Rather than focusing on change over time, Woolf focuses on the passage of time and how the past is cyclical, constantly influencing the characters present and future. In Mrs.Dalloway’s life, the thought of what her life could have been if she had accepted Peter’s marriage proposal, influences the thoughts present throughout the novel. Her past has influenced her present when she thinks of Peter and then he shows up. Woolf paints a picture of reality without the separations of time simply by allowing a constant flow of thoughts, unhindered by chapters or breaks.

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How do the different characters’ lives intertwine?

We see how characters affect each other in different ways in both books. And white teeth we see it physically through how to different chapters are separated by the different characters in the different time. We see how Simard sending his son away changes everyone in their family because we can see into the future essentially as the chapters progress. But in Mrs. Dalloway we have a unique ability to see how each character is feeling rather than seeing the actions we see the thoughts. not to say that either is more important than the other it’s just different. this creates two different worlds one Clarissa’s, that is more introspective focused The recollection of past actions and thoughts and feelings but in white teeth we see a description of their actions so character seem more argumentative mad and more likely to be in disagreement with another. Just like the characters from White Teeth, Clarissa is influenced by the people around her. Her husband, daughter, and by Septimus, whose death became the talk of her party.

How does one character’s experience influence and transform another?

Samad’s experience with religion, a major subject matter for the book, seems to influence not only he brought up his children but how he, as a person, presents himself. Samad is rooted in his traditional values, values that he believed were being corrupted by England, leading to send Magid away, to save him. This transforms both children’s lives, by turning them into opposites of each other, and changes his relationship with Alansa. Also, he fasts to counter his indulgences, out of guilt and desire to be accountable for his actions without changing them. Samad and Archie’s children have to decide how much they are going to follow, accept, and coincide with the values passed down to them when they were raised. E: How does each novelist explore the question of how our identities are shaped? sadie smith create this whole narrative of characters over years and years to create the ultimate case for how the situations that you were raised in the nurture that you receive from your parents decide who you are. As we get to see how the kids grow up we get to see you that parts of our identity both good and bad are present within all of us, based off how we interpret what was passed down to us from our parents. One significant testimonial of this is when Erie went to get her hair straight because she wanted to fit in because having kinky unruly hair wasn’t what was suicidal he excepted so of course her family and friends were taking back after seeing her with straight hair because her hair represents something of her identity but she was willing to squash her mothers identity to simply fit in. The reoccurrence of characters like Dr.Sick from White Teeth, show readers that the past isn’t a permanent unchangeable entity, rather it is the essence of the present and future. The audience gets to see that not only is our identity shaped by the long term impacts certain people, cultures, and experiences have on us, but everyday, our identity is being shaped by what we experience. in Mrs. Dalloway the purpose of thoughts rather than actions being the driving force principle of how wolf created her novel allows us to see that our identity as well one makes of it it’s not all how others view us rather our own thoughts fuel our feelings of identity. If we compare both books readers get a sense that identities fueled by so many things thoughts, feelings, actions, culture up bringing, country of origin, etc, past the present and the inevitable future.

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Critical Analysis of White Teeth: Narrative Form, Themes and Messages, Characters’ Lives. (2022, September 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-white-teeth-narrative-form-themes-and-messages-characters-lives/
“Critical Analysis of White Teeth: Narrative Form, Themes and Messages, Characters’ Lives.” Edubirdie, 27 Sept. 2022, edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-white-teeth-narrative-form-themes-and-messages-characters-lives/
Critical Analysis of White Teeth: Narrative Form, Themes and Messages, Characters’ Lives. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-white-teeth-narrative-form-themes-and-messages-characters-lives/> [Accessed 25 Apr. 2024].
Critical Analysis of White Teeth: Narrative Form, Themes and Messages, Characters’ Lives [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Sept 27 [cited 2024 Apr 25]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-white-teeth-narrative-form-themes-and-messages-characters-lives/
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