White Teeth: Samad M. Iqbal

Zadie Smith’s novel released in 2000, White Teeth, is a cultural novel that exploits the cultural values of various characters highlighted in the novel. The novel embodies the theme of culture by exploring different ways in which the characters adapt to cultural changes within their environments. Novels play a unique role of informing readers about social, economic, and political aspects of the society in which the novels are set. However, authors need to coordinate the setting of the novel with the attributes of the characters in order to bring out the real picture of the main themes. Smith focuses his novel more on building the characters so that they bring out the themes that the author intended to express in the correct context. The novel's author builds the plot around a major character called Samad Miah Iqbal to bring out the theme of culture. The relationship between Samad and other characters in the novel brings out the intended themes of the author in a manner that the reader can relate to the normal societal setting. In the novel, Samad embraces the values of religion and tradition, which play a significant role in shaping his character and his relationship with other characters.

Samad is an ex-soldier who served in the British Army during the World War II period. Samad is a clan descendant with a long history of warriors who left a legacy for the family. However, Samad is unable to live up to the legacy that his ancestors established years before him. Samad lives in Britain as an immigrant working in a club as a waiter. Samad constantly remembers the good days in his home country, Bangladesh, where he was a respected scientist. Samad enters an arranged marriage with Alsana Begum, leading to two children, Millat and Magid. A series of events in the novel, including flashbacks, develop Samad’s character. The events establish the relationship that he has with other characters, such as his friend Jones and his two sons. Smad lives a sad life full of regrets and disappointments due to the failure to accomplish most of his life goals and the disappointment of his two sons.

Smad embraces the value of tradition through his constant thoughts about his homeland, Bangladesh. After living in Britain for a while, Samad comes to the conclusion that Britain is not a place worth living. Samad constantly remembers the traditions of his homeland and his upbringing compared to the conditions in which he lives in Britain. Cold, wet, miserable; terrible food, dreadful newspapers – who would want to stay? In a place where you are never welcomed, only tolerated. Just tolerated. Like you are an animal, finally housebroken. Who would want to stay? But you have made a devil’s pact … it drags you in, and suddenly you are unsuitable to return, your children are unrecognizable, you belong nowhere (Smith, 336).

Sammad’s love for his tradition back in Bangladesh makes him guilty of the life that he as adapted in Britain. After staying in Britain for a long time and accepting the reality that Britain is his new home, Samad accepts the burden of learning the British culture. Later in the novel, Smith highlights that not even a traditionally embodied person like Samad could shed the influence of living in a dominant foreign culture. Samad views the new culture in Britain as an intoxication of his cultural values, causing him to develop an obsession with ensuring that his children do not live to become like him. Samad decides to send his children to Bangladesh, his home country, so that they can grow up and learn traditional values that he feels he might have abandoned. Samad’s wish does not come true because his children disappoint him by failing to embrace staunch traditional Bangladesh values as their father had hoped.

Samad also embraces the values of religion throughout his life in the military and his life in Britain after the military. Samad is a devout Muslim, meaning that he wishes to embrace all the religious practices of the Muslim people. However, the author portrays a frustrated Samad in a country that is dominated by a foreign culture that is different from his traditional culture. Religion is also another value that Samad had wished to embrace throughout his life in Britain. Still, he realizes that he cannot attain a life of fully embracing the values of the Islamic religion due to the passions that people practice in the new culture.

“Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he found himself suddenly accosted by some kind of synaesthetic fixation with the woman: hearing the color of her hair in the mosque, smelling the touch of her hand on the tube, tasting her smile while innocently walking the streets on his way to work; and this in turn led to a knowledge of every public convenience in London, led to the kind of masturbation that even a fifteen-year-old boy living in Shetlands might find excessive” (Smith 22).

Samad's inability to adhere to his religious values also devastates him, causing him to see himself as a loser. He resorts to drinking during most of his free time, reserving limited time for religious practices. Samad finds out that the value of the Islamic religion in Britain is not feasible, making it impossible to find a foundation for a new life in a country that he perceives as dreaded.

Samad’s values conflict with those of his sons in the novel. Millat joins an Islamic extremist group in retaliation to his father’s imposed lifestyle of Bangladesh traditions. On the other hand, Magid also abandons his father’s request to embrace the religious traditions of Islam and becomes a scientist. Samad’s children view his imposition of Bangladeshi and Islamic values as a way in which their father is using them to seek redemption for the mistakes that he has made in his life. Having been raised in British society, Samad’s sons also believe that they have a right to choose their path in life rather than take one chosen for them by their father. The decisions of Millat and Magid devastated their father, but they strongly believe that they also deserve a chance to embrace the values they believe meet their needs in the pursuit of happiness and purpose in life. The main lesson learned from the character of Samad is that individuals need to remain open to change at all times. The character of Samad also indicates that parents need to give their children the freedom to choose their destiny rather than enforce it on them.

Work Cited

Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. London: Penguin Books Limited, 2001.