The Influence of History Theme Analysis

From the outset of the novel, Samad Iqbal is described as a character with a deep attachment to history—one that keeps him mired in the past. Upon meeting Marcus Chalfen, whose genetic experiments are intended to bring about an improved future, Irie Jones reflects that “there existed fathers who,” unlike Samad, “dealt in the present, who didn’t drag ancient history around like a ball and chain. So there were men who were not neck-deep and sinking in the quagmire of the past.” In particular, Samad is obsessed with the story of Mangal Pande, a Hindu soldier he claims to be related to, who fired the first shot of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (attempted suicide as a political statement). It is rumored, though, that Pande was not a hero but a foolhardy drunk. Nonetheless, Samad chooses to believe that Pande’s actions were revolutionary, and that this story demonstrates the greatness and courage inherent in the Iqbal line, suggesting his fierce belief that the past powerfully impacts those who inherit it. Though Samad is often ridiculed for his faith in history, White Teeth shows that Samad has a reason to be attached. The past exercises control over the present, and even as characters attempt to free themselves from its binds, they are forced to confront narratives from the past.

Samad’s son Millat is also fixated on the story of Mangal Pande, which informs his decisions about how to respond to the FutureMouse project. Though Pande and Millat’s stories are separated by over a century, their twinned narratives highlight how the past informs the present. Spurred on by the extremist group KEVIN, Millat resolves to assassinate Dr. Perret, who is working on the FutureMouse project with Marcus Chalfen, since KEVIN believes that genetic experimentation runs counter to Islamic belief. Yet Millat is equally inspired by the story of Mangal Pande, since he believes that he can change the past, acting with a kind of conviction that Pande—who was likely a drunk, not a revolutionary—failed to claim for himself: “Because Millat was here to finish it. To revenge it. To turn that history around […] Where Pande misfooted he would step sure.” Though Millat is already respected by the other members of KEVIN (and adored by numerous women), he feels deeply insecure and uncertain about his own decisions, fluctuating between rebellion and extreme orthodoxy. Ultimately, though, Millat is unable to assassinate Dr. Perret, since Archie Jones steps in front of the bullet. Like Pande, then, Millat’s attempts to take action and prove his worth and passion for a political cause are ultimately futile: by himself “misfooting,” Millat inherits Pande’s own narrative.

Samad’s own character arc, too, aligns with Pande’s story, since his efforts to make a name for himself in London, his adopted home, are more ineffectual than productive. He struggles with his own diminished place in a society that marginalizes him on the basis of race, and, like Millat, he worries about the nature of his own desires, which he believe contradict Islamic teachings. Thus, Samad and Millat replicate Pande’s narrative, even as they seek to subvert it—by using Pande’s weakness to stimulate their own action and strength.

Additionally, Dr. Perret’s reappearance at the end of the novel also represents history’s hold over the present, albeit in a much more sinister way. Originally introduced as the Nazi prisoner Samad and Archie capture during their stint as soldiers in World War II—an infamous French scientist who helped the Nazis carry out gruesome ethnic cleansing experiments to “purify” society—Dr. Perret reappears as a major player in Marcus Chalfen’s FutureMouse project. Though the project is not overtly racist, it is still concerned with genetic experimentation, with potential links to eugenics. Thus, it seems that Dr. Perret never actually changed his ways, though Archie—who was tasked with killing him during the war—let him live, deciding his fate based on a coin toss. Dr. Perret represents the potentially destructive ways in which history does not always resolve itself: past evil returns to haunt the present.

Moreover, Archie’s decision to save Dr. Perret from Millat’s assassination attempt demonstrates the way in which the novel’s characters seem to inevitably repeat narratives from the past—even though this contradicts Archie’s own life philosophy. Throughout White Teeth, Archie insists on the power of chance, choosing to make decisions based on a coin toss. Unlike Samad, he does not believe in destiny: instead, he embraces life as chaotic and random. On one hand, Archie’s decision to save the doctor again—after saving him during the war—might represent his firm belief that decisions made by chance, at random, must be upheld: he might believe that he needs to repeat the decision produced by the coin flip he made during the war. Yet it also suggests that history is impossible to overwrite, since both times, Archie saves the doctor, repeating a previous event. Like Millat and Samad, playing out Pande’s narrative, Archie plays out his own narrative from the past, repeating actions, decisions, and outcomes that have already been made. In a flashback, Dr. Perret shoots Archie in the leg after the coin flip; at the FutureMouse conference, the bullet intended for Dr. Perret strikes Archie as he dives in front of Millat’s gun. In this way, time becomes cyclical: “every moment happens twice,” the novel’s narrator affirms, suggesting that history’s repetitive nature is inescapable, despite Archie’s reliance on chance.

White Teeth’s frequent flashbacks and forays into the stories of previous generations create a structure in which past and present are closely intertwined, and often, nearly identical. When the two women are pregnant with their children, Alsana Iqbal tells Clara Bowden that their “bumps” “will always have daddy long-legs for fathers. One leg in the present, one in the past. No talking will change this. Their roots will always be tangled. And roots get dug up.” While this is true for Irie, Millat, and Magid, who are frequently exposed to their family history and backgrounds, it also holds true for Samad and Archie themselves, who inevitably replay events from the past, despite their efforts to avoid this certainty. The stories of the past become the stories of the present—as in the story of Mangal Pande and Dr. Perret—and the novel’s characters find themselves returning to decisions and actions that have already occurred, bringing these moments back to life.