Multicultural Families and "Hysterical Realism" in Zadie Smith's White Teeth
The Three Families: Jones, Iqbal, and Chalfen
The novel revolves around the British Archie Jones and the Bengali Muslim Samad Iqbal, who fought together in the Second World War. Archie marries Clara, a younger Jamaican woman and daughter of a Jehovah's Witness, and they have a child, Irie. Samad's wife, Alsana, is from Bangladesh, and they have twin sons, Millat and Magid, who are the same age as Irie. Besides these two multicultural families, there are also the Chalfens, who are of Jewish-Catholic descent and consider themselves intellectuals. The characters of "White Teeth" are difficult to understand.
Samad's Dilemma: Religion, Identity, and Parenting
Religion is very important to Samad. He wants his sons to grow up as good men and good Muslims. After having a brief affair with one of his sons' teachers, he does not want his children to make the same mistake he made: "I kept thinking: how can I teach my boys anything, how can I show them the straight road when I have lost my own bearings?" (188-89). He believes his children are being spoiled, so without Alsana's knowledge he sends Magid to Bangladesh. Samad hopes Magid will grow up properly as a devout Muslim. Unfortunately, nothing turns out as he hoped. Magid grows up to be an atheist and a scientist, while Millat becomes an Islamic fundamentalist and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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The Chalfens: Intellectual Arrogance and Its Limits
Joshua Chalfen is influenced by his schoolmates but not by his parents, at least not in the way they intended. Joshua's parents are competitive and aim to appear as the perfect little family. Everything seems to go right at the Chalfen house: "Every Chalfen proclaimed themselves mentally healthy and emotionally stable. The children had their oedipal complexes early and in the right order, they were all fiercely heterosexual, they adored their mother and admired their father, and, unusually, this feeling only increased as they reached adolescence" (313-314).
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They think they do not need other people and therefore have no friends. But when Irie and Millat enter Joyce's life, things change. When Joshua spends time with Millat and Irie, he takes the blame for marijuana use and slowly changes, looking up to them: "In the past two days, Joshua had gained more respect, been patted on the back by more people, and generally lorded it around more than he ever had in his life... He had a full-blown crush on both of them. There was something compelling about them" (302).
Joshua Chalfen and the Pull of Rebellion
Joshua never listens to his parents. Joyce seems more concerned with bragging about her children than with taking a real interest in them. She constantly makes statements about her youngest son, Oscar, then asks him for confirmation, whereupon he denies everything. Joyce talks about her sons but does not let them express themselves. Joshua joins FATE and travels with them for months. Joyce Chalfen blames Irie, Millat, and Magid's parents and their upbringing for their rebellious behavior, but about her own son she says, "He's just acting up against his father and it will pass" (435). Joshua joined FATE because he was in love with Joely, who runs the organization, and because he realized that the "largest community of earth, the animal kingdom, were oppressed, imprisoned and murdered on a daily basis with the full knowledge and support of every government in the world" (481).
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Hysterical Realism: Smith's Narrative Style
"White Teeth" was a huge literary success that impressed critics. The media described Zadie Smith as the new sensation of the millennium, comparing her work to that of Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi.
O'Rourke describes Zadie Smith as "an impressive versatile prose stylist, at ease with a variety of voices and breeds of urban slang, and in her panoramic approach to multiculturalism she resembles Salman Rushdie, whose influence is obvious" (O'Rourke 2000: 166). "White Teeth" explores Britain's newly acquired multicultural aspect. Smith portrays the friendship between Archibald Jones and Samad Iqbal, which was strengthened by the disruption of the traditional social order brought about by the Second World War. Their friendship functions as a central axis around which the plot expands.
The novel has been accused of not giving an accurate account of British multicultural reality and ethnic identities in London: "Smith has allowed herself a certain imaginative freedom." This imaginative freedom accompanies a narrative characterized by multiple characters and cultural references and infused with optimism. This style has been described as "hysterical realism" by some and as "comic realism" by others.
James Wood coined "hysterical realism" to describe novels like "White Teeth" that try to portray thousands of things at once, in a manner similar to soap operas and sitcoms: This is not magical realism. It is hysterical realism. Storytelling has become a kind of grammar in these novels; it is how they structure and drive themselves on. The conventions of realism are not being abandoned but exhausted, and overworked.
Multicultural London and the Negotiation of Identity
"White Teeth" uses multiple plots, coincidences, and crowded London scenes to show how postcolonial Britain is shaped by immigration, history, and hybrid identities. Through the Joneses, Iqbals, and Chalfens, Smith presents a "New England" where race, religion, and heritage collide and blend. The failure of Samad's plan for Magid and Millat shows the unpredictability of second-generation identity. The Chalfens' intellectual arrogance cracks when exposed to Irie and Millat's lived experience. Even Joshua's rebellion into animal rights activism reflects how personal desire mixes with larger political causes.
Ultimately, "White Teeth" argues that London's multicultural reality cannot be sterilized into a "clean slate" like the Perret Institute. It is messy, contested, and built on competing memories. Smith's "imaginative freedom" and hysterical realism capture that chaos, suggesting that identity in modern Britain is not inherited but constantly negotiated between past mythologies and present realities.
For further reading, explore history, identity, and colonial memory in White Teeth and a historical critique of colonial memory in White Teeth.
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Recommended Reading: White Teeth by Zadie Smith — Study Guide — get the book on Amazon for deeper insights.