The first section is entitled Archie 1974, 1945. Here, Smith begins a pattern of setting the tone for each section with a quote from an outside source. In the first section, Smith quotes E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread: "Every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important today and when you say of a thing that 'nothing hangs on it' it sounds like blasphemy. There's never any knowing--how am I to put it?--which of our actions, which of our idlenesses won't have things hanging on it for ever."

Chapter 1- The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones

We meet Alfred Archibald Jones (Archie) at what he thinks will be the end of his life. He is slumped across his steering wheel on Cricklewood Broadway, waiting for the carbon monoxide fumes filling his car to kill him. Cricklewood Broadway is not a romantic place to die, as it is merely a byway to bigger roads. However, it is somehow appropriate for a character as ordinary as Archie. The butcher, Mo Hussein-Ishmael, begins his morning cutting down pigeons with his cleaver as usual. He spots Archie parked illegally on his street, and after sending his son to investigate, discovers Archie is trying to commit suicide. He saves Archie more out of fear for a parking violation than any sort of altruism. Upon being saved, Archie has an epiphany. For the first time in his life, he feels as though he is worth something. "Although he was not one of her better specimens, Life wanted Archie and Archie, much to his own surprise, wanted Life."

Archie attempts suicide because his wife, Ophelia Diagilo, has gone mad and divorced him. Though married thirty years, the two were never a good match. They met while Archie was stationed in Italy during the War and she served him a cappuccino at a cafe. Apparently, Archie's mediocrity is what drove Ophelia over the edge. Before parking on Cricklewood Broadway to end his life, Archie went back to his house to collect a broken Hoover, the tube of which he rigged from his exhaust pipe into his car. All the while, he dodged insults from Ophelia's relatives, but was determined to reclaim what was his, even if it was defective (this vacuum blew air out instead of sucking it in--terrible for cleaning but perfect for suicide). He left his decision to kill himself to the flip of a coin. Afterwards, he met his old war buddy, Samad Iqbal, in O'Connell's pub. Samad told Archie he should never have married Ophelia, and that he should give himself a second chance. However, his despair leads him to attempt suicide as planned. In the midst of the act, he thinks over the unimpressive events of his life. Archie was in the War with Samad, but saw little combat, and later on had a job deciding how things should be folded. Even when he won thirteenth place in the 1948 Olympics in London, he shared the relatively low honor with an exuberant Swedish gynecologist named Horst Ibelgaufts. After the competition, the two men shared a hotel room and had sex with prostitutes. Since then, Horst sent him occasional, eerily prophetic letters. Strangely, Archie's last thought before passing out and being awakened by Mo is of Daria, his post-Olympic prostitute.

After Mo saves him, Archie drives around town full of joie de vivre. He happens upon a commune with a banner in the window proclaiming: "Welcome to the End of the World Party, 1975." Though old and unattractive, he is allowed in and spends the next several hours drinking and conversing with the young commune inhabitants. After narrowly escaping an argument about the War, he is mesmerized by a young woman named Clara Bowden as she descends the staircase. She is an extremely sexy young Jamaican woman, perfect in every way Archie can tell save her lack of upper teeth. Though she is nineteen and he forty-seven, they are attracted to each other instantly and are married six weeks later.

Chapter 2- Teething Trouble

The narrator informs us, somewhat indignantly, that Clara is not an airy vision no matter how Archie might see her. Rather, "Clara [is] from somewhere. She [has] roots." In fact, Clara is from Lambeth, Jamaica, and when she meets Archie, she has just ended an eight-month relationship with a boy named Ryan Topps, an unattractive, gangly boy. Clara herself is an awkward and bucktoothed Jehovah's Witness, and they are the two least popular kids in school. However, Clara admires Ryan and feels as though she is meant to save him. Clara's mother, Hortense Bowden, is a staunch Jehovah's Witness born during the Jamaican earthquake of 1907. Her father is Darcus Bowden, so debilitated by a mysterious illness that he does nothing but watch television from his armchair. Unshaken by previous miscalculations of the date of Judgment Day, Hortense is preparing for the newest projected date: New Year's Day, 1975.

Clara meets Ryan Topps when she visits his house to proselytize. From then on, they are a couple. Clara dedicates herself to Ryan and everything of interest to him, and soon trades her religious activities for trendy clothing and music. One day, Clara gets detention and is late meeting Ryan. She finds him at her house, where, to her shock, Hortense is feeding him and chatting with him. Ryan spends every following afternoon with Hortense and becomes a Jehovah's Witness. In an unlikely turn of events, "Suddenly the saved and the unsaved [have] come a miraculous full circle. Hortense and Ryan [are] now trying to save [Clara]." One day, Ryan tries to win Clara back to the Church as they ride on his scooter. Distracted, he crashes into a tree and they are thrown in opposite directions. Clara's top teeth are knocked out, but Ryan is completely uninjured. He takes this as the final sign that he is destined to be saved. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, 1975, Ryan Topps prays with Hortense while Clara goes to the End-of-the-World party she helped plan at the commune. Although the world does not end, she finds herself still longing for a savior, which helps her fall for Archie despite all of his shortcomings.

Chapter 3- Two Families

Clara marries Archie, and Hortense disowns her. Although Clara rejects her family's faith, not having the "safety net" of religion worries her. Clara and Archie move into a nice-enough house in a nice-enough area of town called Willesden Green. Clara realizes quickly that while Archie is a good man, he is no knight in shining armor. He spends most of his time with Samad. Clara thinks back to their wedding in a crowded registry office. They simply signed forms and she became a Jones. Only Samad and Alsana, whom Clara met that day, attended. Their only other congratulations came from Horst Ibelgaufts. Though Archie had not told him about the wedding, his letters were generally prophetic. From that day on, Archie proves an indecisive person and lover, preferring to settle any and all disputes by the flip of a coin.

Alsana Iqbal sews clothing for an S&M shop. Samad Iqbal works as a waiter in an Indian restaurant, run by his distant cousin, Ardashir Mukhul. He makes the fewest tips of all the waiters, while an attractive Hindu named Shiva Bhagwati makes the most. However, at the end of each night, they are split evenly. This arrangement makes for high tension, and Samad is disparaged constantly. He feels cheated by his identity as a waiter, knowing he could be so much more. Samad and Alsana move to Willesden, though Alsana is initially furious that they have money for a new house but not for food. Here, we are introduced to her fiery temper. Alsana ends her argument with Samad by punching him in the mouth, tearing her clothing to shreds, and storming out of the house in just a coat. After picking up Samad's shoes from her cobbler niece, Neena (whom she calls Niece-of-Shame), she stops to chat with Clara. Clara knows nothing of Alsana's pregnancy until she mentions it. This makes the women realize the dark possibility that their husbands might be keeping everything important from them.

Analysis

In the opening quote, Forster remarks that on particular days, especially the last day of one's life, every "trifle" bears a weighty meaning. This does not only apply to Archie's attempted suicide, but is a message to the reader about how the novel should be approached. Archie might be looking for a sign that he is right or wrong in his actions, or might simply trying to make the last moments count as much as possible. However, it is particularly fitting for Archie to focus on the unremarkable (such as the Hoover and Diana) in his last moments, as he is decidedly mediocre individual. Even Archie's claim to fame, placing thirteenth in the Olympics, is barely remarkable and was shared with someone else. Even Cricklewood Broadway reflects Archie's mediocrity, as it is a stretch of road unremarkable in its own right, known only because it is a byway to more important places.

In addition, the opening quote reads as Smith's defense of the ordinary. She suggests that every existence is worth examining, no matter how mundane it might seem. By casting the novel in light of Forster's quote, Smith challenges us to believe in the importance even of a man be who trusts his most important decisions to a literal coin flip. Indeed, by the end of the book, Archie proves remarkable and heroic. The opening quote not only introduces us to Archie, but also subtly instructs us to pay heed to detail as we read on.

Chapters 2 and 3 continue our examination of those who endow "trifles" with great importance. Two such groups are the Jehovah's Witnesses and the members of a commune. Though disparate, they share with each other and with Archie a fatalistic mindset: the world might end tomorrow. Jehovah's Witnesses, such as Hortense, place great importance on their actions, especially with Judgment Day at hand. Any small sin could ruin Hortense's chance of being one of the saved. Therefore, ignoring the importance of details could lead not only to missed opportunities, but also to eternal damnation. The hippies, Mods, and other members of the commune also live each day as their last, but to opposite effect: they drink, smoke marijuana, and are promiscuous.

In Chapter 2, Smith also extends our consideration of trifles to that of 'accidents' or coincidences. For instance, were Ryan injured in the scooter accident, he might have rejected his newfound faith. However, Ryan instead devotes the rest of his life to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Accidents also allow Archie and Clara to meet. Archie is accidentally saved by Mo, who really just wants him to move his car, and Clara has her teeth knocked out, cementing her separation from the Church. They both find refuge at the commune, and spend the rest of their lives together. In her discussion of accidents, Smith brings up the first of many meanings for "white teeth." Here, they reflect that things do not always go as planned. Teeth grow in incorrectly or get knocked out just as children do not grow up as expected. Along with her upper teeth, Clara's religious heritage gets pulled out by the root.

Samad is a foil for Archie. Unlike his friend, Samad places importance on everything and refuses to settle for mediocrity. Later in the novel, the men's parenting styles reflect their approaches to life. While Archie takes his parenting style from Irie's name, "Ok, cool, peaceful," Samad goes to extremes to control Magid and Millat. Samad has "the urge, the need, to speak to every man, and, like the Ancient Mariner, explain constantly, constantly wanting to reassert something, anything." Like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Samad knows he cannot correct his past failures. Ironically, Samad cannot control even his petite wife, Alsana, who wins fights by bullying him. Emerging from the first three chapters, the reader is primed to pay heed to detail, expect the unexpected, and place great importance on Smith's 'trifling' cast of characters.

Chapter 4- Three Coming

Clara tells Archie she is pregnant, and he shares his good news around MorganHero, the Direct Mail company where his job consists of deciding how various things should be folded. Archie's boss, Kelvin Hero, calls him into his office. He explains that Clara's being black made people uncomfortable at the last company event, and he pays Archie fifty pounds worth of luncheon vouchers not to bring her to the next event. Archie is too focused on Clara's pregnancy to be offended and accepts the vouchers. Because Alsana is pregnant as well, she and Clara become accidental friends as their husbands did years before. The women eat on a park bench along with Neena, whom Alsana calls Niece-of-Shame. Alsana has picked strong potential names for her unborn twins. To her horror, Clara wants to name her daughter Irie, which means "Ok, cool, peaceful." Neena ridicules Alsana for refusing to talk to Samad, which she sees as traditional Indian submissiveness. Alsana points out that she and Clara would be foolish to always talk everything out with their husbands, because when they do "look at [things] close up," they are disappointed by their unimpressive and unheroic mates. Clara has to agree.

Chapter 5- The Root Canals of Alfred Archibald Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal

We go back to World War II, when Archie and Samad first meet. Archie is seventeen and Samad nineteen when they are assigned to the same English Army tank on a mission through Eastern Europe. Rather than fight, they restore destroyed equipment and paths. Archie drives the tank and Samad is the radio operator. Their homosexual captain, Thomas Dickinson-Smith, has a reputation for picking on others and is disliked by all who serve under him. From the first day, Archie is fascinated by Samad and stares at him. One day, Samad rants about how his heritage makes him above ordinary army service. His great-grandfather, Mangal Pande, shot the first bullet in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Samad claims that he would be an officer were it not for his right hand, crippled in the Indian Army by a fellow soldier's misfired gun. It irks Samad especially to be working under Dickinson-Smith, who is not a soldier at heart, but a privileged boy descended from a line of soldiers. One day, something in the tank explodes and the men are forced to stop in a Bulgarian village. Archie and Samad go exploring first, and when they return, all the men are dead. Dickinson-Smith has killed himself rather than be killed. Just then, the War comes to an end. However, without a properly working radio, Samad and Archie are unaware and continue to patrol the village. The two men spend so much time together that they develop an accidental friendship, "the kind of friendship an Englishman makes on holiday, that he can make only on holiday. A friendship that crosses class and color, a friendship that takes as its basis physical proximity and survives because the Englishman assumes the physical proximity will not continue." They go to a church-turned-hospital where people condemned to death wrote all over the walls as their last act on Earth. Samad is touched by the people's determination to leave a legacy, but Archie says if it had been him, he would have made his last act on Earth sex, or at least masturbation. Samad becomes addicted to the powdered morphine he finds. On one of his morphine highs, Samad predicts: "You will have dinner with my wife and I in the year 1975. When we are big-bellied men sitting on our money-mountains. Somehow we will meet... We will know each other throughout our lives!"

One day, some children tell the men that a "Dr. Sick" is hiding out in one of the local houses. Soon after, they meet Russian soldiers who inform them the War is over. However, they are still seeking Dr. Sick, a.k.a. Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret, who conspired with the Nazis on their notorious eugenics projects. Samad pretends to be of high rank, though he is only high on morphine, as they join the Russians' raid on Dr. Perret. They find him weak and huddled in a room, crying tears of blood due to a condition called diabetic retinopathy. Later that night, Samad plays poker with the Russians. When there is nothing left to gamble, he claims Dr. Perret as his prize. Samad and Archie drive away with Dr. Perret, and Samad reveals his plan: they will kill Dr. Perret and become heroes. Archie manages to wrestle Dr. Perret away from the delirious Samad and walks him away at gunpoint. After a few minutes, Samad hears a shot in the distance. Then Archie returns, limping and bleeding. The narrator recounts: "He looked his tender age, the lamps making his blond hair translucent, his moon-shaped face lit up like a big baby, entering life head first."

Analysis

Chapters 4 and 5 continue the theme of accidents or coincidences. Samad and Archie, and later, their wives, have 'accidental friendships'. Samad and Archie are isolated in Bulgaria after the rest of their group dies, and they must rely on one another for safety and companionship. Proximity and necessity allow them to traverse class and racial boundaries and become lifelong friends. Years later, Alsana and Clara also become 'accidental friends' because their husbands are friends. Therefore, their friendship is a coincidence based on an earlier coincidence.

In Chapter 5, Smith begins fleshing out the theme of teeth. She titles the chapter "The Root Canals of Alfred Archibald Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal," but we soon discover that the story has nothing to do with dentistry. Instead, Smith uses the term "root canal" to depict the examination of a person's past to the very root of it: the most sensitive part. Alsana and Clara know only their husbands' 'calcified' facades, but do not attempt to expose what lies beneath. Usually, a root canal is a dreaded, painful thing, which implies that looking into one's past, or "looking at [things] close up" can be painful. It also implies that something within the tooth-within the past-is rotten. Indeed, the story of Dr. Perret proves a "rotten" event in Archie and Samad's past, whether it is heroic or not. However, just as one must submit to a root canal to preserve the tooth, one must dig into one's past to secure one's future and be saved from anonymity.

Through her metaphor, Smith implies that to make a life truly worthwhile, we must consider it with all the weight of the past and future. Samad strives to do this, but places so much importance on his heritage and future legacy that it is difficult for him to enjoy the present. Conversely, Archie, with roots firmly in England, is not so concerned with his heritage or legacy and lives a life of indecision.

The second section is entitled Samad 1984, 1857 and begins with the following quote from Norman Tebbit: "The cricket test--which side do they cheer for? ... Are you still looking back to where you came from or where you are?"

Chapter 6- The Temptation of Samad Iqbal

Without being aware of it, Samad has become a "parent-governer," and is over-involved in his children's education. At a school governer's meeting, equivalent to an American PTA meeting, Samad files his thirteenth complaint of the night, frustrating all others in attendance, including Alsana. He demands that a Muslim holiday be celebrated in place of the Harvest Festival, but the motion is not passed. After the meeting, Samad stops to chat with the Music teacher, Poppy Burt-Jones. She praises his children and says she supports Samad's failed motion. He agrees to meet with her to discuss it. To Samad's mortification, he is so attracted to Poppy that he gets an erection. Archie's entrance does little to ease the growing sexual tension; even after Poppy leaves, Samad silently repeats his favorite sayings to cease his arousal.

At this point, Smith carries us back in time to the stories behind these sayings. It is 1976, just after Samad marries Alsana. She is not sexually interested in him, so he asks the Alim at his local mosque whether masturbation is acceptable. The Alim gives him conflicting answers. Trying to justify masturbation, Samad suggests: "To the pure all things are pure." The Alim laughs at the idea that any man or action is pure, and advises him to, "stay away from your [his] right hand." Until 1980, the defiant Samad masturbates nightly with his functional left hand while repeating, "To the pure all things are pure."

New Year's Day, 1980: Afraid of Allah's wrath, Samad gives up masturbation for drink. To validate this exchange of one vice for another, he makes a habit of saying: "Can't say fairer than that..." In 1984, Samad interprets his attraction to Poppy as Allah's revenge on him. He starts masturbating several times a day and all over town. Feeling guilty, he fasts from sunrise to sunset and grows obsessed with his restaurant job. Tired of Samad's nitpicking, Shiva eventually confronts him and advises Samad not to feel guilty, but adds that relationships with English women never work out because of "too much bloody history."

Samad sits in the car with Millat, waiting to drive the children to school so he can see Poppy. When Magid and Irie finally get in the car. They have taken a vow of silence, are dressed in black, and wearing armbands to protest the Harvest Festival's demise. At school, Samad observes Music class and afterwards follows Poppy into her tiny office. He lies about Magid's protest, saying it is an Indian ritual. Just as Poppy says she admires Indians for their self-restraint, Samad leans across the desk and kisses her.

Chapter 7- Molars

Two deceptions occur simultaneously in the Iqbal household: Samad packs a shirt in preparation to sneak off and see Poppy while Magid and Millat pack food for their charity visit to an old man named J.P. Hamilton in honor of the Harvest Festival. These two deceptions (Samad's of Alsana, the children's of Samad) are strangely parallel in their details.

On the bus headed southward, Irie's provisions for J.P. Hamilton, including a coconut, disgust the boys. Meanwhile, Samad takes the same bus northward and stops to buy a coconut, which he gives to Poppy. The children arrive at J.P. Hamilton's. After mistaking them for salespeople and turning them away, he finally lets them in. He explains that all the food, save the coconut's milk, is too hard for him to eat since his teeth are rotten. He lectures the children on the importance of caring for one's teeth, and also discusses certain memories, such as how he shot "niggers" in the Congo. So absorbed in his own tale, he does not notice when Millat curses him and kicks over his tea tray. By the time he finishes speaking, the children and food are gone.

On the other side of town, Mad Mary, follows Samad and Poppy. When Poppy turns to look, Mad Mary accosts them, spits in Samad's face, and yells at him to tell her the solution for oppression. Samad calmly talks her down, saying there is no one solution, and even touches her on the shoulder. Samad and Poppy continue to a park bench, where they decide to spend the night together. As Poppy searches her purse for the toothbrush she has bought Samad, he closes his eyes and hears: "To the pure all things are pure," followed by "Can't say fairer than that." When he opens his eyes, he sees Magid and Millat waving to him, "their white teeth biting into two waxy apples."

Chapter 8- Mitosis

In O'Connell's, "an Irish poolroom run by Arabs with no pool tables," where Archie and Samad have met every day for the last ten years between 6 and 8pm to discuss issues great and small. Today they meet early to discuss Samad's cheating problem, but Archie is late. While Samad waits, he chats with Mickey, a pimpled caricature of an owner and grill cook. His real name is Adbul, a name also given to all of his brothers, a tradition meant to remind them not to consider themselves higher than others. When Archie arrives, Samad explains that ever since the afternoon on the park bench, he is plagued with visions of his sons when he is with Poppy. Mickey tells Archie that Samad can either send his sons to be raised traditionally in India, or accept that they have been and will continue to be corrupted.

Samad decides to send his sons to India. As he grows more immoral, he forces his children to be more traditional. The narrator criticizes Samad's rationale that he can save his sons without saving himself, explaining: "You would get nowhere telling him... that the first sign of tooth decay is something rotten, something degenerate, deep within the gums. Roots were what saved, the ropes one throws out to rescue drowning me, to Save their Souls." Lacking funds, Samad realizes he must choose one of his sons to send away. He wavers back and forth. One night he comes home to find Alsana weeping over the radio at the news of Indira Ghandi's assassination. She is afraid for her family's lives in the bloodshed that is doomed to follow. She accuses Samad of planning something behind her back and they start a fistfight. The twins watch them excitedly, placing bets on the outcome. When the fight is over, Samad sends them to bed and tells Magid, "You'll thank me in the end. This country's no good. We tear each other apart in this country." Then he calls Poppy to end the affair. Alsana's premonitions about bloodshed prove right. Atrocities are occurring daily in India: "legs, fingers, noses, toes, and teeth, teeth everywhere, scattered throughout the land, mingling with the dust."

Samad works his shift at the restaurant, waiting for Archie to drop Magid off for the abduction. However, Poppy and her sister distract him after requesting him as their waiter. Archie arrives as scheduled, but with all three children. They woke up when he tried to take Magid. Irie is asleep, and the boys blow on the glass for their father to touch. Samad, "puts his one hand up, applying a false touch to their lips, raw pink against the glass, their saliva mingling in the grimy condensation."

Analysis

Smith sets the stage for the second section by asking the reader to consider the value of looking to the past for answers and inspiration. The danger in always looking backwards is that one can forget where one is, and where one is headed. Samad has trouble translating the glory of his heritage that so inspires him into his own present life and his children's future. In the course of the next few chapters, Smith also demonstrates that lives run parallel to each other. Therefore, she asks, is legacy straightforward, progressing from generation to generation, or is it a winding path that can also turn back on itself? Do our children shape who we are as much as our ancestors?

Smith begins to answer these questions by exposing Samad's hypocrisy in his own views on heritage and legacy. He is obsessed with the legacy of Mangal Pande, who sacrificed his life for his cause. However, Samad refuses to sacrifice things, always exchanging one vice for another or indulging in many at once: Alsana and Poppy, masturbation and drink. Instead of making a decision, he justifies his indecision by saying, "can't say fairer than that." One wonders how an indecisive person such as Samad will fulfill his legacy and earn a place in history. However, Samad's indecision does not go unpunished by the universe. While deceiving Alsana, his children deceive him and celebrate the Harvest Festival against his wishes.

Just as Samad refuses to choose between one vice and another, Magid is not willing to choose Indian culture over English culture. Hypocritically, Samad does not tolerate Magid's indecision because he is so busy glancing not only, "back to where [he] came from," (Pande's heroism), but also forward to his children's future. Thus, he does not realize what a bad example he sets. Only when Magid and Millat catch Samad with Poppy does he realize that his legacy depends on his present actions. Not only do Magid and Millat catch Samad committing adultery and refusing to sacrifice his affair to honor his marriage, but they have also learned the sayings he uses to justify this kind of behavior: "to the pure all things are pure" and "can't say fairer than that." Hearing his sons repeat his own guilty words, Samad finally understands the responsibility he bears for his legacy.

The title of Chapter 6, "Temptation," connects the issue of Samad's legacy to the most infamous legacy of all-original sin. In Chapter 7, when Magid and Millat catch Samad with Poppy, he notices "their white teeth biting into two waxy apples." This is also the last image in the story, which gives it extra weight. In this moment, Samad represents Eve, tasting the metaphorical forbidden fruit, represented by Poppy. In an image that magnifies Samad's transgression, Magid and Millat bite into apples, the very symbol of original sin. Just as Eve's sin brought a legacy of mortality, labor, and suffering to the children of the Earth, Samad's example sets his children up for similar wrongdoing. Interestingly, while this climactic image places a burden of responsibility on Samad, it also takes one away. Samad, like all people, is descended from Eve; therefore, he is destined to sin, as are his sons.

The image of Magid and Millat biting into apples also introduces a new reference to teeth: they are used to taste, to experience sensory pleasure. Molars are specifically the teeth that help grind food to digest it. The title "Molars" implies that Magid and Millat are 'digesting' what their father does and learning from it. When Poppy gives Samad a toothbrush, she means it as a sweet gesture of companionship. However, it also draws attention to Samad's actions being unclean. If Samad is as careless with his indulgences as J.P. Hamilton was with his teeth, he may end up like the old man, unable to appreciate taste at all.

Samad finally decides to 'clean up' his children's actions, but is far too late. Magid and Millat have already witnessed Samad's careless behavior. Rebellion has already taken root. Just as no amount of polishing a tooth's enamel will stop its root from rotting, no amount of trying to refine Magid and Millat will change who they are becoming within. The image that ends Chapter 8 is hopeful for the twins. Instead of hard, unalterable teeth, it focuses on "their lips, raw pink against the glass, [and] their saliva mingling in the grimy condensation." Lips represent the fleshly and mutable, and the image gives us hope that the twins can yet be 'saved' from emulating their father's mistakes. However, Samad touches their lips through glass, implying that he will never be able to reach them directly or completely. In light of the chapter's title, "Mitosis," the twins' mingling saliva reminds us that they are genetically one flesh, created from cell division during mitosis. Therefore, separating the two is unnatural and is sure to have major consequences.

While Archie and Samad's lives are full of rapid change and lack of control, at O'Connell's, "everything [is] remembered, nothing [is] lost. History [is] never revised or reinterpreted, adapted or whitewashed. It [is] as solid as the encrusted egg on the clock." O'Connell's is a safe haven where absolutely nothing changes. There, the men feel momentarily suspended in the present, relieved of the heavy responsibilities of the past and future.

Chapter 9- Mutiny!

We gain insight into Alsana's views on what separates Bengalis from the English. Under the constant threat of natural disaster, Bengalis feel free to go to extremes in their emotions and actions. They "hold their lives lightly," knowing at any moment they might end. The English "have a basic inability to conceive of disaster, even when it is man-made." They are so secure in their safety that they do not feel pressured to take risks. What angers Alsana more than the kidnapping is that Magid will have to grow up as she did, in fear of catastrophe. Also, she will worry about him every time a disaster occurs in Bangladesh. To gain revenge on Samad, she makes him live in uncertainty too; refusing to give him definitive answers to even the simplest questions. One day, Samad and Alsana receive a letter from Magid in which he mentions that he broke his nose in a recent cyclone. Samad uses the casual but observant update as proof that Magid is becoming a wise leader just like Pande. Samad taunts Millat with this conclusion, saying now that he and Magid will look different due to Magid's broken nose, clearly Magid is the one destined for greatness while Millat is a "good-for-nothing," second in birth and in life. Millat laughs so hard at this suggestion that he trips and breaks his own nose. Even continents apart, the twins' lives run parallel. They are even miraculously saved from death at the same moment: Magid survives a tornado, and at the same time, Millat has unprotected sex with an HIV-infected woman but does not contract the disease.

During a terrible hurricane, Samad, Alsana, and Iqbal flee to the Jones's well-protected house. Things are peaceful and safe until a giant tree crashes through the ceiling, landing in a spot that Archie had just vacated. Samad prays, Alsana rolls her eyes at him, and Millat and Irie sneak outside to walk through the storm together. Millat teases Irie about her crush on him, saying she can never have him, but he kisses her anyway. Two years later, Millat and his tough friends sneak onto a train to Bradford to attend a protest. After the ticket man calls him a "Paki," or Pakistani, Millat criticizes the English for their ignorance and racism. Back at home, Samad is similarly worked up about the protest, which he and Alsana are watching on television. Suddenly, Alsana spots Millat in the riot footage, burning books and property. When Millat comes home that evening, Alsana has burned of all his belongings to teach him to respect other people's property. At this point, we return to November 10, 1989, two months earlier. The Iqbal and Jones families watch the Berlin wall fall on television. They argue over the event, and then over the children's defiance, until everyone but Archie and Samad leaves. The two friends decide to go to O'Connell's.

Chapter 10- The Root Canal of Mangal Pande

New Year's Eve, 1989: Samad has finally convinced Mickey to hang a portrait of Mangal Pande on the wall, even though Mickey thinks the unattractive image will ruin customers' appetites. Archie suggests that Samad distance himself from Pande's legacy, since the word coined after him, "pandy," means "any fool or coward in a military situation." Samad says this meaning does not truly represent his great-grandfather's legacy. Pande shot the first bullet of the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857 in protest against the new standard English bullet, the casing of which had to be bitten but contained pig and cow grease (forbidden to Muslims and Hindus, respectively). Samad sees Pande as a martyr for the very core of his people's beliefs. He gets very angry when Archie tells one historian's version of the legend, in which Pande is drunk and high when he fires the first bullet. Samad recalls the day his nephew took him to his college library to read historian A.S. Misra's defense of Pande and his heroism. He wept upon reading it. Samad argues that any man will kill if threatened sufficiently. With a mysterious look in his eye, Archie replies: "And there will be people he will save." Just then, the clock strikes midnight and the new year begins.

Analysis

In Chapters 9 and 10, Alsana, one of the novel's most opinionated characters, sets the stage. Knowing her temper, the reader must take her opinions carefully, weighing them against the characters' actions to examine their truth. According to Alsana, the English are firmly rooted to the point of inaction. Archie's storm-proof house symbolizes his culture's reluctance to take risks or "hold [his life] lightly," the way Bengalis do. However, Samad and Alsana make it seem as though Bengalis continue this tradition of "holding life lightly" even in England: they do not storm-proof their house, and therefore must find refuge with Archie and Clara. Via hefty extrapolation, one can compare this situation to British colonialism. While the Bengalis begrudge the English for their too-content, risk-free demeanor, they also rely on them for a degree of security.

Alsana worries about Magid rather than Millat, believing that by growing up in Bangladesh, Magid will be forced to live richly yet insecurely, as though every moment were his last. As we learn, Magid instead grows up to be a calm, calculating individual. Ironically, Millat, who grows up in the lap of safety, seeks out danger and chooses to live his life in extremes. When Archie brags, "Can't hardly tell there's a storm going on from here," Millat retorts, "Yeah... That's the problem," and sneaks outside to be completely vulnerable to the storm. Though he grows up in England, the land of mundane security, Millat thirsts for thrills to the point of self-endangerment.

The twins' experiences reflect that ethnic generalizations only apply to a certain degree. After all, there is evidence to neatly reverse Alsana's verdict about the Bengalis versus the English. Though Bengalis supposedly "hold their lives lightly," Archie trusts his most pivotal decisions to the flip of a coin. Meanwhile, when debating which son to send to Bangladesh, Samad agonizes, thinking he is ultimately in control of their destinies. In light of this evidence, perhaps Bengalis do not "hold their lives lightly," as Alsana claims, but rather cling to them too tightly for fear of having them ripped away. Meanwhile, the English are so secure that they can keep a looser grip on life and take risks. And, what of the Jamaican Hortense, born miraculously in the middle of a terrible earthquake? Far from "holding her life lightly," she places the heavy weight of atonement on it, making every action count towards her fate in the afterlife.

When the tree crashes through Archie and Clara's house, precisely where Archie had just been standing, it becomes clear that regardless of ethnicity, no one is safe from the unexpected. Here again Smith demonstrates the importance of coincidence and chance, reminding the reader to question whether deliberate action or chance is the driving force in life. The tree's crashing also serves to highlight Archie's progress since his suicide attempt on Cricklewood Broadway. Now, instead of being stuck on an unimpressive roadway in an unimpressive life, he has built a secure home, family, and social life. Before he meets Clara, Archie is prepared to die knowing that hardly anyone will miss him. However, now it would matter if the tree crushed him to death. While still relatively mediocre, Archie's life has become worthwhile.

Although Samad tries to control all aspects of his life, specifically his sons' development, a "Mutiny," occurs, preventing Samad from controlling fate and his legacy. Magid develops into the opposite of what Samad had hoped, Millat grows into a rebellious, passionate man, and Alsana refuses to provide definitive answers to anything. Unlike Samad, Archie embraces uncertainty (such as the chance that a coin will land on heads). In fact, Archie concludes Chapter 10 with uncertainty, stating, "And there will be people he will save." This statement foreshadows the later discovery that Archie did not kill Dr. Perret during the war. Thus, Archie's heroism is as uncertain as Pande's.

The third section is entitled Irie 1990, 1907 and opens with the following quote from Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: "In this wrought-iron world of criss-cross cause and effect, could it be that the hidden throb I stole from them did not affect their future?"

Chapter 11- The Miseducation of Irie Jones

1990: Irie, now fifteen and very full-figured, keeps dreaming about an ad she saw on a lamppost: "Lose weight to earn money." In class, her desire to lose weight and her attraction to the dangerous and handsome Millat distracts her from Shakespeare's Sonnet 127: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." Millat is thrown out of class and the teacher corrects Irie when she suggests the poem elegizes a black woman. In fact, it is about a dark-haired (rather than dark-skinned) woman. At the end of class, Irie receives a note that says: "By William Shakespeare: ODE TO LEITITA AND ALL MY KINKY-HAIRED BIG-ASS BITCHES." She goes to a black salon to have her hair straightened and dyed red to impress Millat. Because Irie washed her hair recently, there is no dirt to shield her head from the ammonia relaxant. She passes out from the pain, and wakes up to find that her hair is short like a boy's. To compensate for this unfortunate outcome, she is given a fake, straight, red mane. She goes to Millat's house, but he is out. Samad enters and is distressed by the latest letter from Magid, which contains a picture of him shaking hands with the writer R.V. Saraswati, and describes how much Magid admires him. Saraswati convinced Magid that life is not a result of fate, as Indians believe, but is instead the result of human action. Samad is furious, but Alsana reminds him: "You have to let them make their own mistakes." Before Irie leaves, she pulls out her fake hair.

Through the smoky grounds of Glenard Oak School, Irie seeks Millat so she can save him from the Raid Committee that she heard Archie mention. However, when she finds him, he is immersed in an argument with an old friend, who has joined the Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation (KEVIN). She takes the joint Millat is smoking, but leaves when he refuses to give her an audience. She stops to talk to the nerd, Josh Chalfen, and passes him the joint. When Magid finally comes looking for his marijuana, all three are caught by the Raid Committee, which was Archie's suggestion. For punishment, they must study together for two hours every Tuesday and Thursday after school.

The school was founded by Sir Edmund Flecker Glenard, who brought Jamaicans to England so they might teach their devotion to God to the English and adopt their work ethic in turn. He was crushed to death in a 1907 earthquake in Jamaica as Irie's grandmother looked on. The current headmaster is delighted at the idea of bringing 'disadvantaged and advantaged' children together, and like Glenard, hopes to expand the idea into a program.

Chapter 12- Canines: The Ripping Teeth

Joyce Chalfen, an English horticulturalist and writer, met her husband in college. Marcus Chalfen, then a student, became a prominent Jewish genetic engineer working primarily with mice. Their marriage is stable and happy, and they have four very intellectual sons, including Josh Chalfen. The Chalfen's are happily each other's only friends. Ever since her youngest son became old enough to take care of himself, Joyce has directed her maternal instincts towards her garden. Irie and Millat are thrust into this household for their punishment. From the moment they walk in the door, the Chalfen's buzz excitedly with conversation so direct that many would construe it as inappropriate. For example, they talk openly about sex and race, and Marcus tells Irie: "You are a big girl.". Irie is "enamored [of the Chalfen's] after five minutes"; she loves their middle-class comfort and happiness. Joyce is fascinated instantly with Millat. She thinks he is beautiful and sees him as a charity case. She tells him and Irie that their problems stem from lack of good father figures. Irie does not mention the Chalfen's to her parents, knowing that they may not be comfortable with her spending time with a middle-class family.

We skip to a later visit to the Chalfen household: Joyce is increasingly taken with, and Josh increasingly annoyed by, Millat. The more Millat abuses her generosity by swearing, smoking, drinking, and destroying, the more she is enamored with him. Conversely, Irie's improvement makes Joyce lose interest in her. Therefore, Irie begins spending time with Marcus and learns about his genetic manipulation of mouse embryos. When she scolds Marcus for keeping his files so messy, he offers to pay her to organize them. Alsana and Clara finally talk about their shared annoyance at Millat and Irie's spending time with the Chalfen's. Clara merely wishes Irie would spend more time at home, but Alsana rants about how they are trying to anglify her son: "they are like birds with teeth, with sharp little canines--they don't just steal, they rip apart!" The two mothers send Neena over to the Chalfen's to investigate, and she brings along her girlfriend, Maxine. Joyce and Marcus are fascinated by the lesbians, and ask inappropriate questions. They also insult Neena's family. Neena reports back to Alsana and Clara that the Chalfen's are insane.

After Irie and Millat show great improvement in their grades, the two families hold a barbecue. Millat's KEVIN friends come, much to Samad's annoyance. Alsana refuses to thank Joyce, but Clara goes over to the Chalfen household to do so. Joyce asserts rudely that the children's intellect must come from their genes, since they were not raised well. She asks Clara where Irie gets her intellect, and Clara tells her that it must be from her white grandfather, Captain Charlie Durham. Clara regrets saying this immediately after leaving, knowing that the black women in her family were far wiser than her grandfather. He "sacrificed a thousand people because he wanted to save one woman he never really knew. [He] was a no-good djam fool bwoy."

Chapter 13- The Root Canals of Hortense Bowden

This chapter begins and ends with the opinion: "A little English education can be a dangerous thing." Alsana says of the Chalfen's: "The English are the only people ... who want to teach you and steal from you at the same time." Clara agrees, thinking of how her mother, Hortense Bowden, was sired and born. Captain Charlie Durham impregnated Clara's grandmother, Hortense, when he was renting a room from her mother. He began to educate her, but was assigned to quell Marcus Garvey's printer's strike in Kingston, and left her in the care of Sir Edmund Flecker Glenard. Once her pregnancy became obvious, he handed her over to a Mrs. Brenton, who inducted her into the Jehovah's Witnesses. Ambrosia learned the scripture so fervently that Hortense knew every passage by the time she was born. One day Sir Edmund began to fondle her in a Spanish church, to which he had brought her under the pretense of educating her. Just then, the earthquake struck. A falling statue killed Sir Edmund and Ambrosia gave birth to Hortense. Durham returned the next day to find that the Americans, not the English, were heading the relief effort. He sent word to Ambrosia, and asked the Jamaican governor's permission to take her out of the country with him. However, the governor would not allow her on any of the exclusive outgoing ships. Angered, Durham insulted the governor, saying that the Americans' leadership and power proved his own lack of both. The governor sent the Americans back to Cuba, effectively quashing all hope of help for thousands of injured and homeless Jamaicans. Meanwhile, Ambrosia (who thought Judgment Day had come) prayed fervently and sent a passage from the Bible as her reply to Durham: "I will fetch my knowledge from afar."

Analysis

In Chapters 11-13, the characters' stories begin to weave together more intricately, even crossing over generations. Smith leads off this section with the phrase "criss cross cause and effect," demonstrating that not only do stories from different generations connect, but the connection is not necessarily chronological. In other words, a past event can affect a present event, and a present event can cast a light on a past event. The section is titled, "Irie 1990, 1907." Indeed, Irie is alive in the year 1990, but it is her namesake, Ambrosia, who was alive in 1907. Therefore from the very title of the section, we expect Irie's life to 'criss-cross' with her ancestors' so that 'roots' are not always distinguishable. The title of Chapter 13 reinforces this idea - it is not 'the root canal,' but 'the root canals of Hortense Bowden' that we examine. Whereas with Mangal Pande, the plural 'canals' referred to the lack of clarity in his story, here it refers to Hortense, Ambrosia, Clara, and Irie's roots being indistinguishable. As the narrator reaffirms in Chapter 11, "A legacy is not something you can give or take by choice, and there are no certainties in this sticky business of inheritance."

Smith sets the stage for this 'criss-crossing' in Irie's family with the saying, "A little English education can be a dangerous thing." There are three different types of English educations in Chapters 11-13. First, Irie receives an in-class education, in which she finds no place for herself in Shakespeare's English poetry. Next, there is Durham and Glenard's evangelical brand of education, which attempts to 'enlighten' the non-English by pairing them with the English. This extends to Irie and Millat when the headmaster pairs them with Joshua Chalfen. Like Durham and Glenard, the headmaster wants to 'enlighten' the disadvantaged by having them learn from the advantaged.

Smith forces us to ask why English education is dangerous in its many forms, and for whom? At first, it seems education is dangerous for Irie and Ambrosia because it gets them into sexual trouble. Ambrosia gets pregnant as a result of her 'lessons' with Durham, and Irie's "miseducation" about her appearance-that it is insufficient-drives her to sexualize herself according to a white perception of beauty. To differing degrees, "a little English education" forces the Bowden women to confront their sexuality. However it is also "dangerous" for their families, from whom they grow apart as a result of their education. Ambrosia, Irie, Magid, and Millat's educations separate them from their parents. As Alsana explains, "the English ... want to teach you and steal from you at the same time." As Ambrosia takes lessons, she becomes more than a maid and therefore more than her mother. The same is true with Irie; as she becomes more enraptured with the Chalfens' way of living and educates herself in their ways, she reaches 'above' her parents, striving for what is middle-class and alluring. In this way, Marcus Chalfen is her Charlie Durham. While Millat abuses the Chalfens' kindness, he too separates further from his family. Magid's English education (despite his living in Bangladesh) is also dangerous in this way. By choosing innovation over tradition, Magid grows away from Samad.

From another angle, the characters' English educations save them from despair, or at least anonymity. Because Ambrosia is educated and brought into the Church, she maintains her faith and hope after the earthquake, while thousands of Jamaicans despair over their lack of aid. Although Smith makes it clear that Irie is her mother's, Hortense's, and Ambrosia's daughter, she is also Archie's. This means that mediocrity is encoded right into every one of her cells. Because it is so different from the mundane, tedious lifestyle to which she is accustomed, Irie is enchanted by the relentlessly academic Chalfen's. Unlike her family, they live in the present, unhindered by the past, and strive for personal growth. By learning from the extraordinary, opinionated, progressive Chalfen's, Irie is in a sense 'saved' from becoming too much like her father. Like Ambrosia, Irie resolves to fetch her knowledge from "afar," outside her own family.

Canine teeth are a good metaphor for education, because like education, they can be construed as enabling or disabling. Just as canines allow us to bite into things and experience them in a rich way, education allows the characters to sink their teeth into life and enrich their experience. At the same time, education can be like foreign canines, ripping into the characters and stealing bits of them away. Clara feels the bite of education most sharply when she lies to Joyce Chalfen about Irie's intellect. By assuming that Clara is not smart, she rips all the rich heritage of the Bowden women away from her and Irie.

Chapter 14 - More English Than the English

Joyce Chalfen sneaks Magid's address from Irie's address book, and from then on Magid and Marcus are pen pals. They write volumes of mutual admiration back and forth, which Irie is forced to file for Marcus. Jealous that Magid is Marcus's new prodigy, Irie begins reading some of the letters before filing them. She stops her spying after reading a letter from Marcus to Magid, in which he lists the size of her breasts and says the only science for which she is suited is dentistry. Despite the letter's insulting nature, Irie resolves to become a dentist.

Meanwhile, Millat continues his promiscuous ways. He dates a girl named Karina, and prides himself on cheating on her with three other women. His KEVIN friends do not approve of his relationship with a white woman who flaunts her body in the degrading 'Western way,". In response to their pressure, Millat begins to disparage her. After being rejected by a woman whom he is trying to educate in the ways of KEVIN, he dumps Karina. Millat retreats to the Chalfen household, where Joyce is overjoyed to give him advice. Meanwhile, Irie has decided to spend a year volunteering in Africa before going to school for dentistry. Clara objects on the grounds of cost and Irie's desire to study poor black people. Irie approaches Clara when she is in bed, knowing she is vulnerable there. Clara lisps her disapproval, and Irie tells her: "Why can't you... talk to me properly and drop the little girl voice--" as she knocks over the glass containing Clara's upper teeth. The teeth bite down on her foot, and for the first time she realizes that her mother's upper teeth are fake. Irie takes the fact that Clara never told her this as, "yet another item in a long list of parental hypocrisies and untruths," and flees to her grandmother, Hortense's house.

Chapter 15- Chalfenism Versus Bowdenism

Irie and Hortense have not met in six years, since Hortense stopped speaking to Clara for marrying a white man. Her basement house is the same, except that Darcus has died. Hortense tells Irie that she is named after her great-grandmother, Ambrosia. Ryan Topps, now a prominent Jehovah's Witness, is staying in Clara's old room and helps Hortense around the house. Hortense introduces Irie to Ryan, saying, "she might have been yours."

Back at the Jones household, Clara calls Hortense to complain, afraid that Irie will become a Jehovah's Witness. However, "Irie's atheism was robust. It was Chalfenist in its confidence." However, she does become fascinated by her family's past and yearns to claim it. Irie comes to think of Jamaica as her "homeland," considering it a simpler place, free from the weight of the past or future. One day, Josh Chalfen shows up. He has become a scruffy, thin extreme animal-rights activist, and passes out flyers for FATE, Fighting Animal Torture and Exploitation. His rationale for this newfound extremism is: "It's only by really fucking extreme behavior that you can get through to somebody like Marcus."

On April Fool's Day at the Jones house, a somber Samad visits to reveal that Millat has been missing for three weeks. He laments his failure to bring up good sons, and accepts that everything in life is an "accident." Irie loves the sound of things being left to chance, but understands Samad and comforts him. Later, Hortense and Ryan reveal that they have secured the new date of Judgment Day, in the year 2000. Hortense emotionally discusses how she saw the century begin in an earthquake, and is determined to live to see it end in another. To Irie's delight, Hortense invites her to go to Jamaica with her in the year 2000.

Analysis

Chapters 14 and 15 examine the unexpected ways in which the familial generations begin to connect. Each child has a new and unlikely mentor: Irie/Hortense, Magid/Marcus, Millat/Joyce, and Joshua/FATE. In these new relationships, the children rebel against their parents in order to define themselves as individuals. Irie's rebellion is perhaps the most complex of all. Two experiences involving teeth force Irie to reevaluate whom she wants to emulate. When Marcus Chalfen essentially dumps her for Magid and moreover doubts her scientific ability, she begins to lose faith in the Chalfen's. Even though Marcus insults her by saying the only science for which she is fit is dentistry, Irie resolves to become a dentist. In reality, this may be her way of showing Marcus that she can not only be a dentist, but also excel in the field. However, dentistry also makes sense metaphorically as Irie's profession. A dentist not only knows the most intimate details of teeth, but is also able to fix them. Accordingly, where teeth symbolize people, Irie is a natural dentist; that is, she is an examiner of human behavior. Irie searches for her identity, but tires of her various facades (daughter of Archie and Clara, lackey to Millat, Chalfenist). None of these identities feel authentic to her. Appropriately, Irie's awakening comes in the form of a literal bite: Clara's false teeth bite her foot, and she suddenly realizes that all her past experiments have only scratched the surface of discovering her true identity. However, she does learn valuable lessons from her time spent scratching the surface, especially from the Chalfen's, from whom she develops confidence, decisiveness, and an invaluable sense of intellect. Armed with the tool of Chalfenism, the natural dentist inside of Irie emerges. She decides to go to the root for answers, just as a dentist would, and that root is Hortense.

In Chapter 15, Smith defines Bowdenism in relation to Chalfenism. Where Chalfenism is progressive, intellectual, and atheistic, Bowdenism is traditional, faith-based, and deeply religious. While Irie looks to Hortense for answers about herself, she cannot place her destiny in the hands of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and wants to challenge Hortense's ideas rather than accept and promote them. In the narrator's words, Irie "[lays] claim to her past--her version of the past--aggressively, as if retrieving misdirected mail... This all [belongs] to her, her birthright.". In Smith's terms, Irie approaches Bowdenism in a Chalfenist manner, "aggressively" gleaning from it the sense of belonging for which she yearns, while rejecting the lifestyle it prescribes. For example, Irie is overjoyed at the prospect of going to Jamaica in 2000, not because she thinks the world will end, but because she wants to discover her roots.

While Irie defines herself using a balance of two approaches, Chalfenism and Bowdenism, Joshua and Millat are swept up in different types of fundamentalism. While Irie's father is notoriously indecisive, the boys' fathers hold steadfast to their beliefs. Therefore, to find their individuality, the boys must go in a different, if not opposite, directions. Ironically, in their fundamentalism, the boys are trying to reclaim their fathers' attentions. Joshua admits that he has joined FATE to get Marcus's attention. While Samad disapproves of the militant group, KEVIN, Millat follows his father's wishes to a certain extent by devoting himself to something traditional and Eastern.

he fourth and final section is entitled Magid, Millat, and Marcus 1992, 1999 and begins with two definitions. Fundamental is defined as, "going to the root of the matter" and is referenced in a quote from the song As Time Goes By: "You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh; / The fundamental things apply, / As time goes by."

Chapter 16- The Return of Magid Mahfooz Murshed Mubtasim Iqbal

As he waits for Magid's plane to arrive at the airport, Marcus, incognito, discusses his pop-science book with a girl who is reading it. She evaluates his project as "freaky," insinuating that genetic engineering will be the new way to "deal with the fundamentalist Muslims" via eugenics. In reality, the book makes no mention of eugenics; like much of Marcus's audience, the girl presumes his experiments have dark, manipulative undertones. Having been rejected by Joshua, Marcus is all the more eager to meet and be admired by Magid. Magid spots him immediately, because he is the only white man at the gate. Marcus sees Millat's features in Magid's face, but recognizes his genius and considers their meeting a miracle. His own family and the Jones family greet Magid with caution and fascination. Samad is ashamed of Magid's English ways, which are embarrassingly incompatible with his long, very ethnic name. Millat, now a Muslim fundamentalist, refuses to see his twin brother. Therefore, Magid stays with the Chalfen's, where he quickly becomes Marcus's prodigy and advisor.

Irie realizes that Magid has become like Mad Mary or the Ancient Mariner, always needing to impart his wisdom unto others. Meanwhile, she handles the public relations for Marcus's FutureMouse genetic engineering experiment. Joyce obsesses over bringing the twins together, stressed but delighted to have twice an additional young man to worry about. Joyce claims Millat's problem is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and thinks Magid is traumatized, but ignores Joshua's two month absence from home. When Irie tries to explain that Magid is fine, Joyce claims that someone who sits in a bath with his jeans needs help. In reality, Magid is simply trying to make them shrink-to-fit, as Irie suggested.

Chapter 17- Crisis Talks and Eleventh-Hour Tactics

After ignoring her for as long as possible, Alsana lets Joyce into her home for a discussion. Joyce explains that she wants to reunite the twins, but Alsana argues that Joyce is the one keeping them apart by getting Magid involved in FutureMouse when Millat and the rest of KEVIN are passing around anti-FutureMouse leaflets. Millat eavesdrops bemusedly, considering his position within KEVIN. He is one of the group's best proselytizers and spokespeople, but in truth is more interested in being a gangster than being a Muslim. Meanwhile, Magid joins Samad and Archie at O'Connell's. Magid charms Mickey so much that he convinces him to make a bacon sandwich (pork, forbidden by Islam, is not allowed in O'Connell's). In exchange, he gives Mickey an invitation to the launch of FutureMouse. Samad is furious that Magid would mock him in his favorite bar, and refuses to let him eat at their table. Magid asks Archie whether he should meet with Millat, and as usual Archie flips a coin to decide. However, he throws the coin very far and it lands perfectly in the slot of the pinball machine.

Joyce and Clara assign Irie the task of getting the twins together in a "neutral ground" room. Irie walks, sees Millat, and memories of him strike her like toothaches. She finds him trying to revise some KEVIN materials on proper worship and tells him about the meeting plan. She touches his chest, which sparks a frenzy of lovemaking on his prayer mat. Millat is immediately ashamed and goes to pray. Irie, also ashamed and enraged that Millat will never love her, marches straight to Magid and makes love to him as well.

Magid and Millat finally meet in the "neutral" room, and immediately begin arguing about FutureMouse. After approaching their arguments from countless angles, neither changes his opinion. The narrator explains that although they make no progress, they are constantly running towards the future as two separate expressions of their past. Therefore, no matter how revolutionary they become, they will only "more and more eloquently express their past," because "immigrants... cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow."

Chapter 18- The End of History Versus The Last Man

At a KEVIN rally, the founder is addressing his peons about issues including FutureMouse. Brother Ibrahim ad-Din Shukrallah is a short, underwhelming speaker who disappoints the audience with his awkwardness, though they would never admit it. He was born in Barbados, but at the age of eighteen began his obsession with Islam. After spending five years isolated in his garage with the Qur'an, he founded KEVIN and developed a large following. The narrator defines KEVIN as: "an extremist faction dedicated to direct, often violent action, a splinter group frowned on by the rest of the Islamic community; popular with the sixteen-to-twenty-five age group; feared and ridiculed in the press." Among the older members of KEVIN is Mo Hussein-Ishmael. He joined because he wanted to look important by donating money, but also because he is subject to frequent racist attacks by his customers. Millat agrees to let him join in on their secret plan as long as he keeps quiet.

At a FATE meeting, Joshua Chalfen and the other members plot against FutureMouse. The leaders of FATE are an attractive woman named Joely and her husband, Crispin. Like many male members of FATE, Joshua is extremely aroused by Joely and does everything he can to win her approval. FATE began as a militant few, but while Crispin served jail time for an attack on a laboratory, Joely transformed it into a larger underground movement. Joshua met Joely and Crispin after they lost their meeting place, and he found another for them. That, and because as Marcus Chalfen's son he is a "convert from the other side," puts him in good favor with FATE. His alliance with the group has helped turn him into a pot-smoking activist, but his devotion to their cause is confounded by his love for Joely and desire to rebel against Marcus.

Irie is living in the Jones household again. Ryan Topps and Hortense wake her with a midnight phone call, warning her to end her relationship with Marcus Chalfen. They make her agree to protest with them at the opening of the FutureMouse exhibit, where Hortense will go on a hunger strike, despite her age.

Magid is proud to have been intimately involved in the FutureMouse experiment. He considers the experiment godly, because to him godliness means certainty-as opposed to the "accidents" that have led him and Millat down irreconcilable paths. Unlike Magid, the mouse has, "No other roads, no missed opportunities, no parallel possibilities. No second-guessing, no what-ifs, no might-have-beens. Just certainty. Just certainty in its purest form."

Analysis

Smith opens the last section of the novel by distinguishing "fundamental" from "fundamentalism." Fundamental means "going to the root of the matter," implying that fundamentals lead to new things. In contrast, fundamentalism means adhering strictly to set beliefs. While Magid and Millat share the same genes, they are fundamentally different. They stand on opposite sides of the FutureMouse debate and cannot reconcile even after hours of argument. Magid and Millat will continue to run on parallel paths throughout their lives, experiencing the same things but never meeting in their ideas. It seems ironic that Magid and Millat's meeting should surround a groundbreaking genetics experiment. After all, their developing irreconcilable beliefs could be seen as discrediting the power of their genes. However, Smith also reminds us that the twins are destined to honor their roots, to "more and more eloquently express their past," because as, "immigrants, [they] cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow." It is easier to apply this statement to Millat, who becomes a militant rebel like Mangal Pande. Like his ancestor, he stands up for what he believes to be injustice. By extension, he is sure to be misunderstood for his actions. On the surface, it seems Magid has succeeded in escaping his past. Despite growing up in Bangladesh, he is "more English than the English," and he becomes a staunch Chalfenist, even taking on Marcus Chalfen as his father figure in place of Samad. However, Magid's connection to his roots lies in his compulsion to pass his wisdom on to others. In this way, he is like Samad, who feels compelled to share the legacy of Mangal Pande whether it is relevant in the moment or not.

Chapter 18 lays out three different kinds of fundamentalism. In the first two, KEVIN and FATE, many members have ulterior motives. KEVIN satisfies Millat's desire to be a gangster more than anything else, and Mo Hussein-Ishmael joins just to gain status. Similarly, Joshua and other members of FATE are involved to get closer to either Joely or Crispin. Joshua is more concerned with rebelling against Marcus than abolishing animal cruelty. Therefore, many members of KEVIN and FATE are more interested in the simultaneous security and thrill fundamentalism offers, than in the specific doctrine.

In sharp contrast, Hortense and Ryan Topps believe wholeheartedly in being Jehovah's Witnesses, and are content living unglamorous, isolated lives with few thrills. To them, there is no separation between doctrine and life. By placing Magid's point of view in relation to the above three forms of fundamentalism, Smith makes us question whether Chalfenism is a form of fundamentalism as well. According to the definition Smith provides, there is little "traditional" or "orthodox" about Chalfenism's progressive ways. If Chalfenism revolves around a single belief, it is in the power of the human intellect. However, the common thread is that all of these groups worship, "certainty in its purest form," whether that certainty come from God, Nature, or themselves.

Chapter 19- The Final Space

It is the day of the FutureMouse conference, New Year's Eve, December 31, 1992. Joshua is in a van, heading to the protest with other members of FATE. When a new member uses the word "Chalfenist" to ridicule Marcus Chalfen, Joshua realizes for the first time that he is truly betraying his father. Suddenly he feels trapped between loyalties and afraid of consequences, but a marijuana joint calms his nerves.

At the train station, Millat is high on marijuana. He and other members of KEVIN are on their way to the protest. Millat got high in order to stomach Plan B, the new plan of action for the protest. Brother Ibrahim ad-Din Shukrallah's arrest made them aware of increasing police surveillance, and KEVIN decided it was unwise to carry out their more hands-on Plan A. Plan B involves repeating a passage from the Qur'an in the hallway leading to FutureMouse, which Millat considers cowardly compared to the violent plan he favored. Shiva, now Head of Internal Security for KEVIN, worries about Millat's state of mind and tries to convince him that Plan B will work. In truth, Shiva is a member of KEVIN for the high profile it gives him rather than any sincere belief. The group arrives in Trafalgar Square, and Millat leaves the group to sit on a bench engraved with the word "IQBAL." Samad traced the letters in his own blood and then with a knife after another waiter accidentally sliced off the top of the thumb on his bad hand. Samad told Millat that after he carved his name, he felt ashamed. Samad realized it was presumptuous to want to carve his name on the world. Millat sees the carving as a symbol of his family's failure, including Samad and Pande. Millat is determined to break this trend and become someone important: "Where Pande misfooted he would step sure. Where Pande chose A, Millat would choose B."

Meanwhile, Ryan Topps is staring at the daily quote on the calendar he prepared: "He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." He considers it so fitting that he rips it off and put it in his pocket before he and Hortense head to the protest. Ryan needs no arguments against Marcus Chalfen, as he is confident in his faith.

Archie, Samad, Alsana, Irie, and Neena are on a bus headed to the FutureMouse conference. Tensions run high and finally Irie explodes with frustration, lecturing everyone about how some families live in the present, without dwelling constantly on past pain and conflict. No one but Irie knows that she is eight weeks pregnant. She will never know whether the father is Magid or Millat, because genetic testing is useless when the potential fathers have identical genes.

At the Perret institute, where FutureMouse is to be presented, the Exhibition Room has been carefully designed to create a feeling of scientific grandeur. The narrator tells us that just as the room is a blank slate, whose identity can be changed by altering its facade, immigrants become blank slates, changed, "renamed [and] rebranded" so much that their identity disappears.

Chapter 20 - Of Mice and Memory

Having followed the protagonists' paths to the FutureMouse conference, we experience the opening from their different points of view. Archie finds the conference thrilling, so important that it is even better than television. Marcus sits at a conference table with the mouse and four other scientists, including a very old man. The equally excited Mickey joins him, excited that Marcus's research might help with his genetic skin disorder. FATE plans to storm the conference table with a gun and make Marcus choose between Joshua and his mouse. As Marcus begins speaking, Joshua realizes that his father will decide based not on love, but rational thought in the Chalfenist tradition. He suddenly doubts FATE and thinks of his father fondly.

Millat has a gun in his pocket and is observing everything. He resorts to violence because he feels drawn by fate; as the narrator confirms, "He's a Pande deep down. And there's mutiny in his blood." Ironically, he draws inspiration from a Western source, the Godfather movie. Therefore, rather emulating Pande, he emulates Pacino.

Irie has a vision of a time when heritage will not matter because roots are untraceable. Her child is the harbinger of such a time, as the secret of his father's identity will never be revealed and therefore, cannot matter.

Archie, Clara, and Samad begin to hear Hortense's singing float in to the room from the hallway. Samad goes out to force her and the other Jehovah's Witnesses to stop, but cannot. Instead, he finds himself understanding Hortense, who is an immigrant struggling for identity, just like him. He thinks, "Can't say fairer than that" and leaves her be. Back inside, Archie thinks about how Samad is his mentor, and is amazed to realize he has not made a decision without him in forty years. Just then, he vaguely recognizes the name of the old scientist, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret, but does not realize he is the Nazi doctor from WWII until he sees Millat staring at him. Archie looks at the old scientist and notices he is crying tears of blood. At the same moment, Samad recognizes Dr. Perret as Dr. Sick, realizes that the very basis of his friendship with Archie is a lie, and runs back to his seat to curse him. Millat rises and prepares to shoot Dr. Perret, and without thinking, Archie puts himself between them.

In a flashback to the war, Archie is walking Dr. Perret through the darkness to shoot him. He is nervous and apologetic, and Dr. Perret takes advantage of this by drawing Archie's attention to his "moral quandary." He is trapped between honoring his country and Samad and honoring a man's right to live despite his actions. There is always a chance that Perret might change his ways for good. Archie suddenly remembers that he has a coin in his pocket, and decides to flip it to decide the doctor's fate. If heads is the outcome, Archie will kill him, and if tails is the outcome, Dr. Perret will live. Archie puts his gun down and accidentally tosses the coin over his shoulder. When he bends down to get it, Dr. Perret shoots him in the thigh. He grabs his gun back, saying: "For fuckssake, why did you do that? It's tails. See? It's tails. Looks. Tails. It was tails."

The FutureMouse scene unfolds. Archie takes Millat's bullet in the thigh and falls, shattering the mouse's cage. For a moment, we see into a perfect, pretend future where the narrator wonders which television demographics would like to see the following "endgames." Because the media reports the identical Magid and Millat as the shooter, they both do community service as punishment. Irie and Joshua become lovers and in 2000, travel to Jamaica with Hortense and Irie's "fatherless" daughter. According to the narrator, Irie's daughter, "feels free as Pinocchio, a puppet clipped of paternal strings." On New Year's Eve, 1999, Archie and Samad play blackjack with Clara and Alsana in O'Connell's, which has finally opened its doors to women. While describing these endearing "endgames," the narrator and Archie acknowledge that projecting a perfect future would deny the inevitability of the future quickly becoming the imperfect past. The narrator brings up one final "endgame," wondering which viewers saw "a bleeding man slumped across a table" and which ones saw the mouse escape. Archie watched the mouse run away, and thought: "Go on my son!"

Analysis

In the last two chapters of the novel, we find ourselves on the cusp of another New Year. It is almost 1992, and as with all other New Year's Eves, we expect a great moment of change at the stroke of midnight. Indeed, this New Year buzzes back and forth between the various characters' experiences of the FutureMouse conference. Smith's writing style in this section particularly mimics a camera cutting quickly from one viewpoint to another. The effect is a fast-paced, creates an almost surreal collage of experiences that capture the tense energy of the conference, and makes the climax seem slower in coming: in the moment when Archie jumps in front of Millat's gun.

Smith uses the last two chapters to finish fleshing out the concept of heredity. The setting of the FutureMouse conference lends an overarching irony to the scene. At a conference celebrating man's ability to precisely control a mouse's fate, we come to understand that immigrants cannot control their fates or the loss of their identities. Millat takes Samad's bench carving as a challenge: his father could not leave his mark on history, so Millat will. Ironically, while Samad can be proud of Pande's insurgence, he will never understand his Millat's rebellion. Samad cannot see the connection between ancestor and son. Although Millat does not fulfill Samad's wish of honoring Bengali tradition, he does honor his family legacy by emulating Pande.

In the same vein, while rebelling against him, Joshua honors his father. Unlike Millat, who scorns his father's failure and strives to be like Pande, Joshua lauds his father's success and, we assume, will once again strive to be like him. Therefore in carrying out his fundamentalist plan, Millat honors something fundamental, in the roots of his family. Joshua achieves the same, but by dropping his fundamentalist plan. While fundamentals and fundamentalism are not the same, one can lead to the other.

While Millat and Joshua honor their heritage at the novel's end, Magid and Irie separate themselves from theirs. Magid becomes his father's worst nightmare, a real Englishman in love with "certainty" and security. Irie does not disappoint her parents, but definitively rejects their tendency to dwell in the past. By having a "fatherless" daughter, Irie leaves the future as wide open as possible for her offspring. However, Irie fails to recognize that a great deal of Bowden character comes from the maternal line. Therefore, her daughter will undoubtedly follow in her footsteps, and by extension, Clara's, Hortense's, Ambrosia's, and all the mothers before them. We last see Irie surrounded by a fitting mélange of the old and new, the Bowdenist and the Chalfenist. Irie's story ends in Jamaica with her traditional grandmother, her "fatherless" daughter, and her Chalfenist husband, on the eve of a new millennium full of opportunities.

After the novel's continual examination of the role of chance and coincidence, the last chapter is a whirlwind. Cause and effect are as jumbled as the people, actions, and emotions in the conference room. The mouse is the opposite of Irie's daughter-its origin and fate are known, which in theory means it is not free. However, if someone like Dr. Perret can change so completely, from Nazi conspirator to benevolent pioneer, there is hope even for the mouse to overcome his genetic programming. White Teeth ends with an optimistic message. Even a mouse doomed to die in genetically predicted stages has a chance to change his fate. By extension, even people who seem doomed to lives of mediocrity and anonymity can reinvent themselves in mere moments. Just like the mouse, even someone as depraved as Dr. Perret can turn himself around and become benevolent. At the same time, even someone as boring and indecisive as Archie can be impulsive at the right moment and unleash a new sense of freedom.

The final moment between Archie and the mouse recalls the day when Mo unwittingly saved Archie from committing suicide. Just as Mo saves Archie from his self-made, exhaust-filled coffin, Archie accidentally sets the mouse free from its cage. While the mouse's certain death is programmed into its genes, it still somehow has a new lease on life, equal to Archie's after his suicide attempt. Considering how far Archie has come since the opening scene, now fully claiming his status as hero, we can only hope the mouse and all other 'doomed' or 'unchangeable' people can achieve the same.

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