Zadie Smith's White Teeth Identity and Progress Essay

Zadie Smith's White Teeth Identity and Progress - Essay Example Joshua supports the environmental group FATE, while his own father supports the genetically-produced FutureMouse. Samad’s twin sons, Magid and Millat, also believe in different goals; the eldest is one with Marcus and his scientific future, while Millat embraces a fundamentalist view of religion and society. White Teeth argues that people build relationships based on their inner preferences and external pressures on life and their differences will perpetually clash, but they have to accept that as part of human identity and progress. People are born to be different in ideas and beliefs, because of their own choices in life and external influences on the development of their human identity. The novel includes three generations that intersects the â€Å"themes of heritage and family history† (Chernysheva 3). Every generation has important questions that they wish to answer. For Samad, he wants to conserve history, which he also does through promoting the myth of his great -grandfather, whose role in Indian history is not entirely reliable. Archie also feels the same nostalgia for the past. His so-called war wound is not real, because he put it on himself. Despite this self-inflicted wound, Archie creates a memory of the war with a strong sense of â€Å"self-defensiveness† (Chernysheva 3). Samad and Archie essentially promote a traditional approach to history and identity formation. They repeat their wartime concerns, where they usually find people forgetting the war, as if it is not important. These best friends, nevertheless, do everything to preserve their fabricated history of the war. Samad comes from a generation that sees history in a linear relationship, where every action has a consequence (Chernysheva 3). He supports the notions of karma and fate. Clara’s mother, Hortense, has the same views but for her, religion has become a different lens from which she makes sense of history. The generation of the youngest characters experie nce and see the future in diverse prisms and for different expectations and goals. The Iqbal twins believe in conflicting values. Magid, who lives most of adolescent life in Bangladesh, returns to England with a more Westernized view than the English themselves, while Millat finds truth and peace in fundamentalist religion. Samad is disappointed that Magid becomes more ultra-Westernized, when he planned for him to continue their traditions. The twins follow extremes ideologies that threaten to break their family apart. Irie has her own personal struggles. She is divided between her volunteer work in Africa and an occupation as a dentist and also faces diverse choices for hairdos and weight-loss plans. Irie’s child, however, bears the consequences of Irie’s choices (Chernysheva 3). The demolition of the Berlin Wall represents the demolition of obstacles to individual freedoms and differences (Chernysheva 3). Traditions versus modernity clash in influencing human progres s and identity. Samad â€Å"moves between positions of authority and deauthorisation or subordination† (Gustar 335). He wants to impose his authority, but he does not have any power over his own family. He exaggerates his claims regarding his life, but he is â€Å"also emasculated by a radicalized discourse in an ethnocentric culture that often treats him as subaltern† (Gustar 335). Ironically, he spreads lies about his heritage that only makes him smaller as a person, since he cannot achieve the same level of greatness. Since he cannot control his life, he applies power chiefly over his family and children and even uses kidnapping to send his elder child to Bangladesh (Gustar 335). He does this because he knows that in the end, his

Assignment 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment 5 - Essay Example These terms are known to be objective and not subjective. From this, what it means is that the doctor knows more about what the patient is feeling than the patient themselves (Norman, 2004). According to Norman, the world today needs to consider the subjective points of view and not depend so much on the expert opinions. This is ironical since most of the subjective views always come from those affected. E.g. a computer scientist would not know the kind of interface that various groups of people may want without getting their opinion on such. We have to get a more subjective point of view so as to adapt to the explorations that are available today in terms of usability. For example, computer scientist cannot completely ignore user’s subjective views as they are the final people who will use their product. For example if a computer engineer wants to come up with a new hardware, they have to study the needs of the common man and understand what they need. If computer engineers n ever thought subjectively then they would end up building products that are complex and few users would be able to use the products (Norman, 2004). Norman also believes that we have different points of observation. Every user has a way in which they see different things; a professional might see something in a more complicated way as opposed to the non technical manner that a less experienced user might see it. It is for this reason that people can have their own observation and opinions on different matters. Scientist therefore needs to leave the positivism idea and learn to accept some of the subjective opinions. From this observation, it is evident that even though scientist only believe in the objective tone, much of the subjective tone is necessary if they want to understand what people want. Otherwise they would be making products for themselves. 2 Philosophy is described as the study of reality, knowledge and existence. Most people tend to associate philosophy with books and theories that try to explain fundamental laws in physics and nothing that touch our daily lives. Philosophy has been there for thousands of years and various philosophers have existed and have been able to explain the various things that touch our lives. Just like philosophy has touched and influenced a lot of people and life, the IPod has been a great tool in influencing the lives of millions of people. The iPod is transforming the lives of millions of people every day and making them get new ideas within a click. People are listening to music of their taste and others reading social links and contributing a lot to the economy. However, have we ever taken time t o try and link philosophy with an iPod? An iPod can define an individual, the contents of a person determines the kind of things that the person likes as well as the information that is useful to their lives. Since philosophy is concerned with the social lives of people as well, it is ironic that most people would try to ev ade this important field yet it touches them in almost every angle. Most scholars have tried to link various current cultures with philosophy; computer science has however brought this even closer linking people with most philosophical issues such as graphical user interface. It is due to philosophy that a computer scientist is able to determine the type of service that people need. With the right study and understanding of people’