White Teeth Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 5 Summary: Chapter 5, The Root Canals of Alfred Archibald Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal

Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal meet for the first time in April 1945. Archie is seventeen, and Samad is two years older. They are in the British Army, part of a tank battalion that is rolling through Greece. Archie drives the tank, and Samad is the wireless operator. Three other soldiers share the hot, airless tank. The job of their battalion is to clear passages for other armed forces. Archie, Samad, and the other men are well aware that the real war is being fought in the air. Samad is a trained pilot, but an accident to his hand keeps him from flying. He feels that he does not belong with Archie and the other losers.

On May 6, 1945, Archie and Samad’s tank breaks down in a tiny Bulgarian village near both Greece and Turkey. Their captain calls a halt while they wait for help and gives Jones and Iqbal permission to go into the village. Archie and Samad find a café and spend three hours drinking. When they get back to the tank, they find the murdered bodies of their three companions. At about the same time, the war in Europe ends. But Archie and Samad don’t know that, so they stay with their tank and try to fix its broken radio. Samad and Archie kill time by telling each other about themselves. Samad talks about his great-grandfather, Mangal Pande, a Bengali hero who stood up to the British in 1857. Samad and Archie also attempt to discover who killed their comrades. One likely candidate is a mysterious man whom the village children call Dr. Sick.

Some Russian soldiers reach the village. Iqbal and Jones, who are wearing their fallen comrades’ clothes, pretend to be a captain and a lieutenant. The Russians tell Jones and Iqbal that the war is over. The Russians also inform them that a noted Nazi scientist, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret, is living in the village. Jones and Iqbal realize that’s who Dr. Sick must be. They join the Russians in a raid on the doctor’s house. Samad is high on morphine during this raid. When Samad comes down from his high, Archie keeps him from committing suicide.

The Russians arrest Dr. Perret, intending to transport him to Poland. Samad gets the Russians drunk and plays cards with them until they lose everything they can wager. Then Samad offers to forgive their debts if the Russians will turn Dr. Perret over to himself (Captain Iqbal) and Lieutenant Jones. Samad plans for Archie and him to kill Dr. Perret so that they can accomplish something in the war. Jones and Iqbal bundle Dr. Perret into a jeep and drive thirty miles from the village. Archie and Samad argue over who should shoot their prisoner. Samad convinces Archie to do it, and Archie drags Dr. Perret away from the road. A few minutes later, Samad hears a shot. Archie, limping from a wound in his leg, appears in the headlights. Archie’s round face makes him look like a big baby.

Analysis: Chapter 5

In White Teeth, a root canal is a metaphor for extracting information about the past, and Chapter 5 is a flashback that roots out the story of what Archie Jones and Samad Hussein did together during the war. Their war story takes place in April and May 1945, just as the war in Europe is coming to an end. Even as adolescents, the two men reveal their contrasting characters and personalities. Samad is more emotional, philosophical, and religious than Archie, while Archie is calmer and more practical than Samad.

Race and class affect the relationship between the two young soldiers. Samad has trained as a fighter pilot, and he plans an arranged marriage with a girl from a wealthy family. These clues show that Samad is from a higher class than Archie. However, Samad’s race and skin color, as well as his colonial origins, place him on a lower social scale than Archie within the British Army. The other men in the tank, including Archie, lump Samad in with all Indians. The reader has already discovered, in Chapter 3, that Archie will continue to call Samad an Indian, long after Samad’s nation becomes East Pakistan and then Bangladesh, even though Samad frequently corrects Archie’s mistake.

Their armored tank protects Archie and Samad from any armed resistance they might encounter, but when they lose their tank and their comrades are murdered, the two men become vulnerable and therefore afraid. As they will do throughout their lives, Archie and Samad deal with their fears by drinking and sharing details of their lives. Neither of these two adolescents has much sexual experience. Archie is impressed by the story of Mangal Pande, Samad’s heroic ancestor, because Archie himself has no idea who his ancestors were. The arrival of the Russian soldiers triggers more adolescent behavior: Samad and Archie promote themselves to captain and lieutenant and enjoy swaggering around as officers.

The wartime event that forms the lasting bond between Archie and Samad is their decision to execute Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret, the Nazi scientist. Like many decisions taken by the two men over the years, the plan is formed under the influence of alcohol, and Samad is the instigator. Samad reasons that since the war has ended without any actual fighting on their part, they now must perform this one significant act. Samad, however, can’t bring himself to commit the murder, so he challenges Archie to do it. Samad turns the execution into a test of Archie’s manhood. He hears the shot and watches Archie limp back to their truck. From that point on, Archie is Samad’s ideal of a man, a real hero.

The World War II episode also contains a disturbing attempt by Samad to commit suicide. Samad’s attempt happens after he comes down off the morphine high that helped lead to the execution plan. Archie manages to take the gun away from Samad, an action that mirrors the scene thirty years later when Mo Hussein-Ishmael, Samad’s relative, saves Archie from killing himself. Samad’s suicide attempt comes from his feelings of being useless in the war, and Archie’s suicide attempt arises from similar feelings of uselessness. Both men measure themselves against a standard of manhood that includes the need to take forceful action, something neither man is naturally inclined to do.

Previous section Chapters 3 & 4 Next section Chapters 6 & 7