White Teeth Chapters 8–10 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 8–10

Summary: Chapter 8, Mitosis

At O’Connell’s, their usual hangout, Samad tells Archie about his infatuation with Poppy and bewails his moral failure. Samad feels that he can no longer direct his sons toward the right path and therefore must send the boys back to Bangladesh. However, he can afford to send only one boy, and he cannot decide whether to send Magid or Millat. Samad finally decides Magid should go and makes travel plans for early November, but he keeps the plans secret from Alsana.

On October 31, Samad gets home at 2 a.m. to find Alsana sobbing because of a political assassination in India. Alsana cries because of the suffering this event will cause in India and Bangladesh. She is glad her sons are not there. Samad replies that perhaps the boys would be better off if they were. Samad’s comments set off a violent physical fight between Samad and Alsana, observed by Millat and Magid. After the fight ends, Samad calls Poppy to break off their relationship.

On November 4 Samad goes to work as usual. Word comes that some customers have requested that Samad, who is the headwaiter, wait on them in person. He reports to table 12, where Poppy sits with her sister. Poppy demands that Samad say something, but he just takes their orders. After work, Samad meets Archie, whose job it is to deliver Magid to Zinat, a cousin who will take him to Bangladesh. Samad bids Magid goodbye.

Summary: Chapter 9, Mutiny!

Alsana stops speaking to her husband after Samad “kidnaps” their son Magid and ships him to Bangladesh. Alsana lives in fear that one of the many disasters that constantly hit Bangladesh will hurt her son. In Samad’s eyes, Magid is the perfect son. Millat, the twin who remains in London, is nothing but trouble. Millat is a good-looking street tough who educates himself at the video store. Samad feels justified for having sent Magid away. Alsana realizes that Millat always seems to know what Magid is doing, even though the twins are so far apart.

In October 1987 a huge storm hits London. Samad, Alsana, and Millat flee to the Jones’s house. Irie Jones, who is now thirteen, confides to her diary that she is in love with Millat. The storm uproots a huge tree that comes crashing into the kitchen, but Archie deals calmly and competently with the disaster. Millat and Irie go for a walk in the rain. Millat kisses Irie and promises to bring her trouble.

In January 1989 Millat and four other boys ride the train to Bradford, looking like gang members. The boys are headed for a protest against a writer who has blasphemed Allah. Millat has not read the book. Back in London, Samad and Alsana watch the news and see Millat at the Bradford protest. When Millat gets back home, he finds Alsana making a bonfire in the backyard, burning his books, records, videos, and other treasures.

On November 10, 1989, the Jones and Iqbal families have dinner together and watch the fall of the Berlin Wall. Irie is happy to see young people dancing for freedom. Samad and Archie start talking about their war experiences. Their wives and children leave the room. Archie and Samad then head for O’Connell’s.

Summary: Chapter 10, The Root Canals of Mangal Pande

Archie and Samad spend the last night of 1989 at O’Connell’s, where they have been customers for fifteen years. Samad, at last, persuades Mickey, the Arab owner of the bar, to hang a portrait of Mangal Pande, Samad’s great-grandfather. Mickey has been refusing to hang the picture since 1981. That year, one of Samad’s nephews found the portrait in an old book. The author, A. S. Misra, was the only scholar known to support Samad’s view that his ancestor was a hero. All other sources portray Mangal Pande as a hotheaded fool who tried to make a grand gesture but failed.

In 1857 the British opened a bullet factory in India. The bullets were covered in grease made from pig and cow fat, which deeply offended both Muslim and Hindu Indian soldiers. Mangal Pande was the first Indian soldier to directly challenge British authority over the bullets. He first failed to assassinate his lieutenant and then failed to commit suicide. Pande was hanged for treason. The mutiny exploded into violence, with great loss of Indian and British lives. In 1989 Samad is still defending his great-grandfather’s reputation. At least now Mangal Pande’s portrait has a place of honor in Samad’s home away from home.

Analysis: Chapters 8–10

Because of Samad’s relationship with Poppy and the guilt that results from it, Samad changes from being a conservative to being a reactionary. His intense internal conflicts are cultural as well as religious and sexual. Samad views himself as a devout Muslim, as the heir of a hero (his great-grandfather), and as a patriarch. To Samad, his infatuation with Poppy is a sign that he is losing moral authority over his two sons.

Much of Samad’s soul-searching takes place in a back booth at O’Connell’s Pool House, the bar that is Samad and Archie’s home away from home and almost a character in the novel. Chapter Eight offers a guided tour of this environment and its history. The owner of O’Connell’s, Adbul-Mickey, belongs to a huge Arab family, the males of which are all named Abdul. They also have English names to distinguish them from each other. Abdul-Mickey is self-educated and frequently shares what he learns with his customers. For example, Abdul-Mickey explains that Samad has “repetitive syndrome.” Abdul-Mickey, like Archie and the other regular customers, has noticed that something is seriously wrong with Samad. The term “repetitive syndrome” pinpoints the problem: Samad is stuck in the past.

Samad’s decision-making process reflects his patriarchal values, which are a form of self-absorption to the point of madness. He confides his problems to other men, first to Shiva, a waiter at the restaurant, and then to Mickey-Abdul and Archie. Shiva advises Samad against getting involved with an Englishwoman. Samad even consults other men rather than his wife about the future of their sons. His prejudices emerge even more as he tries to decide which twin to send back to Bangladesh. He unfairly favors Magid, who is older than his twin by two minutes, and he can’t decide whether to make Magid the better Muslim or to selfishly keep his elder son at home. Samad even flips coins to decide his sons’ fate. Samad feels sorry for himself because he must make a difficult decision. He doesn’t even seem to consider how his decision will affect his wife and children, let alone that they might have minds or rights of their own.

Alsana’s experiences with assimilation and her attitudes toward her place of birth take her in a different direction from Samad’s. To Samad, the patriarchal, traditional society of Bangladesh represents security and certainty. To Alsana, Bangladesh represents violence and danger. She expresses gratitude that, although her sons have a bully for a father, here in England they at least are safe. Her statement sets off a violent physical fight between Alsana and Samad. The domestic violence is shocking to the reader, as is Samad’s action in sending Magid away without telling Alsana. The shock comes not only from the actions themselves but also from the reader’s revulsion against Samad’s distorted values.

The narrator’s voice and the tone of the writing change after Magid leaves for Bangladesh. Comments become more critical, but the tone becomes more compassionate. In fact, from this point on, the narrator’s sympathy, as well as the reader’s, shifts from Samad to Alsana. When Millat becomes the coolest young gangster in the school and then takes up with radical Islamic fundamentalists, Samad spouts platitudes as usual, but Alsana’s opinions take precedence. When Alsana sees Millat burning books that supposedly blaspheme Islam, she responds by making a bonfire of Millat’s most treasured possessions. She directly rejects Samad’s version of Islam and no longer even pretends to follow her husband’s orders. Alsana openly aligns herself with Clara’s evolving feminist ideas and even calls Archie an old fool.

Samad’s Bengali ancestry, of which he has always been so proud, now becomes a source of Samad’s shame and Alsana’s pain. In Chapter Ten, Samad finally convinces Abdul-Mickey to hang a portrait of Mangal Pande, Samad’s heroic great-grandfather, on the wall of O’Connell’s. Archie suggests that Pande’s failure to assassinate his British officer might have been a deliberate attempt to avoid committing murder. The reason for his mention of an aversion to taking another man’s life will come into play later in the novel. Samad rejects this view because he admires Pande as a man who is willing to kill when his family and way of life are under attack. Recalling the murder that Archie committed during the war, Samad admires Archie as the same kind of man as Mandal Pande.

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