White Teeth Chapters 18–20 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 18–20

Summary: Chapter 18, The End of History versus The Last Man

Millat and his fellow Islamic extremists listen to a speech by the prophet from Barbados who founded KEVIN. Brother Ibrahim is leading a campaign against Marcus Chalfen and his FutureMouse. Mohammed Hussein-Ishamel, the butcher, is there too. Mo supports KEVIN because he is tired of being the frequent victim of violent attacks from white men. Millat invites Mo into the office for further discussion of KEVIN plans.

Meanwhile, Joshua meets with other members of FATE (Fighting Animal Torture and Exploitation) to plan a similar campaign. Joshua belongs to FATE not only to rebel against his father but also because he is in love with Joely, who founded FATE with her husband Crispin. The group argues over whether to focus on attacking Marcus or on setting the mouse free.

Hortense and Ryan call Irie on December 20 to warn her to stay away from the FutureMouse opening. Along with other Jehovah’s Witnesses, they plan to use the opening as a platform for the Witness message. As the protests are being planned, Magid witnesses every stage of preparing FutureMouse for its public display. He is proud to help create a predictable life, certainty in its purest form.

Summary: Chapter 19, The Final Space

On December 31, 1992, Joshua is crammed into a minibus with ten members of FATE. Partygoers are starting to fill the streets, but the FATE group heads toward the Perret Institute for a protest against FutureMouse. Joshua feels guilty about betraying his father but righteous about animal rights. Joely and Crispin admire how calm Joshua is, but Joshua recognizes his attitude as not calm but inertia.

Meanwhile, on the Underground, Millat and his fellow KEVIN followers are also headed to the Perret Institute. The KEVIN members have decided to protest by standing up and reading passages from the Qur’an. Now the KEVIN members argue about which English translation of the Qur’an to use. Millat ignores them because he has a secret plan of his own.

Ryan rides his motorcycle to the Perret Institute with Hortense in the sidecar and a minibus full of Jehovah’s Witness ladies on their tail. Archie, Clara, and Irie ride with Samad and Alsana on the upper deck of a bus. The families argue about the FutureMouse project until an outburst from Irie makes them all shut up. Irie has not told anyone, but she is pregnant. She realizes she will never know if Millat or Magid is the child’s father.

Summary: Chapter 20, Of Mice and Memory

At the Perret Institute, everything looks as if it’s on TV. There’s a long table up front, with microphones set up for a press conference. On the table is a glass box with a small brown mouse inside. Abdul-Mickey, the owner of O’Connell’s, amuses Archie with his comments. Joshua realizes that the FATE plan might not work because they have the wrong seats. Millat watches his fellow KEVIN followers and waits for his chance.

As Marcus and Magid begin their presentation, music from outside gets louder. Hortense and her Jehovah’s Witnesses are singing hymns. Samad goes outside to try to quiet them down. Marcus acknowledges their special guest, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret. Then everything seems to happen at once. Archie recognizes Dr. Perret just as Samad comes back into the hall. Samad realizes that Archie, his only friend, has been lying to him for fifty years about shooting Dr. Perret back in May 1945. Archie sees Millat pull out his gun and throws himself between Millat and his target, saving Dr. Perret’s life for the second time. Archie crashes into the table, smashing the glass box. The FutureMouse, free at last, disappears into an air vent.

Because eyewitnesses cannot distinguish whether it was Millat or Magid who fired the gun, both get charged and sentenced to community service. The action flashes forward to New Year’s Eve, 1999. Irie sits on a beach in Jamaica with Hortense, her grandmother, Joshua, now her lover, and her little daughter. On that same night, in London, Archie and Samad play cards with Clara and Alsana, on the first night that O’Connell’s opens its doors to women.

Analysis: Chapters 18–20

These chapters describe a race against time that will end on December 31, 1992, when FutureMouse is introduced to the world. Chapters 18 and 19 are parallel accounts of how various groups plan for this event and get themselves there. The narrator uses these accounts to call the roll of the characters, review previous events, and tie together threads of the plot. For example, adding Mo-Hussein-Ishmael to the list of KEVIN members reminds the reader that Mo once saved Archie Jones from suicide. Mo’s reasons for joining remind the reader of the casual violence directed against immigrants.

The story’s chronology and parallel structure build suspense in the rising action. December 31, 1992, predicts the exact date when the suspense will end. The setting for the upcoming event, the Perret Institute, is a clue that the past lives of Archie and Samad are about to catch up with them. Switching from group to group at parallel times has the effect of seeming to slow down time, which adds even more suspense to the narrative. Because the narrator’s voice is omniscient, the reader visualizes all the parties moving toward the same place and time. The reader knows when and where something big will happen but does not know what will happen or who will create the action. Another mystery is why.

Chapters 18 and 19 also review the points of view of the groups who are attending the FutureMouse opening. The groups who oppose FutureMouse agree on the immorality of tampering with creation but not on how to deal with it. The members of each group cannot even agree among themselves. Millat and some other KEVIN followers are disappointed to learn that their protest will consist only of standing up and reciting verses of the Qur’an. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ plan includes different words of God, delivered at a much higher volume, and accompanied by band music. The FATE people cannot decide whether to attack the scientists or free the mouse. The group that supports FutureMouse, which consists of members of the Iqbal and Jones families, seems the most divided of all. Alsana, at whose insistence they are all attending, has now emerged as the matriarch of this voluble clan. Thanks again to the omniscient narrator, the reader is aware that the Jones and Iqbals are now directly related, through Irie’s unborn child.

The climax of the story ties all the plots and themes together in a few split seconds of action when Archie throws himself between Millat’s gun and its target. The novel begins with Archie attempting suicide because his life has no purpose and ends with Archie saving at least one life. Archie has now saved Dr. Perret’s life twice, but he has also saved Samad twice. Back in the war, Archie took Samad’s gun away from him. Now Archie keeps Samad’s son from becoming a murderer. Back in the war, Samad admired Archie for having the guts to execute Dr. Perret. Now Samad realizes that Archie is no murderer. The reader recognizes that preventing violence, not causing it, is what makes Archie a hero.

The falling action of the story satisfies the need for a happy ending without abandoning the cynical attitude of the narrator. The eyewitness testimony to the crime becomes so confusing that the judge sentences both Magid and Millat to community service, a wry commentary on the inability of the justice system—and white people—to tell dark-skinned people apart. Ironically, the twins do their service in a community garden run by Joyce Chalfen, another enthusiastic proponent of altering nature. The story looks into the future to envision Irie, her daughter, and her grandmother on a tropical beach, with Irie feeling rootless, but in a good way. In a previously unthinkable shift away from patriarchal power and toward feminism, O’Connell’s opens its doors to women, and Alsana and Clara play cards at the tables there. The mouse goes free, leaving the reader wondering what will happen to the Chalfen-induced mutations it will carry into the future.

Previous section Chapters 16 & 17 Next section Full Book Summary