Double-Consciousness Essay After relocating to a new country, immigrants are faced with a plethora of issues surrounding their identity. The incoming pioneers are at a crossroad between their native culture and the culture of their new home. This tends to make immigrants either remain unchanged, acculturate themselves into the new culture while preserving the old one, or change their whole image as a person. In Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth, Samad deals with his double-consciousness by developing a crisis after believing Britain has made him impure, Irie deals with her double-consciousness by falling prey to the standard norms of British society and changing herself to fit into it, and both attempt to reconcile tensions between immigration
…show more content…
Irie’s double-consciousness goes past her cultural identity, and touches down on her physical one also. The narrator states that “...Irie didn’t know she was fine. There was England, a gigantic mirror, and there was Irie, without reflection. A stranger in a stranger land” (Smith 222). Irie’s double-consciousness makes her feel insecure about her weight, despite Clara’s constant reassurance that she is fine and beautiful. Irie becomes obsessed with losing weight, and her obsession grows to the point where it is the only thing that she can think about. Irie’s physique is what the narrator calls a “substantial Jamaican frame”, which is not seen as normal in England (Smith 221). This makes Irie believe her plump body is somewhat extraterrestrial, and makes her determined to change herself in order to be accepted by English society. Furthermore, Irie changes her hair texture and color because she deems herself “...ugly. And fat. With an Afro” (Smith 237). Irie’s double-consciousness expands further when she meets the Chalfens, which caused her to want to change her cultural identity. After meeting the Chalfens, an intellectual middle-class family, Irie becomes fascinated by them. The narrator explains that Irie “...just wanted to...merge with them. She wanted their Englishness...The purity of it” (Smith 272-273). Irie perceives the Chalfen family as ideal and superior to her family. The Chalfens are intellectual, refined people, who embody the pinnacle of perfection. Irie does not want to marry any of them, but she wants to be part of the family, therefore abandoning her own family and culture. At this point, Irie has given up her natural looks and now wishes to become part of a new family with a new ethnicity. Throughout the novel, Irie deals with her double-consciousness by changing her person to fit into the norm of British
Irie’s double-consciousness goes past her cultural identity, and touches down on her physical one also. The narrator states that “...Irie didn’t know she was fine. There was England, a gigantic mirror, and there was Irie, without reflection. A stranger in a stranger land” (Smith 222). Irie’s double-consciousness makes her feel insecure about her weight, despite Clara’s constant reassurance that she is fine and beautiful. Irie becomes obsessed with losing weight, and her obsession grows to the point where it is the only thing that she can think about. Irie’s physique is what the narrator calls a “substantial Jamaican frame”, which is not seen as normal in England (Smith 221). This makes Irie believe her plump body is somewhat extraterrestrial, and makes her determined to change herself in order to be accepted by English society. Furthermore, Irie changes her hair texture and color because she deems herself “...ugly. And fat. With an Afro” (Smith 237). Irie’s double-consciousness expands further when she meets the Chalfens, which caused her to want to change her cultural identity. After meeting the Chalfens, an intellectual middle-class family, Irie becomes fascinated by them. The narrator explains that Irie “...just wanted to...merge with them. She wanted their Englishness...The purity of it” (Smith 272-273). Irie perceives the Chalfen family as ideal and superior to her family. The Chalfens are intellectual, refined people, who embody the pinnacle of perfection. Irie does not want to marry any of them, but she wants to be part of the family, therefore abandoning her own family and culture. At this point, Irie has given up her natural looks and now wishes to become part of a new family with a new ethnicity. Throughout the novel, Irie deals with her double-consciousness by changing her person to fit into the norm of British