The Importance Of Past In Zadie Smith's White Teeth

It has often been said that the present is what matters most. Resolve to live in the now. While that may be true, we often shed importance of our past. Our past dictates who we are and who we will become. For example, take a look at the inspirational Malala Yousafzai, a seventeen year old women’s rights activist. As an adolescent, she was an advocate for girls’ education, which culminated in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. On October 9, 2012, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman. And yet what did she do? She retaliated- not through violence or injustice- but through peace and love. She used that past event, as a catalyst, to further speak for her right, as well as all women’s right, to an education. Before Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, even begins we are led with an inscription, “what is past is prologue.” However, the past isn’t just prologue. The past continues to play a crucial role in our daily lives, even when we don’t realize at the time. …show more content…
At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Archibald “Archie” Jones- a pragmatic, indecisive Englishman who attempts to commit suicide. In the summer of 1955, Archie was unsuccessful in his attempt to get a job as a war correspondent, “And that was it wasn’t it? There was no relevance in the war- not in 1955, even less now in 1974. Nothing he did then mattered now. The skills you learned were in modern parlance, not relevant, not transferable” (Smith 12). Archie feels as though the slightest amount of importance he felt within him was his time during the war. However, in a time where people really didn’t want to know about war anymore, the war seemingly didn’t matter anymore, therefore he didn’t