Summer 2026

ECL508W

Identity, Complex: Who Am I…

The human experience is riddled with conundrums, contradictions & complexities that serve to further exacerbate the conditions which we breed. What is ‘my’ truth but a mere collection of language, pre-downloaded & hard-wired, prior to any concept of existence; colliding with a learned comprehension of that which is personally perceived, through the translated lens of said installed syntax. How is one to ‘speak their truth’ when the signifiers of language remove fundamental truths from the signified? Implementing a means by which the voice becomes the veil of obscurity, truth is perspective manifest. So much as I care, I do not feel bad. I have settled with my shadows, and the light which casts them, the dredges of complacency which align my complicit inaction. I have made my bed, and lay in it peacefully, as all else passes and I patiently await awakening. I recognize that the life worth living forms the ripples which cause it, and as such lay unmoved by its wake. I have stood tall on breached walls and lain in hiding at such sullen doorsteps. From blind patriotism (through youthful military service) to enlightened radicalist (living on the beach in a tent) I have done a fair share of contributing to the frontline narrative of many perspectives from such contrasting dichotomies. Now I sit far from the sidelines, gazing reluctantly upon the action, only so much as to know when to step further away as the machinations gain ground. The Self inherited by tradition serves as a means to guide us, through practice, to challenge us in our forward way of thinking by constricting constructs to predetermined insights. Falling heir to such great expectations is a means by which history envelops us without so much as a word for confirmation. The Self acquired by innovation serves as a means to further restrict the boundless nature of the individual. The refining & synthesizing culminates into a check-list of signifiers, further defining the individual, driving deeper separation from the signified. The Self experiencing an ever-changing identity recognizes the binary oppositions at play; ever-entangled from root to branch. “It is a matter of finding out, not of assuming from the start that a single method or theory will do” (Eagleton, p. 184). Still, yet evolving. Unmoved, yet motion itself. Firm, yet malleable. That which I aim to change about ‘my’ Self and subsequently the world today is the incessant desire to pit the individual against one another; classifying, categorizing and sorting until the story of ‘us’ and ‘them’ becomes familiar enough to weaponize. Utilizing Zadie Smith’s White Teeth to depict the ways in which this narrative plays out in literature; I will, in-turn, dismantle the inherited & acquired mind from the shackles of its own creative damnation which so entraps the experience of living, through a series of demographic boxes to be marked, like targets awaiting their piercing blow.

Throughout the entirety of White Teeth characters are confronted by the creeping tendrils of tradition. Often challenging the required offering as if inheritance is alone insufficient. The difficulty with starting anew is that there is always some form of tradition which governs the stakes of change. “The sheer quantity of shit that must be wiped off the slate if we are to start again as new. Race. Land. Ownership. Faith. Theft. Blood. And more blood” (Smith, p. 378). Whether it is the desire to maintain tradition (an eye for an eye) or to break free of it (blinded, now I see) each is entwined with the other as if wings on a bat in the night, wherein sight is indifferent. How far must the torch be carried, the scars revered, before the burdens of the past restrict movement enough to recognize stagnation? A prime example of this can be seen in Millat whose struggle with belonging delivers him to the crossroads of a brutal decision. “And underneath it all, there remained an ever-present anger and hurt, the feeling of belonging nowhere that comes to people who belong everywhere” (Smith, p. 225). The trials of his great-great-grandfather passed down from generation-to-generation. Samad’s aggrandizing of the past, and the forcing of tradition upon his ill-begotten son, creating a boiling point for deadly consequences. “During the war, [Samad] envisioned a united Commonwealth of British subjects, but at war’s end the wartime claims to unity become unnecessary, and categories of absolute difference forcefully reemerge” (Thompson, p. 270). In Samad’s disillusionment to the British Empire, he seems to further attach himself to the story of his great-grandfather, who stood up to a regime to retain cultural heritage. This infatuation with such an extreme familial tradition of ‘us vs. them’ plants the seed for Millat to thrive in such savage debates. These concepts of tradition & culture are then reduced down and simplified into demographics & data points to be utilized in the innovation of institutionalization.

The innovation of institutionalization… What do I mean? On a fundamental level I am referencing the classification of race, color & creed; the acquired identity. Not in the individual perspective as a means to delineate some form of understanding, but as a tool to divide & control those whose signifiers are misaligned from our own. Irie, who finds herself between the religious traditions of her family and the genetic innovation of her community, simply moves from one social camp to the next. One label (Millat’s rock) to the next (Marcus’ Secretary). For lack of a better term, becoming the ‘them’ in question, or rather forming a new ‘us’ to become apart. “So there existed fathers who dealt in the present, who didn’t drag ancient history around like a ball and chain. So there were men who were not neck-deep and sinking in the quagmire of the past” (Smith, p. 271). In this phrasing we gain a lot of insight into the force which moves Irie further into the sphere of FutureMouse. In her desire to separate herself from said tradition, she finds a ‘proven science’ which could possibly determine the future of genomes. No longer leaving life up to chance, but defining what it means to be living. “Literature may appear to be describing the world, and sometimes actually does so, but its real function is performative: it uses language within certain conventions in order to bring about certain effects in the reader” (Eagleton, p. 103). Taken out of context and with literal translation, this can be read as ‘the decisions that define us.’ If you were walking down a road, and the fork goes left or right; does the way you choose to walk define you, or was the pavement already being laid give way to your decision? Quite the conundrum. At which border does tradition end and innovation begin, is there a border? “Ultimately, Smith’s novel dwells in the uncertainties of history, pointing to how the most powerful resistance to imperial categories is not to reverse or redefine those categories but to do away with them entirely” (Thompson, p. 263). Although, I myself do not see the need for such an extreme decision, or even a plausible means to ‘do away with them entirely’. I believe identity is experienced in the moment and by the individual, as such any categorization of the Self that does occur, may be left up to the Self to decide.

Although our skin color, place of origin, occupation & pastime, etc., may be determinants in our predilections, these are not confining factors in the outcomes of our experience. Rather these are over-lapping & intersecting crossroads, of which left & right have no place in determining direction. The ability to reconstruct the foundation of experience while maintaining the structure of identity becomes a tool for redefining life. Regarding any ‘fixed roots’ which uphold the identity of Self; being able to reshape & remove them where necessary creates further stability. “[A time] when roots won’t matter anymore because they can’t because they mustn’t because they’re too long and they’re too torturous and they’re just buried too damn deep” (Smith, p. 437). The desire to belong is rooted deeper than most fundamental experiences of human life. To belong to a belief, a dream, a hope, for something other than uncertainty. To be sure, steadfast, unrelenting in knowing. To find the Self in each moment, and be recognized in the experience of living. “...the novel itself asks whether such clearcut boundaries between truth and fiction can be taken for granted” (Thompson, p. 279). The realities which we each lead are far stranger than the land we may find ourselves. The coincidences are simply the synchronicities we decide to disregard. Ultimately, the human mind is designed to categorize. Pattern-recognition is a fundamental building block for survival. The issues arise when blind-action supersedes responsible dialogue and classifications determine plan ‘A’ or plan ‘B’.

As is depicted in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, the frontline conflicts of our inherited & acquired identities takes place in the kitchen, not some foreign border. The familial desire for tradition is antagonized by the societal pull for innovation of the Self. Personal experiences stuck between ancient history (Mangal Pande) and modern tech (FutureMouse). For all intents and purposes Millat’s ‘traditional’ design in joining KEVIN and Irie’s ‘innovative’ interest in FutureMouse are both met with internal debate. How fundamental is fundamental? How intelligent is intelligent? Are you a doctor or a dentist; a hero or a pandy? These being some of the challenges that are met along the way to Self-discovery, are similar to questions we all face. There is a fine line between the strength in our differences and the weaponization of classification. “‘Sometimes we find other people’s music strange because their culture is different from ours… But that doesn’t mean it isn’t equally good, now does it?’” (Smith, p. 130). Stereotyping for the sake of racism, ostracization for purely malicious intent, defining borders as a means to outline the bloodshed; these are an extreme end of pattern-recognition, and as such should be challenged immediately. Identity may be inherited or acquired. Who am I… You from afar.

Works Cited

Eagleton, T., (2008). Literary Theory: An Introduction. University of Minnesota Press.

Smith, Z., (2000). White Teeth. Vintage Books.

Thompson, M., (2024). “Empire and the Rhetoric of Total War in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.” Twentieth-Century Literature, 70(3), 261-284.

‍ ‍https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1215/0041462X-11399100