This document provides a psychoanalytic analysis of the character Irie Jones from Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth. It summarizes that Irie struggles with understanding her mixed racial identity, as the daughter of an English father and Jamaican mother. Her parents offer her little help in exploring her cultural background. Through a psychoanalytic lens, the document analyzes Irie's inner turmoil and desire to learn about her past to define her present identity. It also reflects on how the author and reader's own psychology influences their interpretation of Irie's struggle to find self-acceptance.

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Molly Peters
Professor Frampton
ENGL 508W
13 May 2014
The Importance of Past and Present: An Examination of Irie Jones
“They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your
shadow” is what Zadie Smith declares towards the end of her novel, White Teeth.
Throughout her story, Smith details the lives of complex characters with multicultural
backgrounds who strive to find mutual understanding despite their inherent natural
tendencies that otherwise force them apart. Irie Jones is the daughter of protagonist
Archie and his wife Clara who are of different races therefore leaving Irie with the
responsibility of dealing with a mixed heritage. Irie struggles with her image, which
clearly displays her descent, and strives to find a balance between her competing cultures.
When looking at Smith’s White Teeth through a psychoanalytic lens, it becomes clear that
Irie is the character that most desires to make sense of her background although she
continuously claims to be only focused on the present.
Psychoanalytic theory is useful when studying novels with a variety of complex
characters, i.e. White Teeth. Psychoanalysis focuses on dreams, unconscious desires, and
the repression of those desires. The theory is based primarily on Freud’s The
Interpretation of Dreams, which explains how analyzing peoples dreams or neurotic
actions is necessary in order to understand what is hiding in their unconscious. Because
the unconscious is inaccessible to a person in his or her conscious state, deciphering

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aspects of something as seemingly unimportant as a dream can actually provide better
insight into a person’s psyche than what he or she would willfully admit. The application
of this theory to literature was popularized in the early 1900’s. It gave critics the ability
to bring forth a variety of new interpretations when studying literary characters because it
opened the door to more than what was just written on the page. Looking past merely
how characters communicate and focusing more on their everyday habitual actions is the
first step in becoming a psychoanalytic critic.
There are three different ways to utilize psychoanalytic theory when dissecting a
novel: focusing on the psychologies of the author, the fictional character, and as
suggested in Rene Wellek and Austin Warren’s Theory of Literature, “the effects of
literature upon its readers (audience psychology)” (Ch.8). It is imperative to
acknowledge the psychology of the author, after all, he or she is the person responsible
for the creation of the character who is ultimately being analyzed and the psychology of
the character itself is obviously important as well. But the idea of looking into the
psychology of the reader presents a new angle that is likely often overlooked. However,
the reader’s gender, culture, personal history, and biases will greatly impact his or her
interpretation, which is why “audience psychology” can facilitate further debate. While
many agree upon the ideas of Freud and the practice of his theory in regards to literature,
Ross Murfin explains how some reject parts of this Freudian thought in his explanation of
psychoanalysis, What is Psychoanalytic Criticism? He states how according to Jungian
theory, “a great work of literature is not a disguised expression of its author’s personal,
repressed wishes; rather, it is a manifestation of desires once held by the whole human
race but now repressed because of the advent of civilization”, which potentially relates to

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Smith’s White Teeth (Murfin). The novel details the complications and hardships that
occur in racially diverse relationships, but there is a clear underlying desire to unify
people because they are people, regardless of their differing cultures. This yearning for a
global unification is obviously not one possessed only by Smith, it is human nature to
want to find patterns and similarities in people that are different in order to find common
ground and compatibility. Unfortunately however, the growth of civilization has caused
an increase in hostility, especially between competing cultures, which is why humans
have come to repress such desires. Ultimately, psychoanalytic criticism is chiefly
beneficial because of its potential to catalyze a range of new, creative interpretations in
literary works.
Before attempting to interpret the inner psyche of Irie Jones, I think it would be
appropriate to first understand her creator, author Zadie Smith. Smith was raised in the
same neighborhood that she writes of in White Teeth and is of mixed heritage; her mother
was an immigrant from Jamaica and her father from Britain. Sound familiar? In the same
way as protagonist Irie Jones, Smith likely struggled with finding an identity while
battling the questions surrounding her past; however, she makes it clear that she has
successfully dealt with such issues and is better for it. Because of the excessive amount
of similarities between Smith and Jones, it is evident that parts of Smith’s life heavily
influence her writing thus proving that psychoanalytic theory’s requirement to study the
author’s background can lead to a better observation of the novel as a whole. To deny
this fact would be ludicrous. When I begin a writing project, I first think of the ways my
own life is affected by whatever the prompt requires because relating ideas to personal
experiences will make the writing exploit far more meaningful, which will come through

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in the text. Smith’s White Teeth is presumably so compelling because it is obvious Smith
puts herself into the narrative thereby making it genuine and authentic. Her desire to
write truthfully is made apparent in an interview with KPBS when asked how she went
about portraying multiracial London. Her response, “I was just trying to approach
London […] If I were to write a book about London in which there were only white
people, I think that would be kind of bizarre […] because it’s patently not what London
is, nor has it been for fifty years”, illuminates the aforementioned desire (Smith). Being
conscious of the fact that Smith writes from her own life will help with the following
analysis of Irie.
Throughout the novel, Irie Jones is the character struggling most with
understanding her identity. This may sound like a relatively straightforward feat, but in
Elizabeth Howland’s thesis, she refers to Irie’s search for self-authenticity as an “almost
utopian notion” therefore proving its difficulty (Howland). Irie’s father Archie would
best be described as a typical, white Englishman who easily adapts to living in suburban
England; he fits in. Although not terribly interesting or complex, Archie knows who he
is and he does not stray far from his plainness. Archie is secure in his identity and
therefore cannot supply Irie with much aid in her search. For some aggravating reason,
Archie seems to care less about his identity as seen when Samad asks him, “You don’t
stand for anything, Jones […] What are you going to tell your children when they ask
who you are, what you are? Will you know? Will you ever know?” (Ch. 5). For a person
with immense pride in his culture, like Samad, Archie’s dearth of interest could most
definitely be taken offensively. It is probable that Irie feels a similar frustration, only to a
greater extent considering Archie is her father, which is why she chooses to seek answers

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independently. This creates an entirely new issue in itself because parents are supposed
to be the ones children can turn to in times of distress. But it can be difficult discussing
identity crisis with someone who is not going through a similar problem because his or
her advice might be mistaken for judgment or a lack of sincerity. In W.E.B. Du Bois’
The Souls of Black Folks, he describes the term double consciousness as “a sense of
always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”, which essentially sums up the
problem Irie faces (Du Bois). Because Irie is so obsessed with uncovering her past—
which is completely justifiable considering the circumstances—she is in a constant state
of disappointment since none of the people who supposedly care about her are willing to
lend support. The people who she surrounds herself with are either confident in their
individuality or are not concerned with it therefore making Irie feel judged and excluded
since she is neither. She cannot find a place where she fits in, so she assumes people look
down on her; and because of her ‘double consciousness’, she looks down on herself.
Although Irie longs to learn more about her past, because she thinks it will help define
who she is presently, she is unclear about what exactly she is looking for. This results in
her compulsively striving to better herself, which is not necessarily a bad thing except for
the fact that she does so unceasingly therefore bringing about greater stress. She even
goes to such lengths as permanently straightening—and thus wrecking—her hair in an
attempt to look more Western and white. The battle between who Irie is, who she wants
to be, and how she wants to be viewed is one that most adolescents are confronted with.
African American professor Racquel Gates describes the difficulties she faces being of
mixed race in her article Identity Crisis when she explains, “I found myself in the midst
of a personal dilemma. I wanted to be honest and present who I was, but at the same time,

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I felt a heavy pressure to represent myself as a serious candidate for graduate study”
(Gates). Gates exemplifies how Irie is not alone in her predicament and that self-
contentment can only be achieved from within. Unfortunately, Irie is undergoing a
personal crisis that she thinks only the past will fix; however, she will eventually realize
that while history is important, focusing on the present is what will lead to future
happiness.
It would be wrong to put all this blame on Archie because Irie’s mother Clara
Bowden should also be held accountable for why Irie struggles so deeply with her
identity. After all, the Bowden side is responsible for giving Irie the insecurities she has
about her appearance. Perhaps if Irie were able to feel a closer connection with the
Jamaican part of her identity, she would be more comfortable in her skin and have less of
a desire to distort her image. Throughout the novel, Clara takes on the persona of
someone who goes with flow. Even when it comes to the naming of her only daughter,
she chooses ‘Irie’ because she says it “Means everyting OK, cool, peaceful, you know?”
(Ch. 4). This is only one of many instances where it is clear that Clara is not a fan of
responsibility. She witnesses her daughter taking desperate measures in order to change
herself, but evidentially does not find it necessary to take equally absurd measures in an
attempt to change Irie’s perceptions. This is not to say that Clara is an awful unloving
mother, she is just blissfully unaware of the depth of Irie’s hopelessness. When readers
are first introduced to Irie, they are presented with a scene where she is on her way to
school dressed in tight corsetry to which Clara reacts by saying, “Irie, my love, you’re
fine – you’re just built like an honest-to-God Bowden – don’t you know you’re fine?”
(Ch. 11). The irony here is that no, Irie does not know that she is fine because she has

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never been properly informed about what it truly means to be an “honest-to-God
Bowden”. Because Clara takes nothing very seriously, it makes sense that Irie would be
unwilling to turn to her for solace. The closest thing Irie sees that represents her culture
would be her mother who is initially described as “beautiful […] magnificently tall, black
as ebony and crushed sable, with hair plaited in a horseshoe which pointed up when she
felt lucky, down when she didn’t”; in other words, the opposite of Irie (Ch. 1). Smith
even mentions while describing Irie, “The European proportions of Clara’s figure had
skipped a generation”, proving that Clara is regrettably not the ideal candidate to relate to
Irie’s struggles. Although Irie rarely explicitly expresses her frustrations, Smith is able to
connect with her on another level therefore allowing readers full access into Irie’s psyche
and thought processes and thus making Irie’s inner turmoil better comprehendible.
After establishing the fact that Irie’s parents offer no help in her quest of finding
herself, it is necessary to adapt a different angle in order to further examine why she
struggles so severely. Philip Tew’s book Reading Zadie Smith: The First Decade and
Beyond details a variety of ways to interpret Smith’s writing. What I found particularly
thought provoking was the proposal of Tew’s interesting theory that states, “White Teeth
presents uncomfortable truths not just about British multicultural society, but also about
the human condition at large […] a disturbing dimension that ultimately demands of
readers that they should question their own individual ways of reading” (Tew). I noticed
that through the duration of my reading White Teeth, I felt rather removed from the
hardships characters were facing. This made me realize that I approach most novels I
read in a similar manner. Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations is one that came to mind
when thinking about times where it was difficult for me to connect with a character’s

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problems. Great Expectations could be considered a predecessor to Smith’s White Teeth
because both protagonists, Pip and Irie, are not only on quests to find themselves but also
know little about their family histories. Irie is at least given some clues regarding her
past, while Pip is put in a far worse position that is made clear when he proclaims, “As I
never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them […] my
first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their
tombstones” (Dickens, Ch.1). After contemplating Tew’s proposal, it became clear to me
that in order to fully understand a character’s psychological development, I need to first
change the way I read and think. Apparently I was only ever focused on the first two
aspects of psychoanalytic theory: the psychology of the fictional character and his or her
author; but I was forgetting about “audience psychology”, or the way I was thinking and
perceiving. Tew’s advice opened my eyes to the fact that if I could not emotionally
connect with the characters I was reading about, then I was not fulfilling the goals of
Smith or Dickens because I was not applying the lessons learned by the characters to my
own life. Pip’s and Irie’s struggles become irrelevant if readers proceed to make their
same mistakes even after reading about how to avoid them. Ultimately it is the readers
who determine whether or not a character’s hardships have purpose, because readers are
the only ones with the ability to actualize fictional success and or avoid fictional failures.
If one does not take from Pip’s experiences that happiness is more than material goods or
realize that identity is more than just a person’s past after witnessing Irie’s internal battle,
then he or she should not have read the novels to begin with. Overall, Tew’s Reading
Zadie Smith: The First Decade and Beyond changed my perspective on the way I

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understand character psyche making me more successful in my analysis of not only the
novel but also the world that surrounds me.
Coming to the realization that it is necessary to relate aspects of character struggle
to my own life in order to procure a more worthwhile reading experience, I attempted to
think of how Irie’s search for an identity is similar to my own. I then became conscious
of the fact that spending most of my time on a college campus, I witness students going
through similar crises daily. Although not identical to Irie’s situation—students at SDSU
are not necessarily struggling with understanding mixed heritage, while I am sure some
are—college is a time where young adults are expected to establish the rest of their lives
thus resulting in a type of identity crisis. Personally, I am unsure of what path I would
like to follow as I embark into the ominous “real world” and I somewhat relate to the
pressures Irie is feeling. While my past has not been kept a secret from me, I find myself
turning to it in hopes of finding something that might shed light on how I should proceed
with life; like Irie, I am not wholly confident in what I am searching for. I am focusing
on the courses my parents and grandparents followed in an attempt to find something I
too might be interested in, when maybe I should be focused on what presently satisfies
me and go from there. Everyone in some way deals with a kind double consciousness
because it is easier to view yourself the way others view you especially when you have
yet to figure out who “you” actually is. So it seems as though the only way to eliminate a
double conscience is to figure out an identity that is fulfilling regardless of the past so
that way it does not matter what others think. Samad puts it perfectly when he makes this
statement in church, “in the end, your past is not my past and your truth is not my truth
and your solution – it is not my solution” (Ch. 7). He basically makes it clear that

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everybody is different and that no two people should be held against the same standards.
This is not to discourage people from wanting to learn more about their pasts, our
ancestors and living relatives can often give advice that would otherwise be missed; but
one should not solely rely on the past when creating his or her identity, which Irie
ultimately realizes.
Although Irie struggles with searching for her identity for the majority of the
White Teeth, she ultimately finds peace with the fact that her past and her culture do not
have to define who she is. By the end of the novel, she comes to the realization that
“roots won’t matter any more because they can’t because they mustn’t because they’re
too long and they’re too tortuous and they’re just buried too damn deep”, proving that she
has found happiness within herself and with the present (Ch. 20). In Taryn Beukema’s
article Men Negotiating Identity in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, she expands upon the
above passage explaining how, “Irie’s opinion of roots and is thus indicative of the
feminine viewpoint that the past should be past” (Beukema). After attempting to learn
more about Irie’s psyche by putting the novel under a psychoanalytic lens, it becomes
evident that there is more to her character than just what she explicitly says.
Additionally, Phillip Tew’s advice to scrutinize the way one goes about reading a novel
helped to illuminate qualities of Irie that are present in everyone. Even though Irie
grapples most with her individuality, she ultimately ends up with the best identity
because she was able to start as a blank slate and come to her own conclusions about
herself thus being the character with the most substantial development.

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Works Cited
Beukema, Taryn . "Men Negotiating Identity in Zadie Smith’s White
Teeth." Postcolonial Text 4: 1-15. Web. 8 May 2014.
Dickens, Charles . Great Expectations . Boston: Bedford Books of St Martins Press,
1996. Print.
Du Bois, WEB. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: McClurg & Co, 1903. Print.
Gates, Racquel . "Identity Crisis." Cinema Journal 52: 123-128. Web. 8 May 2014.
Howard, Elizabeth. “A Search for Authenticity: Understanding Zadie Smith’s White
Teeth Using Judith Butler’s Performativity and Jane Austen’s Satire.” MA thesis.
East Carolina University, 2009. Web
Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Great Expectations: What is Psychoanalytic
Criticism." Great Expectations . Boston: Bedford Books of St Martins Press,
1996. . Print.
Smith, Zadie. Interview. KPBS. New York, 2003. Web
Smith, Zadie. White teeth: a novel. New York: Random House, 2000. Print.
Tew, Peter. "White Teeth: Narrative Deception and Uncomfortable Truths." Reading
Zadie Smith: The First Decade and Beyond. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, 2013. . Print.
Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren . Theory of Literature . New York: Harcourt Brace and
Company, 1934. Print.