White Teeth by Zadie Smith

“By Allah, how thankful  he is (yes, madam, one moment, madam), how gladdened by the thought that Magid, Magid at least, will, in a matter of four hours, be flying east from this place and its demands, its constant cravings, this place where there exists neither patience nor pity, where the people want what they want now, right now (We’ve been waiting twenty minutes for the vegetables), expecting their lovers, their children, their friends, and even their gods to arrive at little cost and in little time, just as table ten expect their tandoori prawns… - These people who would exchange all faith for sex and all sex for power, who would exchange fear if God for self-pride, knowledge for irony, a covered, respectful head for a long, strident shock of orange hair-“ (Smith, 172).

In this excerpt of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, the author shows the irony in which blaming a place and culture for a person’s actions is not rational. Samad is set on the country and culture being the reason why a person is further from God, essentially he makes the culture and country his scapegoat for acting immorally. He describes the place to be demanding, selfish, impatient, and immoral. Yet, he himself acts immorally. Not only through his actions on a day-to-day basis, but Smith throws small snippets of his own impatience as he is going on this tangent. His thoughts come out every so often through parenthesis and italicized text, his own impatient and demanding thoughts while he is complaining about an impatient and demanding country. The author then shows the irony through this, as Samad seems to think he can do no wrong and will not take responsibility for his own actions and thoughts. Speaking of the irony the country has knowledge on, all the while being ironic himself.