White Teeth Characters

Alfred Archibald Jones

For a character who is the subject of the very beginning and the very end of this novel—not...

Samad Miah Iqbal

Samad is loud, dark-skinned, fiery-tempered, self-contradictory, Bangladeshi, insecure…...

Clara Bowden Jones

Over the course of White Teeth, Clara goes from awkward, toothless Jehovah's Witness to Archie's...

Irie Jones

Irie's a big girl. Her looks don't exactly live up to contemporary Western standards of beauty....

Millat Iqbal

Millat, the younger Iqbal twin, is the quintessential bad boy. He smokes, drinks, has sex with...

Magid Iqbal

Magid is absent from his family's drama—and much of the plot of the novel—for eight...

Alsana Begum Iqbal

Alsana is the kind of person we might call feisty. She has an opinion about pretty much...

Hortense Bowden

Hortense is Clara Bowden's strict (and strictly religious) mother. If she has a claim to fame, it...

Marcus Chalfen

Marcus "the mad scientist" Chalfen's claim to fame is FutureMouse. This project involves...

Joyce Chalfen

Joyce Chalfen would probably describe herself as part horticultural expert, part supermom, and...

Joshua Chalfen

Joshua Chalfen is totally the dark horse in White Teeth. Josh is in school with Irie and Millat,...

Minor Characters

In White Teeth, Ryan Topps goes from Clara's not-so-attractive boyfriend to her mother's live-in...