Novel #5: Fortuitous Timing in Archie's Life

In White Teeth, chance plays an integral part in no other character's life more Archie's and serves to characterize his easygoing nature and inability to make decisions. In the beginning of the novel, Archie almost commits suicide, but a butcher fortuitously intervenes because of where Archie parked his car. One can imagine that the butcher might have just as easily not intervened; indeed, the narrator says that life "jealously grabbed [Archie] from the jaws of death" (6). The roles of both the butcher and life personified imply that Archie does not control what happens to him, but rather, events in Archie's life are determined more by forces outside of himself. Also, the narrator portrays Archie and Clara's meeting as simply "something [that] happened by accident"--Archie does not take action and look for her, but rather Clara seems to come to him when she descends the staircase (19). These two major events determine the path of Archie's life in the rest of the novel. Therefore, the events suggest both that Archie does not control his own life and that Archie does not want the responsibility of having control over his own life. After all, throughout the novel, he definitely seems to "go along to get along," as seen how he constantly flips a coin for every decision he must make, even when it comes to whether or not he should kill Dr. Sick.

The opening quote of chapter I captures and explains Archie's viewpoint-- that "every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important today and when you say of a things that 'nothing hangs on it' it sounds like blasphemy" (1). Indeed, judging by how he fears making decisions, Archie seems to think of the world in these weighty cause-and-effect terms. Perhaps his attitude comes from the fact that he sees his own life as pointless and meaningless; after all, at the beginning of the novel, he thinks of his life as "a dull childhood, a bad marriage, a dead-end job" (12). Maybe he sees himself as miniscule in the grand scheme of things and not important enough to make these decisions. Regardless, Archie's extreme easygoing attitude makes it easy for him to heave his decision-making responsibility on other people and factors.