White Teeth

by

Zadie Smith

Marcus Chalfen is the patriarch of the Chalfen family, an Oxbridge-educated scientist (“Oxbridge” refers to the prestigious British universities Cambridge and Oxford). Marcus has four sons: Joshua, Benjamin, Jack, and Oscar. He is boisterous, arrogant, and at times somewhat tactless—he’s prone to making inappropriate or sexually charged comments (particularly about Irie Jones and about his wife, Joyce). However, Marcus is also intelligent and driven. His FutureMouse project, a study in genetic experimentation, is a source of major conflict in the latter half of the novel, dividing the Chalfen, Iqbal, and Jones families—in part because Magid Iqbal becomes one of Marcus’s collaboraters on the project. Marcus’s “Chalfenist” ways—his reliance on and faith in scientific rationality—can be seen to symbolize European or Western values. By strictly controlling the FutureMouse, his genetic experiment, Marcus effectively colonizes the animal in the name of science and progress, just as European countries colonized non-Western countries under the guise of helping these countries “develop.”

Marcus Chalfen Quotes in White Teeth

The White Teeth quotes below are all either spoken by Marcus Chalfen or refer to Marcus Chalfen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family Ties Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Do you know who this man is, Jones?” Samad grabbed the doctor by the back of his hair and bent his neck over the back seat. “The Russians told me. He’s a scientist, like me—but what is his science? Choosing who shall be born and who shall not—breeding people as if they were so many chickens, destroying them if the specifications are not correct. He wants to control, to dictate the future. He wants a race of men, a race of indestructible men, that will survive the last days of this earth. But it cannot be done in a laboratory. It must be done, it can only be done, with faith! Only Allah saves! I am no religious man—I have never possessed the strength—but I am not fool enough to deny the truth!”

Related Characters: Archibald (Archie) Jones , Samad Iqbal, Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret (Dr. Sick)
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The Chalfens had no friends. They interacted mainly with the Chalfen extended family (the good genes that were so often referred to; two scientists, one mathematician, three psychiatrists, and a young cousin working for the Labour Party) […] Bottom line: the Chalfens didn’t need other people. They referred to themselves as nouns, verbs, and occasionally adjectives: It’s the Chalfen way, And then he came out with a real Chalfenism, He’s Chalfening again, We need to be a bit more Chalfenist about this. Joyce challenged anyone to show her a happier family, a more Chalfenist family than theirs.

Related Characters: Irie Ambrosia Jones , Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen, Joyce Chalfen, Joshua Chalfen
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Worst of all was the anger inside [Millat]. Not the righteous anger of a man of God, but the seething, violent anger of a gangster, a juvenile delinquent, determined to prove himself, determined to run the clan, determined to beat the rest. And if the game was God, if the game was a fight against the West, against the presumptions of Western science, against his brother or Marcus Chalfen, he was determined to win it. Millat stubbed his fag out against the banister. It pissed him off that these were not pious thoughts. But they were in the right ball-park, weren’t they? He had the fundamentals, didn’t he? Clean living, praying (five times a day without fail), fasting, working for the cause, spreading the message?

Related Characters: Millat Iqbal, Magid Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

Because Millat was here to finish it. To revenge it. To turn that history around. He liked to think he had a different attitude, a second-generation attitude. If Marcus Chalfen was going to write his name all over the world, Millat was going to write his BIGGER. There would be no misspelling his name in the history books. There’d be no forgetting the dates and times. Where Pande misfooted he would step sure. Where Pande chose A, Millat would choose B.

Related Characters: Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Archie, for one, watched the mouse. He watched it stand very still for a second with a smug look as if it expected nothing less. He watched it scurry away, over his hand. He watched it dash along the table, and through the hands of those who wished to pin it down. He watched it leap off the end and disappear through an air vent. Go on my son! thought Archie.

Related Characters: Archibald (Archie) Jones , Marcus Chalfen
Related Symbols: The FutureMouse
Page Number: 448
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire White Teeth LitChart as a printable PDF.
White Teeth PDF

Marcus Chalfen Quotes in White Teeth

The White Teeth quotes below are all either spoken by Marcus Chalfen or refer to Marcus Chalfen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family Ties Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Do you know who this man is, Jones?” Samad grabbed the doctor by the back of his hair and bent his neck over the back seat. “The Russians told me. He’s a scientist, like me—but what is his science? Choosing who shall be born and who shall not—breeding people as if they were so many chickens, destroying them if the specifications are not correct. He wants to control, to dictate the future. He wants a race of men, a race of indestructible men, that will survive the last days of this earth. But it cannot be done in a laboratory. It must be done, it can only be done, with faith! Only Allah saves! I am no religious man—I have never possessed the strength—but I am not fool enough to deny the truth!”

Related Characters: Archibald (Archie) Jones , Samad Iqbal, Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret (Dr. Sick)
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The Chalfens had no friends. They interacted mainly with the Chalfen extended family (the good genes that were so often referred to; two scientists, one mathematician, three psychiatrists, and a young cousin working for the Labour Party) […] Bottom line: the Chalfens didn’t need other people. They referred to themselves as nouns, verbs, and occasionally adjectives: It’s the Chalfen way, And then he came out with a real Chalfenism, He’s Chalfening again, We need to be a bit more Chalfenist about this. Joyce challenged anyone to show her a happier family, a more Chalfenist family than theirs.

Related Characters: Irie Ambrosia Jones , Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen, Joyce Chalfen, Joshua Chalfen
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Worst of all was the anger inside [Millat]. Not the righteous anger of a man of God, but the seething, violent anger of a gangster, a juvenile delinquent, determined to prove himself, determined to run the clan, determined to beat the rest. And if the game was God, if the game was a fight against the West, against the presumptions of Western science, against his brother or Marcus Chalfen, he was determined to win it. Millat stubbed his fag out against the banister. It pissed him off that these were not pious thoughts. But they were in the right ball-park, weren’t they? He had the fundamentals, didn’t he? Clean living, praying (five times a day without fail), fasting, working for the cause, spreading the message?

Related Characters: Millat Iqbal, Magid Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

Because Millat was here to finish it. To revenge it. To turn that history around. He liked to think he had a different attitude, a second-generation attitude. If Marcus Chalfen was going to write his name all over the world, Millat was going to write his BIGGER. There would be no misspelling his name in the history books. There’d be no forgetting the dates and times. Where Pande misfooted he would step sure. Where Pande chose A, Millat would choose B.

Related Characters: Millat Iqbal, Marcus Chalfen
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Archie, for one, watched the mouse. He watched it stand very still for a second with a smug look as if it expected nothing less. He watched it scurry away, over his hand. He watched it dash along the table, and through the hands of those who wished to pin it down. He watched it leap off the end and disappear through an air vent. Go on my son! thought Archie.

Related Characters: Archibald (Archie) Jones , Marcus Chalfen
Related Symbols: The FutureMouse
Page Number: 448
Explanation and Analysis: