Clara Bowden-Jones Character Analysis in White Teeth

Clara is the mother of Irie Jones and the wife of Archie Jones, born to Hortense and Darcus Bowden. Like her daughter, she is initially a shy child, forced to go “doorstepping”—recruiting converts for the Jehovah’s Witnesses—by her religious mother. Clara breaks away from her life of piety when she meets Ryan Topps, a student at her high school who introduces her to drugs and sex; ironically, Ryan becomes a Jehovah’s Witness at Hortense’s urging, while Clara continues to rebel. Though Clara considers herself an atheist, throughout the novel she feels insecure about her distance from religion; she still believes that she needs a “savior,” someone to redeem her and provide her with purpose. She thinks that Archie Jones, whom she marries at age 19, might play this role, but she quickly realizes that he is dull and unsatisfying as a life partner. Nonetheless, Clara settles into a comfortable family life, though she also seeks out an independent lifestyle—taking courses at a local university and developing a friendship with Alsana Iqbal.

Clara Bowden-Jones Quotes in White Teeth

The White Teeth quotes below are all either spoken by Clara Bowden-Jones or refer to Clara Bowden-Jones. 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:

Yet a residue, left over from the evaporation of Clara’s faith, remained. She still wished for a savior. She still wished for a man to whisk her away, to choose her above others so that she might walk in white with Him: for [she] was worthy. Revelation 3:4.

Related Characters: Clara Bowden-Jones, Hortense Bowden, Ryan Topps, Archibald (Archie) Jones

Page Number and Citation: 38

Explanation and Analysis:

“Talk, talk, talk and it will be better. Be honest, slice open your heart and spread the red stuff around. But the past is made of more than words, dearie. We married old men, you see? These bumps”—Alsana pats them both—“they will always have daddy-long-legs for fathers. One leg in the present, one in the past. No talking will change this. Their roots will always be tangled. And roots get dug up. Just look in my garden—birds at the coriander every bloody day. . .”

Related Characters: Alsana Iqbal (née Begum) (speaker), Clara Bowden-Jones

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

It’s all very well, this instruction of Alsana’s to look at the thing close up; to look at it dead straight between the eyes; an unflinching and honest stare, a meticulous inspection that would go beyond the heart of the matter to its marrow, beyond the marrow to the root—but the question is how far back do you want? How far will do?

Related Characters: Alsana Iqbal (née Begum) , Clara Bowden-Jones

Page Number and Citation: 71

Explanation and Analysis:

O what a tangled web we weave. Millat was right: these parents were damaged people, missing hands, missing teeth. These parents were full of information you wanted to know but were too scared to hear. But [Irie] didn’t want it anymore, she was tired of it. She was sick of never getting the whole truth. She was returning to sender.

Related Characters: Irie Ambrosia Jones , Millat Iqbal, Clara Bowden-Jones

Related Symbols: Teeth

Page Number and Citation: 314

Explanation and Analysis:

Clara Bowden-Jones Character Timeline in White Teeth

The timeline below shows where the character Clara Bowden-Jones appears in White Teeth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Race, Racism, and Multiculturalism Theme Icon

Yet something is destined to happen that will transform Archie: his encounter with Clara Bowden, a woman “beautiful in all senses except, maybe, by virtue of being black.” She... (full context)

The story shifts to Clara Bowden’s narrative, specifically the story of Clara and Ryan Topps, who is essential to understanding... (full context)

Hortense, Clara’s mother, tells her that not everyone can be saved, and asks Darcus, Clara’s father, if... (full context)

On a Sunday morning, Clara is sent out with the youth group of the Lambeth Kingdom Hall (the Jehovah’s Witnesses... (full context)

Clara begins to feel disillusioned with the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she wonders about... (full context)

Ryan and Clara go on a scooter ride across London and up to Hampstead Heath, where he tells... (full context)

On New Year’s, Clara goes to Merlin’s End of the World party, but she feels melancholy throughout the night:... (full context)

By February 1975, Clara has abandoned the church for Archie Jones, but she is not yet a “carefree atheist”:... (full context)

The two married on February 14, Archie in a mohair suit and Clara in a long brown woolen dress and a set of false teeth. Samad and Alsana... (full context)

Clara asks Archie if he thinks that Samad and Alsana, who are coming for dinner, will... (full context)

After leaving the cobbler, Alsana runs into Clara, who is sitting in the back of the white van she and Archie are using... (full context)

Clara tells Archie that she is two-and-a-half months pregnant while he is at work, and he... (full context)

...see him in his office, where he tells him that the company dinner—which Archie brought Clara to—was uncomfortable and “unpleasant.” Kelvin says that he is not a “racialist,” but that Archie’s... (full context)

Clara and Alsana start to see more of each other, meeting for lunch in Kilburn Park,... (full context)

Neena says that it’s a shame that Alsana and Clara are going to have boys, since “men have caused enough chaos this century”: she says... (full context)

...worry about the truth that can be “lived with.” She believes that because she and Clara have married older men, their children “will always have daddy-long-legs for fathers,” “one leg in... (full context)

...who is “not a pretty child”: she has her “genes mixed up, Archie’s nose with Clara’s awful buckteeth.” Irie and Magid are wearing black with white armbands painted with vegetable baskets,... (full context)

...a means of entertainment. Suddenly, a tree crashes through Archie’s house; Samad, Archie, Alsana, and Clara are shaken, but Millat and Irie walk outside to observe the storm. Millat confronts Irie... (full context)

...and Irie, who is overweight—with “Hortense’s substantial Jamaican frame”—is obsessed with losing weight, even though Clara tells her there’s nothing wrong with her. During her English class, she doodles a picture... (full context)

...or disappearance. Alsana is frightened that Millat will marry a white woman, “diluting” their “Bengaliness.” Clara, too, though she married a white man herself, is disappointed to see Irie worship white... (full context)

Alsana and Clara are not pleased that their children are visiting the Chalfen house so frequently—especially Alsana, who... (full context)

Clara asks Neena to go to the Chalfen house with Millat and Irie to see how... (full context)

Alsana and Clara mistrust English education. For Clara, it is because of what happened to her grandmother, Ambrosia... (full context)

Meanwhile, Irie is arguing with Clara over her decision to take a “year off” in Africa before going to school for... (full context)

...younger, she had visited Hortense’s house while her mother was at night school, but once Clara caught wind of the visits, she put an end to them. Hortense’s house seems not... (full context)

...Irie, dumbstruck, before quickly composing himself and telling Irie that he doesn’t remember anything about Clara anymore. (full context)

...Hortense out to church on his motorbike, which he has kept for many years. Later, Clara calls Hortense, angrily saying that she doesn’t want Hortense to fill Irie’s head with religious... (full context)

Alsana tells Clara that she doesn’t recognize Magid, who seems strange; he is fastidious, and he does not... (full context)

Clara offers to let Millat and Magid use a room at the university where she’s taking... (full context)

...about the changes in bus tickets, and Neena tells him to stop being a “bully.” Clara and Alsana chime in, and Irie tells all of them to “shut up”: some families,... (full context)

...to her “uncles,” Millat and Magid. Meanwhile, on December 31, 1999, Samad, Archie, Alsana, and Clara are playing blackjack in O’Connell’s, which has finally opened its doors to women; the narrator... (full context)

Clara Bowden-Jones Character Analysis

Clara Bowden-Jones Quotes in White Teeth

Chapter 2 Quotes

Chapter 4 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Chapter 14 Quotes

Clara Bowden-Jones Character Timeline in White Teeth