Previous
Shiva Bhagwati
Ryan Topps is Clara Bowden’s former boyfriend, an awkward, lanky, red-headed boy who also attends her high school. Clara and Ryan date briefly, but Hortense, Clara’s mother, manages to convert Ryan to the Jehovah’s Witnesses; he becomes a devout worshipper and attempts to “save” Clara after she leaves the religion. Later in the novel, he is revealed to have moved in with Hortense, serving as a kind of live-in aide to her.
Ryan Topps Quotes in White Teeth
The White Teeth quotes below are all either spoken by Ryan Topps or refer to Ryan Topps. 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:
).
Chapter 2 Quotes
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:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire White Teeth LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Ryan Topps Character Timeline in White Teeth
The timeline below shows where the character Ryan Topps appears in White Teeth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
The story shifts to Clara Bowden’s narrative, specifically the story of Clara and Ryan Topps, who is essential to understanding why she married Archie. Ryan is lanky and redheaded;...
(full context)
...(the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation) to go “doorstepping” (going door-to-door to convert people). Coincidentally, she encounters Ryan Topps at one of the doors, and nervously asks if he is interested “in de...
(full context)
...out church literature. One day, Clara has detention and misses her four o’clock meeting with Ryan. When she returns home, she finds him eating with Hortense, cheerfully chatting; soon, Ryan and...
(full context)
Ryan and Clara go on a scooter ride across London and up to Hampstead Heath, where...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...he has never married, since he is “married to the church” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Ryan enters the house, talking about church teachings, and Hortense introduces him to Irie, telling him...
(full context)
...Witnesses from Brooklyn about “fixing de final date”—the date for the end of the world. Ryan Topps takes Hortense out to church on his motorbike, which he has kept for many...
(full context)
That evening, Hortense and Ryan are excited, since they believe that they have received a final confirmation for the date...
(full context)
Chapter 18
On December 20 at midnight, Irie picks up the phone in her house. Ryan and Hortense have called her at exactly midnight (0000 hours) on the twentieth—signifying the year...
(full context)
Chapter 19
Ryan Topps was asked to assemble the Lambeth Kingdom Hall’s Thought for the Day desk calendar...
(full context)
Chapter 20
...begun to sing hymns. Archie sends Samad out to see Hortense, who is standing with Ryan Topps and other Witness ladies, passing out copies of the Watchtower (Witness literature). Samad approaches...
(full context)
