Clara and Mrs. McCain

After reading the first four chapters of "White Teeth", the similarity between Clara and Mrs. McCain became more obvious. Both married quickly after meeting their husbands; but aside from marrying older men, both their husbands didn't have much time to spend with them. After Archie and Clara got married, Archie spend a lot of time with his longtime friend, Samad, and so Clara started to wonder why he was never home and why did he spend so much time with Samad. Mrs. McCain also didn't have her husband with her much. John McCain was always working at Washington DC and serving his country, which seemed much like his old time friend.
Another similarity the two had was the presence of drugs in their lives. Clara started using drugs because of a guy that she was with, Ryan. She discovered a life better than giving out Jehovah's Witnesses' pamphlets and trying to save the sinful ones. For the first time, Clara felt free. Free from her mother, from her religion, and from herself. Mrs. McCain used drugs to relieve herself from a life without her husband. She might have felt free from using the drugs, which lead to her addiction. As we know of Mrs. McCain, she stood by her husband no matter what, even now, and Clara does the same for Archie.