White Teeth & Presidental Comparison

One of the first comparisons that came to mind when I read our discussion topics was that of Archie and Cindy McCain. Cindy McCain did not try to commit suicide like Archie, but I still feel as though their situations are similar. Both were trying to escape situations that they were dealing with…Archie by committing suicide and Cindy by take prescription pills. Archie felt as if he had nothing to live for anymore after his divorce from his wife. Cindy was distraught from rumors spread about her husband and suffering from serious back pain from surgery. Both needed an escape. After Archie was accidentally saved from his own suicide he felt a new enthusiasm for life, he was finally happy again. Like Archie, Cindy eventually found happiness in, for once, following her husband on his campaigning trail. However, both Archie and Cindy’s newfound happiness was short lived. Archie remarried shortly after his attempted suicide and returned to a monotonous lifestyle…working and hanging out with his friend, Samad. Likewise, Cindy retreated from the public eye after her husband dropped out of a running because of rumors being spread about her drug addiction and about their child.

A second comparison that struck me was between Archie and John McCain. Both had similar marital relationships. I not sure if it says specifically how many years Archie was married to his first wife, but I would assume it was quite a few years considering he was 47 years old when the two divorced. The same goes for John McCain. Although I do not know specifically how long he and his first wife were married I’d assume it was a decent amount of time considering he was 41 and a father of three when he and his wife divorced. After both were divorced they seemed to have hurried into a second marriage. Because I have not finished White Teeth, I have yet to say whether the marriage of Archie and Clara is going to end in happiness. And, even though it seems that the John and Cindy McCain are in love and have a good marriage, reading the article “In Search of Cindy McCain” has me wondering otherwise. After reading that article it seemed to me that marriage was more of an understanding than two people in love bonded by marriage. So after reading the first four chapters of White Teeth I feel that both John McCain and Archie’s marriages are very similar.