Highlight of the novel

博士病的意义在于，随着他的再现，小说达到了高潮，这也意味着突出了小说的主题。这个角色引起阿尔奇和萨马德之间的冲突，命运之间，加剧了米列特的暴力，本质上，其实是这些不同的文化和种族之间的冲突。当他再次出现的时候，他还起到连接其他特征的一个重要部分。

Explain the significance of Dr. Sick in the novel. Why does Samad want Archie to shoot Dr. Sick, and why does Archie keep rescuing him instead? What does this imply about the themes of the novel?

The significance of Dr. Sick is that with his reappearance the novel reaches the climax, which signifies the themes of the novel as well. This character arouses the conflicts between Archie and Samad, between FATE and FutureMouse, and intensifies Millat’s violence, and essentially, these are the conflicts between different cultures and races. When he appears the second time, it also shows that “life is a circle”, or "eternal recurrence", which is another important theme in White Teeth. He also plays an important part of connecting other characters, like Mo and Archie in the beginning and the end of the novel, illustrating the theme of Interconnectedness. 

From the flashback of the novel we can know that Samad wants to kill Dr. Sick himself in the first place, for it is his last chance to be a hero. But Archie, the peace-maker, tries to persuade his friend, telling him that it is the English, instead of Muslims as himself, should hate the Nazis, which result in having to kill Dr. Sick himself. But he set the French scientist free, and years later when the history repeats, he saves him again. Having a belief of not killing, and peace-making, Archie is a representative of tolerating different cultures in the complex postcolonial world. He understands the difficult situation of immigrants, and always tries to make peace. While Samad is a Bengali living in Britain, who loses his cultural identity, struggles with Englishness and longs for being someone important. 

So I think it implies the theme of cultural tolerance. Killing Dr. Sick won’t make everything better, which is also means that violence and exaggerating the differences are not going to solve the problems of multicultural conflicts. The outburst of the Indian Mutiny is because of a cultural misunderstanding. Yet years later, people still don’t realize the importance of communication and mutual understanding. Most of the characters in this novel, especially immigrants like Samad, and Alsana, hold a strong hostility to the English culture. They are devoted Muslims and suffers a lot in a totally different new place. But they never even try to be tolerant, let alone the understanding of it. Millat, after joining KEVIN, is worse than his parents, acting as an extremist, even tries to shoot Dr. Sick in order to fulfilling his violence plan. Archie, on the contrary, plays a role of accommodator, making peace for everyone. His rescuing of Dr. Sick proves to be right, since the latter has changed from a Nazi to benevolent person.

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