KEVIN, FATE and the Jehovah Witnesses are three totally different groups each with their own independent religious allegiances and policies on diverse issues. KEVIN is an Islamic fundamentalist group while FATE is an animal rights group.
On the other hand, there are the Jehovah Witnesses who do not approve of the research being carried out on Future Mouse and have staunch rooting in their beliefs. The thematic significance that the author brings out is the way that different families of mixed ethnicity actually strive with matters of heritage and legacy and try as they may, escaping from the past is virtually impossible.
Another theme that is depicted is that differences in cultural or religious beliefs do not necessarily mean that unity is elusive in issues that affect all of them in general. This basically shows that groups with diverse interests can form a liaison of sorts when it comes to issues pertaining or infringing on their beliefs or policies.
As the title depicts, the differences are put aside because they all have “white teeth”. When the three organizations congregated on the presentation of Future Mouse by Marcus Chalfen, they each planned their own agendas separately, but with a similar or common intention of protesting against the Future Mouse presentation.
KEVIN is protesting Future Mouse with the help of Millat, as is the case with FATE the animal rights group, who gets help from Joshua. The same is the case with Jehovah Witnesses who are planning to protest and are supported by Ryan.
On the relation of the groups to the event and vice versa, each group is in attendance with the sole purpose of protesting against the research being carried out i.e. the alteration of the genes that makes the mouse develop cancers at different times in its lifespan, and the subsequent presentation on the Future Mouse research.
Ryan and the Jehovah Witness plans to go on a hunger strike as their way of protest. Joshua who is affiliated with FATE plans to humiliate his father and Millat with KEVIN plans to use violence as a form of protest.
They all do not agree with the presentation and they were there to express their concerns regarding the presentation. The three groups all have diverse interests but have all come together to attain a common goal. At the same time each group has individual family members who are part and parcel of the Future Mouse presentation whether as key players or minute roles such as the Jones’s.
They were just out to quench their curiosity. The author’s views which are depicted by her portrayal of them are that the past is inescapable. It shows that history has a way of repeating itself. Some characters will try to reject their past like in the case of Clara who left the Jehovah Witness and would not go back as much as Ryan Topps tried to win her back.
They cannot get away from their pasts which keep coming back to them as was the case with Samad when he went to hush the Jehovah Witnesses and returns only to realize that the founder of the Perret Institute and oldest scientist on the panel of Marcus Chalfen was the Nazi conspirator Dr Perret who he had captured during world war 2 and who Archie was supposed to have killed but apparently did not kill him. This view by the author Zadie Smith is also depicted in the preface where she states that her own personal consideration of the past, are what shape her ideas.