On Beauty

“Jerome’s lengthy virginity (which Howard now presumed had come to an end) represented, in Howard’s opinion, an ambivalent relationship to the earth and its inhabitants, which Howard had trouble either celebrating or understanding. Jerome was not quite of the body somehow, and this had always unnerved his father.”

This quote emphasizes the lack of connection between Howard and Jerome. Jerome’s Christianity is not an effect of being raised by Howard, so Howard feels far away from Jerome emotionally. Chief among Howard’s inability to understand his son is the issue of Jerome’s virginity. It is baffling to Howard why Jerome would still be a virgin, which further emphasizes the empathic gap between Howard and Jerome.

“Monty saw his chance and took it. Howard would have done the same. To enact with one sudden tug (like a boy removing his friend’s shorts in front of the opposing team) a complete exposure, a cataclysmic embarrassment—this is one of the purest academic pleasures. One doesn’t have to deserve it; one has only to leave oneself open to it.”

This quote emphasizes the competitive nature of academia. Monty and Howard don’t get along because they directly engage one another in academic debate, confronting each other’s egos and publicly challenging their ideas. It is notable that Howard and Monty are of equal blame in their feud. Attacks are not earned; they simply exist as part of the competitive discourse in academia. This highlights the absurdity of their argument and the myopic nature of academia; two conflicts Smith criticizes as much as she highlights as humanistic.

“There was something fatally humourless even in the way the young man walked, a status-preserving precision to each step, as if proving to a policeman that he could walk along a straight white line.”

Howard’s observation that Mike walks “along a straight white line” is a double entendre with layered implications. As a young Black man, Mike’s preservation of status in his manner of walking demonstrates the survival tactics he’s developed to protect himself against a society that has institutionalized racism. Mike’s walk is designed to communicate respect and a non-threatening gait, highlighting how Mike has had to develop mechanisms that prove his humanity. But this tactic is more notable because Mike’s family expresses ideas about racism that tend towards a conservative blame cast over the Black community. It is therefore ironic that Mike adapts protective postures for his Blackness.

“He had liked to listen to the exotic (to a Belsey) chatter of business and money and practical politics; to hear that Equality was a myth, and Multiculturalism a fatuous dream; he thrilled at the suggestion that Art was a gift from God, blessing only a handful of masters, and most Literature merely a veil for poorly reasoned left-wing ideologies. He had put up a weak show of fighting these ideas, but only so that he might enjoy all the more the sensation of the family’s ridicule—to hear once again how typically liberal, academic and wishy-washy were his own thoughts.”

This quote reveals the controversial opinions the Kippses hold. Despite the great divide between their views on Black identity and the values Jerome was raised with, Jerome is seduced by their ideology. Jerome enjoys being proven wrong by the Kippses because their disapproval of his ideas is actually a disapproval of his father’s values.

“When you are no longer in the sexual universe—when you are supposedly too old, or too big, or simply no longer thought of in that way—apparently a whole new range of male reactions to you come into play. One of them is humour. They find you funny. But then, thought Kiki, they were brought up that way, these white American boys: I’m the Aunt Jemima on the cookie boxes of their childhoods, the pair of thick ankles Tom and Jerry played around. Of course they find me funny.

Smith explores another influence of society’s judgment of Black bodies on the individual. Because of the intersection of her race and age, Kiki’s body is prone to new judgments. Because of stereotypes of Black women, those judgments include a myriad of assumptions projected onto her. Kiki is aware of these projections and is on her own journey to reclaiming what her body means to her.

“It was not New York, sure, but it was the only city he had, and Levi treasured the urban the same way previous generations worshipped the pastoral; if he could have written an ode he would have. But he had no ability in that area (he used to try—notebook after notebook filled with false, cringing rhymes). He had learned to leave it to the fast-talking guys in his earphones, the present-day American poets, the rappers.”

Part of Levi’s identity crisis is his attraction to urban life, particularly in the Black culture that informs urban life. Because Levi lives in Wellington and has a privileged background, he can only relate to his urban dream lifestyle through music and fantasy. This highlights the conflict between culture, society, and self that Smith illustrates throughout her novel.

“Once again she gripped Kiki’s hand, this time with both of her own. The deeply lined black palms reminded Kiki of her own mother’s. The fragility of the grasp—the feeling that one need only release one’s own five fingers from it and this other person’s hand would smash into pieces. Kiki was shamed out of her pique.”

Kiki’s first interaction with Carlene is an important moment because it depicts two women experiencing and expressing their Black identities in different way. Smith uses this moment to emphasize the diversity of experience within the intersectionality of race, privilege, and gender. Carlene and Kiki can share in certain similar experiences, but ultimately, they are very different. In this quote, Smith identifies that this difference intimidates Kiki. In Carlene’s expression of her Blackness, Kiki sees a version of her own self she hasn’t fulfilled. She also feels a pity towards Carlene that underlies Kiki’s own insecurities.

“‘Now, if I ever see that bad-tempered black girl again, I’m gonna lay some of my Mozart thoughts on her head, see how she takes them—that’s all. That’s college, right? That’s what you paying all that money for—just so you get to talk to other people about that shit. That’s all you’re paying for.’ He nodded his head authoritatively. ‘That’s it.’”

Carl’s point about paying money for a college education is important because it differentiates Carl’s joy of learning with Zora’s privileged upbringing. Here, Carl points out that a formal education allows people to talk about big ideas. A university is therefore a community. But for Carl, community comes in other forms. Carl proves that learning can be a self-controlled study, thereby directly challenging Zora’s passion for the politics and ambitions of university life.

“The older we get the more our kids seem to want us to walk in a very straight line with our arms pinned to our sides, our faces cast with the neutral expression of mannequins, not looking to the left, not looking to the right, and not —please not—waiting for winter. They must find it comforting.”

Kiki’s position as a mother comes with irony. Kiki supports her children and loves them unconditionally, but often they treat her in return with annoyance. Though Kiki extends empathy and kindness, she doesn’t always get the same level of support. This quote highlights Kiki’s feelings of distance from her family, as well as her children’s inability to consider what she is going through. Mothers are supposed to be stalwart, role models of security. Kiki is all those things, but any slight deviance from her role triggers her kids.

“This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn’t be able to protect them from self-disgust. To that end she had tried banning television in the early years, and never had a lipstick or a woman’s magazine crossed the threshold of the Belsey home to Kiki’s knowledge, but these and other precautionary measures had made no difference. It was in the air, or so it seemed to Kiki, this hatred of women and their bodies—it seeped in with every draught in the house; people brought it home on their shoes, they breathed it in off their newspapers. There was no way to control it.”

Kiki’s body has undergone significant changes through her adulthood. Her changing body is a source of shame for both her and Howard, who admits to cheating on her in part because of her weight gain. Kiki sees her own fraught relationship with her body mirrored in her daughter. Zora struggles with weight gain too, and Zora is at an impressionable age in which obsessions about her body threaten the development of her self-confidence. In this quote, Smith emphasizes the destructive nature of cultural beauty standards articulated by popular media on the female psyche.

“And so it happened again, the daily miracle whereby interiority opens out and brings to bloom the million-petalled flower of being here, in the world, with other people. Neither as hard as she had thought it might be nor as easy as it appeared.”

This quote highlights Zora’s loneliness within herself. She is struggling with being self-conscious and making friends. As a young woman trying to find herself, socializing can be intimidating. But Zora is likeable and often discovers that she participates in social situations well, to her own surprise. The awkwardness she feels in her own body and psyche is indicative of her youth and of going to school under her father’s shadow.

“Claire spoke often in her poetry of the idea of ‘fittingness’: that is, when your chosen pursuit and your ability to achieve it—no matter how small or insignificant both might be—are matched exactly, are fitting. This, Claire argued, is when we become truly human, fully ourselves, beautiful. To swim when your body is made for swimming. To kneel when you feel humble. To drink water when you are thirsty. Or—if one wishes to be grand about it—to write the poem that is exactly the fitting receptacle of the feeling or thought that you hoped to convey.”

Smith identifies one form of beauty. Beauty can be defined as “fittingness”, when someone finds their purpose in the something that they can be actively fruitful within. This beauty is accessible to everyone because it is possible in even the most minute movements of our body. Beauty can be “grand”, like poetry, but it can also be found in kneeling or drinking water. Thus, beauty is all around us in almost everything we do.

“Claire was not as naive as the students; she knew he did love, and intensely, but she also saw that it was not articulated in him in the normal way. Something about his academic life had changed love for him, changed its nature. Of course, without Kiki, he couldn’t function—anyone who knew him knew that much. But it was the kind of marriage you couldn’t get a handle on.”

Claire’s affair with Howard reveals many layers about both Claire and Howard. Here, she articulates that Howard is capable of love, but his only true love is for academia. Claire has always been surprised by the longevity of his marriage to Kiki because Howard tends to be myopic in his thinking and giving of love. Through a secondary character, Smith highlights characterizations of Howard that reveal his conflicts between intellect and heart.

“People talk about the happy quiet that can exist between two lovers, but this too was great; sitting between his sister and his brother, saying nothing, eating. Before the world existed, before it was populated, and before there were wars and jobs and colleges and movies and clothes and opinions and foreign travel—before all of these things there had been only one person, Zora, and only one place: a tent in the living room made from chairs and bed-sheets. After a few years, Levi arrived; space was made for him; it was as if he had always been.”

Smith identifies another form of beauty: The easy love between siblings. Jerome had a difficult experience falling in love, but here he notes that love can also be the “happy quiet” among siblings. This quote is important because the Belsey family is struggling, as individuals and as a family unit. Jerome’s acknowledgement that his relationship with his siblings is solidified by a lifetime of being together is an important foreshadow to the family’s stability.

“Victoria allowed sobs to take her again. Her tears were petulant. It was the first time death in any form had ever forced its way into the pleasant confines of her life. Running alongside the genuine misery and loss was livid disbelief. In every other walk of life when the Kippses were hurt they were given access to recourse: Monty had fought three different libel cases; Michael and Victoria had been brought up to fiercely defend their faith and their politics. But this—this could not be fought. Secular liberals were one thing; death was another.”

Carlene’s death symbolizes a turning point for the Kipps’s ethos. Their family is founded on religion, but here, religion can’t help Victoria cope with the loss of her mother. Victoria’s father has a solution to every problem, but Carlene’s death proves that there are some things in life that can’t be helped. Here, Victoria’s tears are characterized as “petulant”, implying that her tears are childish or bad-tempered. This characterization emphasizes Victoria’s youth and her lack of experience with the world. It also foreshadows her overt sexuality with Howard, a coping mechanism for her inability to understand the world around her.

“But this was different: he was tasting salt, watery salt, a lot of it, and feeling it in the chambers of his nose; it ran in rivulets down his neck and pooled in the dainty triangular well at the base of his throat. It was coming from his eyes. He had the feeling that there was a second, gaping mouth in the centre of his stomach and that this was screaming. The muscles in his belly convulsed.”

Howard’s visceral reaction to Carlene’s funeral reveals a new layer to his characterization. In previous chapters, secondary characters have perceived Howard through his hyper-academic veneer. But here, Smith identifies Howard through an emotional space. This quote uses imagery to depict how intensely Howard is capable of feeling. This helps give Howard’s character dimensions and emphasizes his love for his family.

“At this distance, walking past them all, thus itemizing them, not having to talk to any of them, flâneur Howard was able to love them and, more than this, to feel himself, in his own romantic fashion, to be one of them. We scum, we happy scum! From people like these he had come. To people like these he would always belong. It was an ancestry he referred to proudly at Marxist conferences and in print; it was a communion he occasionally felt on the streets of New York and in the urban outskirts of Paris. For the most part, however, Howard liked to keep his ‘working-class roots’ where they flourished best: in his imagination.”

Howard’s academic career allows him to maintain a voyeuristic role, one that keeps him safely away from the aspects of his upbringing that bring him shame while at the same time using those aspects as proof of his authority. The use of the term “flaneur” emphasizes Howard’s distance from his community while at the same time implying a certain nostalgia for what he once was. Only through distance is he able to love them, the members of his former community.

“He had run from a potentially bourgeois English life straight into the arms of an actual American one—he saw that now—and, in the disappointment of the attempted escape, he had made other people’s lives miserable. Howard put out his cigarette on the pebbled ground. He gulped thickly but did not cry. He was not his father.”

Smith identifies Howard’s fear that he resembles his father. Ironically, Howard left England to avoid his father’s life only to find himself living a version of that life in America. This emphasizes Howard’s disappointment and disenchantment with his life. It also provides a reason for Howard’s affairs, a tactic to make him feel different and full of possibility, even if that possibility is a fallacy.

“She jumped off the bed and into his lap. His erection was blatant, but first she coolly drank the rest of his wine, pressing down on him as Lolita did on Humbert, as if he were just a chair she happened to sit on. No doubt she had read Lolita.”

Victoria’s seduction of Howard is clearly performative, as indicated in this quote. Smith alludes to Nabokov’s novel Lolita as a parallel to Victoria and Howard. Howard, like Humbert, is too old to be attracted to such a young girl as Lolita. And Lolita’s sexuality is based on Humbert’s own projections of femininity, just as Victoria is a projection of Howard’s desire. Notably, Howard thinks that Victoria is purposefully evoking the character of Lolita. This reveals that Victoria’s sexuality is a performance she is actively trying out.

“In the simplest terms: she wants to continue taking a Wellington class for which she does not pay and for which she is entirely unqualified. She wants this because she is black and poor. What a demoralizing philosophy! What message do we give to our children when we tell them that they are not fit for the same meritocracy as their white counterparts?”

This quote explains Monty’s opinions about anti-affirmative action. He believes that giving poor Black people the same opportunities as white people is “demoralizing” because it implies that Black people are not capable of the meritocracy white people go through. Though Monty’s opinions are controversial, this explanation resonates with Kiki and makes her consider Monty’s theories. Though Kiki doesn’t change her mind about affirmative action, this quote helps demonstrate that Monty is thoughtful and committed to his ideals, even if those ideals are unpopular.

“Kiki, if there’s one thing I understand about you liberals, it’s how much you like to be told a fairytale. You complain about creation myths—but you have a dozen of your own. Liberals never believe that conservatives are motivated by moral convictions as profoundly held as those you liberals profess yourselves to hold. You choose to believe that conservatives are motivated by a deep self-hatred, by some form of…psychological flaw. But, my dear, that’s the most comforting fairytale of them all!”

Smith’s novel demonstrates how both liberals and conservatives are victims of their own ideology. Here, Monty confronts this issue. It is true that the Belseys find Monty’s religion laughable, but that they too create their own stories from nothing. If Monty has a psychological flaw because of his opinions, then so does Howard. It is also true that Kiki and Howard have been living through a fairytale, a story of their love and ideals that comforts them at the same time as this love and these ideals fall apart around them. Thus, Monty proves that Howard is not wholly right, and Monty completely wrong.

“What a period this was to live through! His children were old enough to make him laugh. They were real people who entertained and argued and existed entirely independently from him, although he had set the thing in motion. They had different thoughts and beliefs. They weren’t even the same colour as him. They were a kind of miracle.”

Despite the tense problems within his family, Howard sees beauty in his children. They are impressed by their humor, their identity, and their existence. He is proud of them, and happy in his role as a father. This is important to note, because Howard’s role as a husband, son, and professor is fraught with his flaws. His children represent a goodness that exists outside of him but is nonetheless tied to him.

“‘No, no, no,’ said Jerome confidently, ‘she won’t sell that painting. You don’t understand anything if you think that. You have to understand the way Mom’s brain works. She could have kicked him out’—Howard expressed alarm at this nameless characterization of himself—‘but she’s like, “No, you bring up the kids, you deal with this family.” Mom’s perverse like that. She doesn’t go the way you think she’s going to go. She’s got a will of iron.’”

Jerome is one of the few characters in the novel who truly sees Kiki for the person she is on the inside. He notes her “will of iron”, her slight perversity, and her ability to surprise. She is multilayered, and while other characters want to keep her in a box, Jerome appreciates her for those layers. In Jerome, Kiki has an ally. This quote therefore provides a characterization of Kiki and of Jerome.