On Beauty

On Beauty

by

Zadie Smith

Zora Character Analysis

Zora is a sophomore at Wellington College. She is the middle child of Kiki and Howard, who is a professor at Wellington and has Zora in one of his classes. Out of all the Belsey children, Zora is the one who tries the most to be like her father. She takes strong academic opinions and argues for them forcefully but doesn’t usually stick with a topic for long. Despite Zora’s attempts to be a good student and focus on her academic career, her efforts sometimes embarrass Howard—partly because Zora is less experienced but perhaps also partly because Zora forces Howard to see what he himself looks like from the outside. Indeed, at one point Claire notices a strong physical resemblance between Zora and Howard, further emphasizing their similarities. Zora’s relationship with Howard examines the difficulties of parent-child relationships, showing how even as she tries to mimic her father’s life choices, she struggles to meet his expectations—and in the end, he fails to live up to hers.

Zora Quotes in On Beauty

The On Beauty quotes below are all either spoken by Zora or refer to Zora. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
).
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 7 Quotes

The young man stepped forward cautiously, with one hand up as if to show he meant no harm. He turned the Discman over in her hand and showed her the sticky patch. He lifted his hoodie and the T-shirt beneath it to reveal a well-defined pelvic bone and drew a second Discman from his waistband. ‘This one’s yours.’

‘They’re exactly the same.’

Related Characters: Zora (speaker), Carl (speaker), Howard
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 1 Quotes

Last year, when Zora was a freshman, sophomores had seemed altogether a different kind of human: so very definite in their tastes and opinions, in their loves and ideas. Zora woke up this morning hopeful that a transformation of this kind might have visited her in the night, but, finding it hadn’t, she did what girls generally do when they don’t feel the part: she dressed it instead.

Related Characters: Zora, Carl
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 2 Quotes

She paused. She sat very straight in her chair.

‘I think it’s inappropriate,’ she said.

They had been skirting around this for ten minutes. Now the word had been used.

Related Characters: Zora (speaker), Howard, Claire, Dean French
Page Number: 146
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 8 Quotes

‘Are you interested in refining what you have?’

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Zora, Carl
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 232
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 9 Quotes

Zora Belsey’s real talent was not for poetry but persistence.

Related Characters: Zora, Carl, Claire
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 12 Quotes

‘Well, my God. What a tricky bastard. Moral majority my arse. Well, you’ve got him. My God! You should go in there and spit-roast him. Destroy him!’

Zora forced her fake nails, left over from the party, into the underside of the table top. ‘That’s your advice?”

Related Characters: Howard (speaker), Zora (speaker), Monty, Jerome, Carl, Victoria, Chantelle
Page Number: 432
Explanation and Analysis:
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On Beauty PDF

Zora Quotes in On Beauty

The On Beauty quotes below are all either spoken by Zora or refer to Zora. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
).
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 7 Quotes

The young man stepped forward cautiously, with one hand up as if to show he meant no harm. He turned the Discman over in her hand and showed her the sticky patch. He lifted his hoodie and the T-shirt beneath it to reveal a well-defined pelvic bone and drew a second Discman from his waistband. ‘This one’s yours.’

‘They’re exactly the same.’

Related Characters: Zora (speaker), Carl (speaker), Howard
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 1 Quotes

Last year, when Zora was a freshman, sophomores had seemed altogether a different kind of human: so very definite in their tastes and opinions, in their loves and ideas. Zora woke up this morning hopeful that a transformation of this kind might have visited her in the night, but, finding it hadn’t, she did what girls generally do when they don’t feel the part: she dressed it instead.

Related Characters: Zora, Carl
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 2 Quotes

She paused. She sat very straight in her chair.

‘I think it’s inappropriate,’ she said.

They had been skirting around this for ten minutes. Now the word had been used.

Related Characters: Zora (speaker), Howard, Claire, Dean French
Page Number: 146
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 8 Quotes

‘Are you interested in refining what you have?’

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Zora, Carl
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 232
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 9 Quotes

Zora Belsey’s real talent was not for poetry but persistence.

Related Characters: Zora, Carl, Claire
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 12 Quotes

‘Well, my God. What a tricky bastard. Moral majority my arse. Well, you’ve got him. My God! You should go in there and spit-roast him. Destroy him!’

Zora forced her fake nails, left over from the party, into the underside of the table top. ‘That’s your advice?”

Related Characters: Howard (speaker), Zora (speaker), Monty, Jerome, Carl, Victoria, Chantelle
Page Number: 432
Explanation and Analysis: