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On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Beauty
Politics in Academia
Race and Identity
The Value of Family
Summary
Analysis
Helen Keller once gave a lecture at Wellington College, and as a result, it has a library named after her. Howard shows up at the library for a faculty meeting, wishing he had a seat that would allow him to sneak out early if needed. He looks around and resents some of the other professors that are more prestigious than he is.
Helen Keller was born deaf and blind but famously learned how to communicate and eventually went on to study at Radcliffe College (then part of Harvard, the inspiration for Wellington), later becoming a progressive activist. There is humor in the fact that such an impressive person’s name is attached to a library where such a boring faculty meeting is about to take place.
Themes
Dean French gives a rambling speech to start the meeting. It goes so off topic that his assistant, Lydia, has to summarize and repeat several parts for the crowd. Howard looks around the room to try to predict who will side with the complaint he’s about to make and who will side with Monty.
Although Monty is a big believer in the concept of meritocracy—the idea that people earn high positions by working hard, excelling, and deserving their success—this passage provides evidence to the contrary. Though Lydia is a much better communicator than Dean French, he has nevertheless somehow obtained the more prestigious position.
Themes
Dean French finally gets to the part of the agenda set aside for Howard. Howard begins to give a speech about how free speech is important but must not conflict with other rights. He’s unnerved when he sees Monty smiling at him and starts to lose his train of thought. When Howard pauses, Monty asks for a chance to defend himself, but a nervous Dean French says perhaps it would be best to let Howard finish his opening remarks.
Free speech was and is a controversial issue on college campuses, with most people supporting it but giving different definitions of its limits. Notably, Monty casts himself as a defender of free speech but doesn’t even want to let Howard finish his own speech, suggesting that even Monty’s commitment to free speech has its (self-serving) limits.
Themes
Howard continues his speech, talking about how a political speaker the previous year was banned for being “Anti-Israel,” a decision that Howard disagreed with but which he respected because it was democratic. Howard says he doesn’t want to ban Monty—he just wants to review his lectures to make sure they don’t go against the university’s hate policies. He brings up a recent article of Monty’s that he claims contains homophobic material (and which also had an attack on Howard).
This passage once again shows how On Beauty examines moral gray areas. While Howard has the moral high ground when he accuses Monty of endorsing homophobia, he loses part of this high ground based on the fact that what really seems to bother Howard about Monty’s article are the personal attacks it directs toward Howard.
Themes
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With Howard finished, Monty stands up to defend himself. He makes some comments about how they’re not in England anymore—they’re in “the land of the free,” and so Monty declines all Howard’s requests. Monty accuses Howard of scrutinizing Monty’s intentions, when Howard’s own theories don’t believe in intention. Howard replies that Monty is dismissing intentions despite being a constitutional originalist.
Many theories about art that Howard subscribes to focus on whether the artist’s intention contributes to the meaning of their art (similar to “death of the author” in literary theory). This is why Monty mocks Howard for caring about intentions. But as Howard points out, Monty is just as much a hypocrite to avoid the topic of intentions, since as a constitutional originalist, Monty should care a great deal about intention—originalists believe that people should interpret the Constitution as the founding fathers intended for it to be interpreted.
Themes
Monty claims that as a conservative, he’s the victim of extra scrutiny on campus. He then starts ranting about affirmative action again. Howard accuses Monty of going off topic, and Dean French agrees. The dean leads everyone back to the main issue: Will Monty submit his lectures for review? Monty refuses, and he even refuses to allow the room to vote on the issue.
Claims like Monty’s about conservatives being victims on college campuses go back to at least the 1960s. As this passage reveals, however, just as Howard is motivated by personal grudges more than ideology, Monty too seems to make his grand claims about victimhood based on his own personal feud against Howard, with Monty feeling that Howard is personally victimizing him.
Themes
A professor asks if Monty’s lectures are really so dangerous. Howard replies that, like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom Monty admires, Monty believes homosexuality is evil. Monty doesn’t necessarily deny this but clarifies that his views are nuanced, earning a mixed reaction from the crowd.
When On Beauty was published, one of the most famous Black conservatives was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was also an admirer of Antonin Scalia. This passage helps to show how, while Monty is fictional, he contains echoes of real political philosophies and real people.
Themes
Dean French decides that, given the impasse between Howard and Monty over Monty releasing his lecture texts early, perhaps there should be a group vote on whether to hold Monty’s lectures at all. Monty agrees. When it goes to a vote, everyone except Howard’s closest supporters approves of the lectures.
Although Dean French can seem hapless at times, in this situation he cleverly avoids a contentious vote by forcing everyone to vote on a more extreme issue (whether to ban Monty’s lectures outright). This makes it seem like Howard has less support than he might have had for his original proposal to simply review Monty’s lectures rather than banning them outright.
Themes
Zora enters the room and congratulates Howard, assuming he did a good job on whatever he did before she arrived. She’s there to give the speech that she promised Claire she’d give about the students in her poetry class who aren’t technically enrolled at Wellington
Although Zora tries to feign interest in her father’s academic work, in this passage she totally misinterprets how well (or not) things are going for Howard at the faculty meeting. This shows how Zora doesn’t really engage with Howard’s work all that deeply and is mostly interested in her own advancement.
Themes
