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On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 5
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
After the faculty meeting, Howard hears people gossiping about how good Zora’s speech was—it got the issue of “discretionary students” postponed to the next meeting, which has always been difficult to do at faculty meetings. Howard goes outside to smoke and runs into Victoria for the first time since he had sex with her at Carlene’s wake.
For Howard, the ultimate success is to get an issue postponed until the next meeting, suggesting a lot about how he tends to avoid making big decisions. A “discretionary student” is not a common real-life college concept but instead illustrates how, in academia (and in big institutions in general) new jargon constantly pops up to describe new situations and give them a more official air.
Themes
Howard says Victoria should have taken more time off school to grieve, but Victoria sees no point in staying home. Howard asks Victoria to forget all about him, but she reminds him that he agreed to go to a dinner with her that evening at Emerson Hall.
Despite potential good intentions, Howard’s comment about how Victoria should spend more time grieving is perhaps a little condescending or even sexist, given that Howard never considered saying the same thing to Monty, who (in theory) is also grieving
Themes
Victoria shows Howard a strip of photos that must have fallen out of his pocket when he was in her room. Howard has no memory of when the photos were taken. When Victoria asks about the dinner again, Howard tries to get out of it. Victoria reminds him that her mother just died. Howard can see that Victoria is feeling fragile, and so he agrees to go to the dinner.
Victoria offers the strip of photos to Howard, seemingly as a threat—she’s showing him that she can prove he was in her room, perhaps for untoward reasons. Her reminder that her mother just died could be an attempt to guilt Howard into continuing to see her. Victoria is also gesturing toward the power imbalance between herself and Howard: regardless of the fact that she’s a consenting adult, it is still a breach of ethics for Howard to be sexually involved with a student, and Victoria is implicitly letting Howard know that she can cause problems for him, if she wants.
Themes
Howard goes back to his own home and finds everyone else in his family is getting busy to head out on their own. Kiki is going out for drinks with a friend whose husband is leaving her. Zora asks Howard where he’s going, surprised that he’d go to Emerson House. She herself is going to a different but similar dinner with Carl and a professor that Howard despises.
Although there have been some moments of unity for the Belsey family, this passage again shows them going off in different directions. Once again, however, even without communicating, the Belseys show how similar they are by ending up in the same place, with Zora and Howard each going to their own version of the student-faculty dinner.
Themes
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Howard is disappointed Zora didn’t ask him to attend the dinner with her, but Kiki reassures him that Zora just doesn’t want to add to the impression that Howard gives her special treatment in class. Howard is disappointed that Zora didn’t confide in him about her concerns about the appearance of nepotism, but Kiki says Zora probably just didn’t want to disturb Howard given how busy he’s been lately.
Howard seems to be harshest on Zora out of all his children—because she puts in the most effort to please Howard, he expects the most from her. Kiki’s comment about Zora not wanting to bother Howard hints at Howard’s pattern of prioritizing his work over his family.
Themes
