On Beauty

On Beauty

by

Zadie Smith

Themes and Colors
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
Politics in Academia Theme Icon
Race and Identity Theme Icon
The Value of Family Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics in Academia Theme Icon

Zadie Smith’s On Beauty is a novel about politics at all levels, from a broader examination of liberal versus conservate values to more local issues like the office politics of running a university. The mixed-race Belsey family embodies liberalism, with Howard in particular defending traditionally liberal values like education and skepticism. By contrast, the Kipps family represents conservatism, with Monty being an ardent defender of Christianity and a critic of affirmative action, welfare, and homosexuality. But while the Belsey and Kipps families might seem like polar opposites, it soon becomes clear that the political divisions between them aren’t absolute. Jerome, for example, is a Belsey, but he has some conservative views, including a devotion to Christianity that confuses his father. Meanwhile, Victoria is a Kipps, but she rejects conservative ideas about virginity and chastity that are important to Monty and Michael’s version of Christianity.

In the novel, this broad conflict between liberalism and conservatism plays out in the office politics of Wellington College. Monty wants to give a series of lectures, presenting them as a free speech issue, while Howard wants to stop the lectures, which he considers a form of hate speech. It soon becomes clear, however, that this conflict is driven more by the longstanding personal hatred between Howard and Monty than the men’s respective lofty ideals. As more characters join the debate, they too have a personal stake in it. Zora, for example, only supports her father to impress a professor whose class will be important on her résumé (Claire) and a boy she finds attractive (Carl). And so, On Beauty portrays politics and personal life as intertwined, showing how personal experience both informs a person’s abstract political views and influences how they interact with others.

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Politics in Academia Quotes in On Beauty

Below you will find the important quotes in On Beauty related to the theme of Politics in Academia.
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 2 Quotes

Kiki slapped the table. ‘Oh, God, this isn’t 1910 – Jerome can marry who the hell he wants to marry – or are we going to start making up visiting cards and asking him to meet only the daughters of academics that you happen to –’

‘Might the address be in the green moleskin?’

Related Characters: Howard (speaker), Kiki (speaker), Monty, Jerome, Carlene, Victoria
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 11 Quotes

It is an unnatural law of such parties that the person whose position on the guest list was originally the least secure is always the first to arrive. Christian von Klepper’s invitation had been added by Howard, removed by Kiki, reinstated by Howard, removed by Kiki and then, at some later point, apparently extended once more in secret by Howard, for here was Christian, leaning into an alcove in the living room, nodding devotedly at his host.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Christian, Meredith
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 12 Quotes

Too quickly, Claire removed her hand from Howard’s body. But Kiki wasn’t looking at Claire; she was looking at Howard. You’re married to someone for thirty years: you know their face like you know your own name.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Claire
Page Number: 121
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

Howard smiled gratefully but shook his head. He was beyond the point of learning new tricks. He got on his knees and plugged the projector’s cord into the wall; a snag of blue light leaped from the socket. He pressed the button on the back of the projector. He twiddled the connected cable. He pressed hard on the light box, hoping to engage some loose connection.

Related Characters: Howard, Smith
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:

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 5 Quotes

‘I don’t think that’s how things go down now,’ Levi said at last, gently, not wanting to disappoint his father, but needing to catch the bus. It was a nice enough story, but it was making him late for work.

Related Characters: Levi (speaker), Howard, Bailey
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 6 Quotes

‘It’s true that men – they respond to beauty . . . it doesn’t end for them, this . . . this concern with beauty as a physical actuality in the world – and that’s clearly imprisoning and it infantilizes . . . but it’s true and . . . I don’t know how else to explain what –’

Related Characters: Howard (speaker), Kiki, Claire
Related Symbols: The Hyppolite Painting
Page Number: 207
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 4 Quotes

‘But your class – your class is a cult classic. I love your class. Your class is all about never ever saying I like the tomato. That’s why so few people take it – I mean, no offence, it’s a compliment.’

Related Characters: Victoria (speaker), Howard, Carlene
Page Number: 312
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 5 Quotes

Monty put his hands on each side of his own belly. ‘Really, Dr Belsey, this is too stupid to answer. Surely a man can write a piece of prose without “intending” any particular reaction, or at least he can and will write without presuming every end or consequence of that piece of prose.’

Related Characters: Monty (speaker), Howard, Kiki, Victoria, Claire, Dean French
Page Number: 327
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 7 Quotes

For the first time it occurred to Howard that this gorgeous, single nineteen-year-old giving her attention to a 57-year-old married man (albeit with a full head of hair) might have other motives besides pure animal passion. Was he – as Levi would put it – being played?

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Monty, Levi, Victoria
Page Number: 343
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:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 13 Quotes

Howard looked back at the woman on the wall, Rembrandt’s love, Hendrickje. Though her hands were imprecise blurs, paint heaped on paint and roiled with the brush, the rest of her skin had been expertly rendered in all its variety – chalky whites and lively pinks, the underlying blue of her veins and the ever present human hint of yellow, intimation of what is to come.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki
Page Number: 443
Explanation and Analysis: