What is Beauty in the End?

At the end of the novel, when Howard is about to give his very important talk, a type of beauty is defined. The last two pages of the novel begin with Howard running late for his speech. Once he gets there, he feels sick and nervous and it becomes clear that his entire life and work have led up to this vital moment. Once he walks in to the room in which he will have to speak, he is greeted with everyone who is anyone and some technology he is unfamiliar with to say the least. He realizes he has forgotten his folder of information and spots Kiki in the crowd. It is at this moment I felt genuinely scared and nervous for Howard. Without his notes he was completely lost. Clicking through all his slides, looking at Kiki, there was nothing for him to say.

In the very last paragraph, Smith has Howard admit that he can see his entire life in Kiki's face. The two of them seem to carry on a silent dialogue until at one point they both smile at each other. The painting Howard refers to (to the right) shows a women who seems to be slightly overweight and possibly poor. She looks thoughtful but does not show any signs of being the typical form of beauty. I believe that Howard realizes, when his entire life is put into perspective in the end, that Kiki was always the most important thing to him. He lost track of that feeling due to distractions in his life which at this point in the novel no longer exist. Howard finally sees Kiki as being beautiful for who she is. By Kiki smiling back at him, she is showing signs of forgiving him for all the things he has done to hurt her and his family.

The End of On Beauty

Claire as a Character:
Claire instigates the affair with Howard and then feels as though she is the victim. She thinks it would be unfair for everyone to hate and be mad at her. This section of the novel shows that Zadie Smith most likely does not like Claire very much. The idea of someone being as selfish as Claire is can be sickening. Although Howard's marriage was not perfect, it didn't deserve wrecking.

In a way this novel shows that relationships among people are not objects. Relationships are real and involve feelings of more than one person. Howard seems to view women and his relationships with them as objects, which goes against everything he preaches and in my opinion could be the reason why he is so unsuccessful with both.


In the end of the novel, Howard's family eventually finds out about his mini affair with Victoria. Carl ends up telling Jerome at a party what his father has done - he then continues on to express his build up feelings towards intellectuals. This discovery leads to Jerome eventually explaining to Zora what happened with their father and Victoria. The idea of her father sleeping with a student, one of her peers, infuriates and disgusts Zora. As a result, she confronts her father and she turns him in to the university. When Kiki is told of what happened, she moves out and leaves Howard alone to take care of the kids.

In the last few pages of the novel, Howard leaves the house to go and give his important talk.
Read the last two pages.... what is beauty on the last to pages?
Monday - Read off of URL listed on syllabus

On Beauty through pg. 300

In class Monday, we talked a lot about the similarities between Zadie Smith's On Beauty and Forster's Howards End. The two have much in common. We also talked more about Smith's view on beauty and the way in which it is expressed through Claire's poem "On Beauty." The poem itself, shows the divide between the upper class, beautiful people and all of the others. I feel that Claire sees Kiki as of another class, one in which she feels is below her. This may be part of the reason why Claire seems to feel little to no remorse during her affair with Howard.

In class, we also talked a lot about the idea of independence. Many of the characters in the novel have a voice that can be seen throughout the plot. Other characters like Carl, according to Claire, could use help in finding their voice and finding power in the university's system. When reading the novel, I tend to feel much more of a connection with the characters with a voice. For example, Kiki seems honest, strong, and hardworking. This is part of the reason why I find her to be one of the most upstanding characters in the novel. Howard, on the other hand, has no voice. He is seduced by women who need temporary attention from him. Their short-term needs are what sacrifices his relationship with Kiki and his family. To me this shows that Howard as a character has no voice and no real idea of what he wants.

"Beauty" from Smith's Perspective

It wasn't until I was more than halfway through the novel, On Beauty, that I was able to decide what Smith's own personal view on "beauty" really is. It seems as though she feels like the idea of beauty could have an overall negative impact on society. Although Claire and Veronica have both been described as being attractive, no other character in the novel has been described as being truly beautiful. All of the characters have their flaws - physical and psychological. It seems Smith uses beauty to separate some of the more affluent characters from the other less educated ones. Even though the educated and more beautiful characters are more respected in the novel, they have just as many internal issues and insecurities as any one of the other characters. It is because of this odd dynamic that it is difficult for me to come to a real conclusion as to what Smith's perspective of beauty really is. Maybe she views it as unimportant or dangerous? Either way, I think the novel does a good job of showing how the typical idea of beauty is somewhat dangerous and can be used to create problems within society and families.

Class Notes and more On Beauty

The Anatomy Lesson
Zora and her family go to the Mozart concert where she meets Carl by accidently picking up his MP3 player. Carl was at the Mozart concert to observe the music because being a musician, he is striving to learn more about the art. Unlike Zora, I think Carl ackowledges that knowledge is power but in a different way than Zora and her family. To me it seems odd that there are not more people like Carl in the University setting. Anyway, Zora decides to invite him to her parent's party but when he shows up, Howard turns him away. At first glace Howard is able to figure out that Carl is uneducated and judges him instantly.

Although later we learn that Carl is a very talented swimmer, he is obviously not on the swim team (or even a student) which makes him different than the people Zora and her family are used to spending their time with. When Zora is around Carl, somehow he makes her seem less intelligent. She is much more of the student type who only learns what she needs to know and doesn't do much more than that. To her, the university is just a stepping stone to where she needs to be, to Carl it represents a world of possibilities he has never been granted.

Later in the novel, Zora ends up threatening the Dean because she does not get into the creative writing class she wants. She uses her father's affair to get her way and claims she is being discriminated against at the university. This part of the novel shows how devious Zora is capable of being and to me it shows that she may be taking her education for granted.

On Beauty: Class Notes

Do the people we love end up turning into objects for us? When we are in love with someone, some of that love can be attributable to their successes. It can be difficult to determine where the line is drawn between loving them and loving what it is they do. Sometimes the ones we love are objects in our minds. In college, it becomes the norm to ask, "What is your major?". It is as if we are asking what the person plans on doing with the rest of their life and how much they plan on making yearly. Sometimes I feel like we put people into categories and judge them based on things that maybe shouldn't even matter to begin with...

Beauty is about lines and colors and contours, it is what we see. As a culture, we tend to objectify it. What is the degree to which the notions of beauty are at war in the novel On Beauty? In this question, we are basically comparing the lines and contours etc. to society's idea of beauty. Jerome may have fallen in love with Veronica because of his family - not because of her physical beauty. Also, Kiki was beautiful when Howard first met her but according to Zora, she has since let herself go. Mrs. Kipps views Kiki as large but believes that she carries her weight well. Pg 90-91. Carl's body is also objectified in the novel.

Beauty tends to rip our culture apart.

The family goes to Mozart's Requiem - Howard becomes a parody machine. He makes fun of Mozart and Kiki's class but he is simultaneously loving towards his family. Jerome feels the complete opposite. This difference leads to an argument between Howard and Kiki (who is standing up for Jerome). The argument leads to the question: are there geniuses? Mozart died halfway through his creation and someone else had to finish it. Therefore, Kiki's argument that there must have been a genius making this music, has to be false.

Later in the novel, Kiki finds out that Howard had an affair with Claire. She realizes this on her own during their anniversary party. Also, the affair itself was not a one night stand, it was actually a three week long relationship between Howard and Claire. In terms of beauty and culture, Claire would typically be considered more beautiful than Kiki by American society as a whole. This is most likely what is so upsetting to Kiki. This comparison/difference may cause her to feel inferior to Claire and brings a new understanding as to why Howard would have chosen to have an affair on Kiki to begin with. It is also possible that the fact that Claire is on the same intellectual level as Howard makes Kiki even more angry with Howard. No matter what Howard's reason for cheating on Kiki was, it was the most heartbreaking thing he could have done to her. Choosing Claire, on top of everything else, makes it worse for Kiki who has decided to try and do the impossible: forgive Howard.

On Beauty: Jerome

In the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that Jerome goes to live with the Kipps to get his father's attention. I believe that the main reason he is doing this is the affair that his father had on his mother. This has most likely had a major affect on Howard's children, especially Jerome being the oldest. Jerome seems to be extremely upset about the affair; I think he feels that it has completely destroyed his family. He is willing to do anything to get his father's attention and possibly even seek revenge on him by living with Howard's enemy. It is pretty obvious to me that their relationship needs a lot of work. I think it is interesting that Howard refuses to respond to any of his son's emails knowing that their relationship is falling apart. This shows how selfish Howard is, even in situations involving his own children. Jerome eventually becomes very close to the Kipps and is slightly heartbroken when he leaves them. He has decided that he no longer wants his family and all of the problems that come along with it. Meanwhile, Howard has yet to show any remorse for what he has done to Jerome or his family. It will be interesting to see which direction the relationship between Jerome and his father takes throughout the novel.

Zadie Smith, On Beauty

Zadie Smith video interview: I think it is interesting that Smith looks so similar to Kiki from On Beauty. During the interview she makes the point that you cannot hit people over the head your own political views. At the same time though, novels can be political. Smith is saying that art is moral in the way it is an analogy.

She also discusses the difference between the way an adult deals with issues in comparison with the way children react. Adults should be able to see things from a greater perspective. There are always two sides to every story. In On Beauty, the adults as well as the children seem to be jaded, neither side is able to really see things from a greater perspective in the beginning.

On Beauty is about culture wars and multiculturalism, it's about disagreements between the right and the left side. One side represents great literature for example, and the other believes that multiculturalism is more important. Both sides believe will all of their being that their ideas are superior. This creates conflict throughout the novel and causes friction between the two families.

Zadie Smith vs. 'Zadie Smith'
Sometimes it is important to think about the difference between the real Zadie versus the fake one created by literary critics. This idea ties in with the us vs. them issues presented in the novel. In some of these situations, we are fighting against ourselves. Apart from these topics, literature is about relationships and how to approach them. The novel, On Beauty, will take us through the us vs. them issues (the culture wars) and the family conflicts that can be created as a result of them.

Is Zadie Smith a great writer? Is On Beauty art?
The novel is great if she can un-flatten the characters and make them into people we feel are real. If we are able to relate to the characters in the end, we will be able to take something from the literature and apply it to our own lives. Art has the ability to impact us on one of the greatest levels, but first we need to understand it...

Class Notes: What is Art?

Review of the class's blogs: How shall I live?
The clip of Mona Lisa's Smile shows that art is whatever we say it is. A person must have confidence in order to be recognized. At the same time, in order for a person to have confidence they must have some sort of institution backing them. Is feeling the need to prove something the thing that stands between us and what we truly want to become? Instead of listening to our inner selves, we live the way society tells us to live. Finding the confidence to do the things we love is difficult. This could be why we end up doing the things that we are told - the safest options.

How important is it that our work is understood and appreciated? It seems that in situations where women and men are presenting together, the man gets more recognized for his work than the woman. There are instances where men are given credit for a woman's work. I believe this means that society has a tendency to automatically assume men to be smarter than women.

Winterson on Art

I had a difficult time deciphering Winterson's exact view on art after reading Art and Lies. I found an article on art written by Winterson that I think helps describe the way she feels.

The Secret Life of Us by: Jeannette Winterson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2002/nov/25/art.artsfeatures1

The article is basically about trying to determine the exact purpose of art in our culture and what it is that makes it so important. One of my favorite paragraphs of the article:

"Art is a different value system. Like God, it fails us continually. Like God, we have legitimate doubts about its existence but, like God, art leaves us with footprints of beauty. We sense there is more to life than the material world can provide, and art is a clue, an intimation, at its best, a transformation. We don't need to believe in it, but we can experience it. The experience suggests that the monolith of corporate culture is only a partial reality. This is important information, and art provides it."

"Don't be fooled by the way capitalism co-opts art. It pretends to do it for money, but underneath money is terror. Terror that there might be a different way to live. There is a different way, and it's not a William Morris utopia, or an Omega workshop niche; it's a celebration of the human spirit. Art reminds us of all the possibilities we are persuaded to forget. Peace or war, we need those alternatives."
-Jeannette Winterson
Overall it seems as through she thinks highly of art and the possibilities it brings. On the other hand, the idea of it being sold for huge sums of money seems pointless. The way artists are treated, the way they are paid, makes the art itself seem as much more of a commodity than what it is originally meant to be - beautiful.

Art and Lies: Parts 1 & 2

Although I found the first two chapters of Art and Lies to be fascinating, I enjoyed our thought provoking class discussion on Wednesday even more! I have always wondered whether or not I would end up happy in life. The possibility of making bad choices in college regarding my major and the activities I choose to spend my time on is scary. Luckily, I have figured out what is important to me and what it would take to make me feel genuinely happy in my career. I think it is interesting that when certain students think 'business major' they think the worst of things. By some, it is assumed I've been pressured to choose a fate filled with money and greed. Fortunately for me, this is not true! Although I am sure there are many CEOs hating their lives, there are probably even more who do not. It is sad to me that there is a common assumption that if someone is not always 100% in touch with their inner self, they are lost and doomed to be miserable. As an accountancy major, I feel completely comfortable with myself and my future ambitions, most of which do not revolve around money at all.

I know that in order to be happy with my career I would need to use my skills in business to help an organization I believe in to grow and prosper. It has taken me a long time to realize that this is what it would take for me to find some kind of meaning in my job. Also, because family is the most important thing in my life, my plan is to be as balanced as possible. Although I am aware of the view that business people are workaholics, I honestly can't see this as a reality for myself.

Another common misconception is that those who choose the type of path as mine have done so to follow in their parents footsteps. In my situation, this is far from the truth. It may seem impossible but I have a true interest in my major and feel excited to graduate and begin working! I may not have everything figured out for myself but I think I've come along way and that I am exactly where I need to be at this point in time. As long as each of us is able to decide what is it that makes us happy, we should be free to live our lives the way we choose.