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