On Beauty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Wellington College

Wellington College is both a setting and a motif. It is a symbolic environment that idealizes open discourse and free thinking. Smith advocates for the university as a beautiful space. And yet, Smith also criticizes the limits of modern universities. Wellington is full of inconsistencies. It is a space in which academics are ruthlessly undermined by their peers, where free speech is at once advocated for and repressed, and where students and faculty alike treat their privileged space as a right of superiority. Wellington is a place of drama, and it creates an identity for many characters in this novel.

Paintings

Paintings are symbols of beauty and connection in this novel. Howard’s studies of Rembrandt are focused on the metaphors of light and beauty that raise human consciousness. Carlene’s painting of the goddess Erzulie is a symbol of strong Black womanhood, a symbol that connects Carlene and Kiki. Paintings are an ultimate symbol of beauty because they represent all that is complicated and interesting about people. The Erzulie painting is symbolic because it connects Kiki and Carlene and thwarts many of the characters’ set fallacies about race, politics, and identity.

Beauty

Beauty is an important motif throughout this novel. Its importance is highlighted in the title of the novel, and in the titles of the three different parts of the novel. Beauty is a motif because it informs Smith’s criticisms of society. Beauty is all around the characters if they would only choose to embrace it. Beauty is evident in the love between family members, the art that Howard studies, the layered opportunities for growth, and the daily minutiae that we often take for granted. But beauty in this book is also fragile because it is easy for characters to avoid embracing beauty. It is also easy to break beauty, as can be seen in the character of Victoria (whose beauty threatens her sense of self) and in Howard’s implosion of his marriage.