On Beauty

On Beauty

by

Zadie Smith

Kiki Character Analysis

Kiki, Howard’s wife, is a Black former hospital administrator from Florida. She and Howard are parents to Jerome, Zora, and Levi. Unlike Howard, Kiki does not consider herself to be an intellectual, and this causes her to feel out of place around Howard’s friends and colleagues, particularly since so many of them are white. Kiki sometimes feels insecure about her weight. Particularly compared to the small, skinny Claire (whom Howard has an affair with), Kiki is a big woman. Kiki also has complicated feelings about sex, disliking how strangers see her as too old or too big to be desirable, but nevertheless struggling to maintain an active sex life with Howard. During a conversation with Carlene about a Hyppolite painting, Kiki suggests that she long ago considered the idea of living in a partnership with a woman—one of many dreams from Kiki’s past that she never got to fulfill. Kiki embodies the difficult and often contradictory expectations that many Black women face, acting feeling like both an insider and an outsider in her husband’s academic world and often forced to put the needs and comfort of others above her own.

Kiki Quotes in On Beauty

The On Beauty quotes below are all either spoken by Kiki or refer to Kiki. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
).
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 5 Quotes

And this is another thing they do. They flirt with you violently because there is no possibility of it being taken seriously.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Claire, Warren
Page Number: 51
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:

‘Tell them to calm themselves. It’s only hip-hop. It won’t kill them.’

Related Characters: Victoria (speaker), Howard, Kiki, Monty, Claire, Michael
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 5 Quotes

‘She’s fabulous,’ replied Kiki, only now taking the time to look at her properly. In the centre of the frame there was a tall, naked black woman wearing only a red bandanna and standing in a fantastical white space, surrounded all about by tropical branches and kaleidoscopic fruit and flowers. Four pink birds, one green parrot. Three humming birds. Many brown butterflies. It was painted in a primitive, childlike style, everything flat on the canvas. No perspective, no depth.

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Monty, Carlene
Related Symbols: The Hyppolite Painting
Page Number: 174
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:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 3 Quotes

‘She found a black fella, I spose. It was always going to happen, though. It’s in their nature.’

Related Characters: Harold (speaker), Howard, Kiki
Page Number: 301
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 10 Quotes

Kiki looked up. ‘Howard, I love you. But I’m just not interested in watching this second adolescence. I had my adolescence. I can’t go through yours again.’

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Victoria
Page Number: 398
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:
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On Beauty PDF

Kiki Quotes in On Beauty

The On Beauty quotes below are all either spoken by Kiki or refer to Kiki. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
).
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 5 Quotes

And this is another thing they do. They flirt with you violently because there is no possibility of it being taken seriously.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Claire, Warren
Page Number: 51
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:

‘Tell them to calm themselves. It’s only hip-hop. It won’t kill them.’

Related Characters: Victoria (speaker), Howard, Kiki, Monty, Claire, Michael
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 5 Quotes

‘She’s fabulous,’ replied Kiki, only now taking the time to look at her properly. In the centre of the frame there was a tall, naked black woman wearing only a red bandanna and standing in a fantastical white space, surrounded all about by tropical branches and kaleidoscopic fruit and flowers. Four pink birds, one green parrot. Three humming birds. Many brown butterflies. It was painted in a primitive, childlike style, everything flat on the canvas. No perspective, no depth.

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Monty, Carlene
Related Symbols: The Hyppolite Painting
Page Number: 174
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:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 3 Quotes

‘She found a black fella, I spose. It was always going to happen, though. It’s in their nature.’

Related Characters: Harold (speaker), Howard, Kiki
Page Number: 301
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 10 Quotes

Kiki looked up. ‘Howard, I love you. But I’m just not interested in watching this second adolescence. I had my adolescence. I can’t go through yours again.’

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Victoria
Page Number: 398
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: