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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Beauty
Politics in Academia
Race and Identity
The Value of Family
Summary
Analysis
On November 5, Jerome sends his father, Howard, an email, even though his father hasn’t been replying to his previous emails. Jerome is an American working abroad in England in the office of a man named Monty Kipps, and he also lives with the Kipps family in their large, early Victorian-era house in Kilburn (North London). The Kippses are all of Caribbean heritage. Michael, Monty’s son, is tall and athletic, and he works in business. Monty’s beautiful daughter Victoria has been away on a train trip across Europe. Carlene, Monty’s wife, gives Jerome a lot of food and likes to pray.
The opening lines of On Beauty establish a contrast between the British lifestyle of the Kipps family and the American lifestyle that Jerome is used to back home with his family, the Belseys. Jerome is infatuated with how differently the Kippses live and seems to already prefer them over his own father, who doesn’t even answer his emails. As the next chapter reveals, Jerome is biracial, and so he sometimes feels pulled in different directions when it comes to his identity. Ultimately, this feeling isn’t unique to Jerome—almost all the characters in the novel, regardless of race, struggle with questions about identity.
Themes
On November 14, Jerome emails Howard again. Jerome is studying at Brown University, while his sister Zora is enrolled at Wellington College (where Howard himself teaches). Jerome writes about how he has bonded more with the Kipps family, with Monty teaching him chess, even though Jerome always loses and feels like he isn’t logical enough for chess.
Jerome’s poor chess skills indicates that he perhaps isn’t a logical thinker and can be a bit of a dreamer. Even at this early point in the story, it is clear why Howard, an academic, might struggle to communicate with his son, whose romantic way of looking at the world is so different from his own.
Themes
In the email post-script, Jerome says (in reply to a question Howard asked) yes, Jerome is still a virgin. Jerome feels that, particularly for a devout Christian, being a virgin at age 20 is normal. He says he doesn’t want to be like Howard and lose his virginity to a stranger.
This strange email post-script shows gives more information about Jerome and Howard’s relationship. Howard’s willingness to ask Jerome if he’s a virgin (as well as to tell Jerome about how he lost his own virginity to a stranger) suggests that Howard is blunt and lacks regard for social norms.
Themes
On November 19, Jerome writes Howard yet another email where he announced that he’s in love with Victoria (who sometimes goes by Vee) and is planning to propose to her. He asks his father to tell his mother (Kiki) the news about the engagement, since Jerome is out of credit on his phone.
The end of the first chapter sets up a mystery for the next couple chapters. Given that Jerome is such a dreamer and sexually inexperienced, there is ample reason to doubt whether he is correctly reading the situation with Victoria. Furthermore, Jerome’s unwillingness to tell his own mother about his engagement suggests the degree to which the Belsey family struggles to communicate with one another.
Themes
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