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Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 4
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
Nine months later, in Wellington, Massachusetts, it’s a hot weekend in August. Ever since Jerome got back from London, Kiki feels like he’s become 16 again: he’s always acting depressed and sarcastic, and he’s constantly writing in his diary. He has also been threatening not to return to Brown in the fall. Even after all this time, he hasn’t given Kiki any details about what happened with Victoria.
Jerome seems to sulk not just about losing Victoria but about losing the closer emotional connections that he thought marrying into the Kipps family would bring him. Ironically, however, he contributes to his family’s lacking communication, as he refuses to open up to Kiki about what happened to him in England when he was living with the Kippses.
Themes
In fact, for Jerome it was less about falling in love with Victoria and more about liking the whole Kipps family. He liked being able to live according to their simple, conservative beliefs, like their ideas that art came from God and that people from minority racial groups wanted rights that they hadn’t earned.
Although Jerome is sincere about his interest in conservatism, this passage is partly satirical, suggesting that Jerome only likes conservatism because he doesn’t like to be challenged by big questions like what makes art and why some groups of people lack rights compared to others.
Themes
Victoria had liked Jerome, and they did have sex, but she had always figured he would leave in the summer. Now, in the present, Kiki tries to convince Jerome to come to a summer festival that Zora is already at, but Jerome continues to write in his diary. At last, he grudgingly agrees, and they take their dog, Murdoch, with them.
As much as Howard made a fool of himself in England, he was ultimately correct about Jerome and Victoria’s relationship while Michael was wrong. This suggests that for all Howard’s flaws, he lacks the absolutism of Michael and Monty, which can blind them to the reality of what’s going on around them.
Themes
At the fair, Jerome quickly wants to get away from Kiki. Kiki begins talking with a man running one of the stalls who’s from Haiti. They talk about how the difficult conditions in Haiti have caused so many people to immigrate to the Wellington area. Just as the as the stall owner is showing Kiki how to put on an anklet, Warren Malcolm sneaks up on Kiki from behind and squeezes her to surprise her. Kiki also sees Claire Malcolm over at a stall selling massage oils.
This scene shows how, due to her position as Howard’s wife, Kiki is caught between the worlds of people like the Haitian shopkeeper and people like Claire and Warren Malcolm. Kiki can easily move between both worlds, but she also struggles to fully relate to either, unable to personally understand the type of hardship that would make someone leave their home country like the Haitian stall owner but also not quite fitting into the academic world of Howard’s friends.
Themes
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Kiki finishes up buying the anklet. She finds that, now that she is “too old” for sex in the eyes of men like Warren, they find her funny and flirt with her because they think there’s no chance of her taking it seriously. Claire comes over and asks Kiki to come walk around with them. Warren begins to talk about his research on pollutants affecting crops. Claire is a famous experimental poet, but she always finds things to say about Warren’s work.
Although Warren and Claire seem friendly to Kiki, Warren makes Kiki feel like he is patronizing her or possibly even harassing her. Meanwhile, observing the ease with which Claire talks about Warren’s work increases Kiki’s sense of alienation. She feels she doesn’t fit in with Howard’s academic colleagues.
Themes
Claire mentions she hasn’t seen Howard in a long time and asks Kiki about Howard’s progress on his Rembrandt book. Claire starts talking more about painting and Rembrandt, and Kiki doesn’t really know what to say other than that she thinks Howard doesn’t like Rembrandt and is arguing against the myth of his greatness.
Once again, Claire ostensibly seems to be being friendly to Kiki, but her knowledge about Howard’s work—knowledge Kiki lacks—only adds to Kiki’s alienation and discomfort. Howard’s dislike of Rembrandt reflects a broader aspect of his personality: his abstract ideals prevent him from appreciating beauty as it appears in reality.
Themes
Claire casually mentions that Warren is her “husband,” then she gets disappointed when Kiki doesn’t notice that she used the word. Claire reveals that she and Warren got married in relative secrecy two months ago, with Claire dressing up in a sequined dress as Salomé because it was the feast day of St. John the Baptist. Jerome comes over, and Claire repeats the whole wedding story again.
In a famous Bible story, Salomé performs a dance for King Herod, and he promises her any price she wants as payment. She asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter, which Herod reluctantly gives her. This story, which has been retold many times in art and literature, usually portrays Salomé as a temptress who tricks Herod into doing something immoral. The fact that Claire identifies with Salomé perhaps hints that she’s capable of or has demonstrated immoral behavior in the past.
Themes
Just as Claire and Warren are about to leave, Kiki asks if there’s anything new that Howard should know. Claire mentions that there are a few new lecturers coming to Wellington, including Monty, who will have an office in the Black Studies department near Erskine. Both Kiki and Jerome are shocked and a little amused about Howard’s rival Monty coming to campus, but Claire doesn’t understand the big deal.
The fact that Claire, an academic from the same world as Howard, doesn’t understand Howard’s feud with Monty indicates that Howard might be blowing things out of proportion. Notably, Monty’s specialty isn’t Black Studies (since he focuses on Rembrandt, a white painter), and so this passage hints at even a university like Wellington might fail to understand the differences between its Black faculty members, just ignorantly lumping them all together in the Black Studies department.
Themes
Jerome wonders if Monty will bring his whole family. Kiki suggests that perhaps to be safe, Jerome should avoid the whole issue by making sure he returns to Brown (instead of dropping out or taking a leave of absence, as he’s considering). Jerome says that, unlike Kiki, he doesn’t just ignore problems— implying that Howard did something to hurt Kiki in the past but neither of them have fully addressed the misstep. Jerome asks what the point of a family even is if it doesn’t make the members happier than they’d be if they were alone, then he leaves.
Although this passage includes an argument between Jerome and Kiki, it also represents a communication breakthrough for them, as each says things they’ve been holding back for a while. While Jerome offers a dismal opinion of his family—that a family is pointless if it doesn’t make people happier—in fact, this passage arguably offers some hope for the Belseys, suggesting that they are capable of communicating to one another about their problems after all.
Themes
