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The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 3
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
Kiki has been dealing with the aftermath of her family falling apart ever since news of Howard’s affair with Claire got out. She is surprised one day when she sees a very old-fashioned visiting card at her house from Charlene. But when Kiki tries to call Charlene, Monty always answers and says Charlene doesn’t feel well enough for visitors. Kiki wonders if Monty is keeping her prisoner, so one day she decides to go over to visit in person, bringing a pie as a gift.
A visiting card was a small card that people used to leave at another person’s house and which was part of a complicated system of etiquette. They were common at one point but would’ve fallen out of fashion around the turn of the 20th century, suggesting that Charlene’s tastes are extremely old fashioned—perhaps motivated by her husband’s strong conservative political opinions. Once more, the Kippses’ old-world sensibilities clash with the Belseys’ progressive, new-world sensibilities.
Themes
Before heading over to the Kippses, Kiki calls Jerome at Brown (which he decided to go back to after all) to ask if he noticed anything strange about Monty and Carlene’s relationship. Whenever Kiki calls, Jerome always sounds like he’s just waking up. Jerome discourages Kiki from getting involved with the Kippses, particularly because he doesn’t want to keep seeing Victoria around, but Kiki remains interested, particularly since she has few other friends.
Jerome’s constant sleeping may be a sign of depression or apathy about his schoolwork at Brown, suggesting that, just as Kiki keeps many of her negative feelings inside, Jerome may be hiding his own struggles. While Kiki’s fear that Monty is keeping Carlene prisoner may seem paranoid, it is likely motivated by Kiki’s own recent revelation that she can’t trust her husband, Howard.
Themes
Kiki goes to the Kippses and finally sees Carlene in person again. Carlene has been busy alphabetizing books on a bookshelf for the past couple hours and is still only on C. They have tea, and Carlene says she’s been in bed the past few days, watching a long documentary about the death of Abraham Lincoln. It was on PBS, which Monty hates because he finds it too liberal, but Carlene thought the documentary was well made.
Although Carlene does many things to please her conservative husband, (like being the sophisticated sort of house wife who leaves visiting cards, for instance), when Carlene is alone with Kiki, she admits that she is not as zealous as her husband and can enjoy supposedly “liberal” things like a documentary on PBS. This does raise the question of to what extent Monty is controlling Carlene and whether he was lying on previous occasions when he said Carlene couldn’t come. In any case, Carlene’s admission here implies that the Kippses’ family life is more complicated than it appears on the surface.
Themes
Kiki and Carlene talk about Jerome and Victoria, agreeing that it’s good the two of them haven’t seen each other lately. Carlene thinks that although Jerome is smart, he would be too possessive of Victoria, and Kiki agrees.
Kiki has seen how men can be possessive—Howard, for instance, wants Kiki to remain his even though he has had an affair. This passage hints that Carlene herself has had similar experiences with Monty and doesn’t want the same fate for Victoria.
Themes
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Kiki and Carlene talk about the past, and Kiki says she used to have big dreams, like helping Malcolm X, being a writer, singing, or becoming a doctor. Then Carlene mentions that Michael recently got engaged to an English woman with Jamaican parents (Amelia) who goes to the same church that the Kippses went to back in England.
Malcolm X was an influential Civil Rights figure. He is often depicted as a more militant counterpart to the nonviolent Martin Luther King Jr. Kiki’s interest not just in Civil Rights but in Malcolm X in particular suggests that she used to be more radical when she was younger.
Themes
Kiki thinks back to the night she first met Howard and also had sex with him. She finds it’s harder to remember than she was expecting. She thinks Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluiah” was playing, then she realizes that must have been some later time. Later, on her 25th wedding anniversary, Kiki heard the Jeff Buckley cover of “Halleluiah.” She thinks that, like the new version of the song, her memories become more beautiful over time.
Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Halleluiah” is more openly emotional than the more subdued Leonard Cohen original. By thinking of the Jeff Buckley version of the song, Kiki is perhaps revealing her wish that Howard could be more openly emotional like that version of the song, whereas instead he remains emotionally closed off, like Cohen’s version of the song.
Themes
Carlene notices Kiki staring at one of her paintings of a naked Black woman by Hyppolite (a Haitian painter) and asks if she likes the Hyppolite painting. Kiki does. Carlene mentions she got it in Haiti herself before she met Monty. Kiki complains that Howard doesn’t like paintings of humans. Carlene makes a sympathetic comment that lets Kiki know Carlene has heard about Howard’s affair with Claire.
Kiki is used to feeling out of place in the academic world and being baffled by the art that Howard studies, so it’s a shock for her to see someone that resembles her in a painting. While Kiki sometimes worries that other people don’t see her as capable of being beautiful, this painting provides proof that someone is able to sees dignity and beauty in the body of a Black woman. Carlene’s interest in the painting suggests that perhaps she has similar hidden anxieties.
Themes
Kiki says maybe her mistake was marrying a man in the first place. Carlene asks if there was ever really any other option in life, and Kiki mentions that back during the sexual revolution, it seemed like it was going to become more acceptable for women to live with women. Carlene says she could see the potential benefits of this arrangements. She thinks partnerships between women are more common in the Caribbean, although Monty has always judged them harshly. Monty became less vocal against homosexuality, however, after a close reverend friend of his came out as gay.
Once again, Kiki’s comments reveal that she used to be more radical in the past, with this passage suggesting that she at times considered relationships with women but decided not to pursue them because she didn’t want to have to fight the social stigma that came with them. Despite Carlene’s family’s strong conservative political opinions (since particularly in the early 2000s, most conservatives opposed same-sex marriage), Carlene seems surprisingly open to the idea of relationships between women. This raises the question of whether Carlene herself has repressed queer feelings or even if there is a romantic (if unspoken) component to Kiki and Carlene’s relationship.
Themes
Kiki finds it ironic that Monty is so conservative when his best friend is gay, and Carlene admits that she sees the humor in it. They talk more about their children, with Kiki exaggerating the positive qualities of hers, then Carlene kisses Kiki goodbye on both cheeks.
Although Monty seems more successful than Howard, in many ways, Monty shares similar flaws. Just as Howard struggles to live up to his ideals in real life, Monty changes his opinions about homosexuality as soon as he has to confront the reality of actually being friends with a gay man.
Themes
