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The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 6
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 the Tuesday of her trip to the Bus Stop with Claire’s class, Zora smokes a cigarette and looks over at a broken water main on the street corner. She thinks about how she has a reputation in class for being “opinionated” but hardly feels like she has any real opinions.
Although Zora is naturally strategic, she also has moments of insecurity where she questions the point of her academic work. She realizes that other people see how quickly she picks up or abandons new opinions but still can’t change. Once again, her ability to diagnose her faults without changing them recalls her father, Howard.
Themes
The other students of Claire’s poetry class look delicate and out of place in this part of the city. Two students named Ron and Daisy ask Zora if she feels weird about taking Claire’s class after what happened with Howard. Zora says she doesn’t mind that Claire can’t even look at her.
This passage, which mostly fallows Zora’s perspective, sees her once again repressing her insecure thoughts from the previous passage and acting like she belongs. Notably, she acts more confident with Ron and Daisy as her audience, showing how Zora’s repression of her fears is partly the result of social pressure.
Themes
The Bus Stop used to be a popular Moroccan restaurant. When the original owners, the Essakallis, retired and left the place to their son Yousef, he decided to focus more on attracting students, which he did by transforming the restaurant’s basement into a club space. It became a place for concerts and films, but its bi-monthly spoken word nights are most popular.
The history of the Bus Stop shows how cities bring together diverse groups of people. Yousef realizes how he can use his identity as the son of immigrants to attract a new generation of students, making some concessions to academic interests like film and poetry while also promising a type of authenticity that classrooms can lack.
Themes
Claire and Yousef know each other well, and she speaks to him in French. She introduces everyone in her class to Yousef, exaggerating the good qualities of all her students. He offers them some booths to sit in. To her disappointment, Claire ends up at a booth with Ron, Daisy, and Zora, who are all some of her least favorite students. She would rather be with Chantelle, whom she finds mysterious and interesting.
As always, Claire likes to present herself as knowledgeable on every subject, and so she enjoys speaking with Yousef because it gives her a chance to show off her French, allowing her to display her multiculturalism. Like many characters in the story, Claire is chasing her own idea of authenticity, and for her, Chantilly (who is Black) fits more with her idea of the authenticity than the white Ron and Daisy, suggesting that Claire equates authenticity with things that are “exotic” to her.
Themes
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Claire asks Ron, Daisy, and Zora how the class is going for them so far. Daisy says “good” but hesitates, and Ron is hesitant too. Zora says Claire can be intimidating and has clear favorites in class. Daisy tries to compliment Claire, saying it must have felt amazing for Claire to start her career so young. Claire is happy to retell the stories from her younger days, even though she feels like they’re about a different person.
Zora knows that Claire has no power to dismiss her from the class, and so Zora takes this opportunity to offer some fairly strong criticism of Claire. This scene perhaps contrasts with the scene of Levi in the music megastore, which showed how he lacked power and couldn’t challenge his boss without facing consequences. Meanwhile, although Claire is happy to relive her glory days of her early career, this scene also hints at how she feels increasingly disconnected from the great poet she used to be.
Themes
Claire’s talking bores Zora, since Claire doesn’t know anything about recent literary theory—she’s always citing old sources like Plato or Baudelaire. In turn, Zora’s questions about theory bore Claire. Just then, Levi comes up to the table with a few friends.
Literary theory is a type of criticism that is analytical and rigorous, almost like a science—this is why it wouldn’t appeal to the disorganized and poetic person like Claire but would appeal more to Zora, who is highly theoretical like Howard.
Themes
Claire says Levi has grown big and muscular, probably from so much swimming. Levi accepts the compliment but is hesitant because he knows about Howard and Claire’s affair. Levi can understand why his father would cheat, but he doesn’t see specifically what Howard sees in a small woman like Claire. Claire asks if Levi is performing, and he says it depends, but his friends will definitely perform.
Levi’s policy of distancing himself from his family faces an unusual test when he has to confront the woman his father had an affair with. Levi has conflicted feelings, seeming to both accept and disapprove of his father’s choice simultaneously, reflecting his attitude toward his family in general.
Themes
