On Beauty” has a powerful charm. As I continue to read Zadie Smith’s novel, I find myself becoming increasingly sympathetic towards the characters, especially Kiki and Levi.
Levi is the youngest of the Belsey children. He lacks the English upbringing of his two siblings and is ashamed of his family’s wealth. He deals with his parent’s harsh fights by spending a lot of time out of the house, and lies to his coworkers about his age and residence. Neither his family nor his other relations offer him an honest environment to grow in. Levi has ideals, but struggles to find an identity. When Levi grows older, will he be like Carl, out of school and struggling to find a way to express himself while feeling constantly belittled? Or will he accept academia with disenchantment like Zora or Jerome?
Zora is quite frustrating. She puts personal ambition over actual education and family loyalty. Her reason for fighting to be in Claire’s class (a woman directly involved with possibly destroying her family) is that Proffesor Malcolm is a “name” and that matters for graduate schools. Zora can avidly take a stance in any class discussion, yet she has nothing to say to Carl and is bewildered when he genuinely wants to discuss Mozart with her. (I think she later calls him creepy too.) Her college experience is seriously lacking if she sees classes on art or poetry as a means to an end. The quote below illustrates how Zora doesn’t see any value in art itself:
“in college, she was famed for being opinionated, a ‘personality’—the truth was she didn’t take these public passions home, or even out of the room, in any serious way. She didn’t feel that she had any real opinions” (Smith, 209).
This kind of cultural pluralism would have Bloom spinning in his grave.
1 comment:
The more I read about Levi, the more he reminds me of one of those bad actors from any of the recent hip hop dance movies (You Got Served, Step Up 2, Stomp The Yard). Levi, and those actors, continually try to prove their street credit. However, it is so forced that it only makes you take them less seriously. There is a perfect example of this on p. 245 when Levi keeps talking about the street and hustling. Choo is just overall confused by the way Levi is acting. Those that are truly street do not have to talk about it all the time like Levi does.
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