On Beauty

Claire’s rather garbled speech here is full of figurative language. At first she uses a metaphor to describe the appearance of the sun, saying it’s a “lemon.” This makes the sun seem visually bright and sharp, as if it’s really a huge yellow citrus fruit hanging in the air. She then extends this description with a simile. When she says the sun is “like a huge lemon-drop” she’s describing the sun as unnaturally bright and sugary. This description adds even more artificial cheer to her commentary. It makes her sound childish and shows how forced her enthusiasm to see Kiki is. 

Claire’s remark that Kiki’s outfit is “like a sunset” is also a simile, which takes on an additional meeting after Claire’s running commentary on the sun previously. The colors—“red, yellow, orangey-brown”—link Kiki’s “setting” to an ending of the bright sun of the day. This line unintentionally hints at the decline of both the sun’s brightness but also of Kiki’s marriage.

When Monty’s article in the Wellington paper is published, the response is immediate and intense from all sides. The flood of emails from students and faculty both critiquing and supporting Howard becomes an “army.” Each “outraged colleague and student” here is reframed as a soldier preparing to go to war. The metaphor casts the comparatively routine academic dispute between Monty and Howard as a military campaign, which exaggerates the situation’s seriousness and exposes the theatricality of campus outrage. The phrase “pledging their support” becomes almost comical when the reader sees just how little Howard wants their backing.

Calling Howard a “general who could barely get on his horse” undercuts the idea that he holds real authority or resolve. Instead of appearing brave or prepared, he’s clearly unfit and unwilling to lead. The comparison makes clear that Howard is not equipped to rally others behind him. By pairing this militarized language with Howard’s passivity and awkwardness, the line mocks both the overzealous responses of his allies and the lack of conviction in the man they’re rushing to support.

Kiki isn’t really going to stay on the step until the seasons change, but the hyperbole Smith uses here helps the reader understand how desperately alone and unsure she feels. The phrase “waiting for winter” doesn’t really refer to the weather. Instead, Kiki thinks of her strange position “half in the kitchen and half in the garden” as a symbol for aging and decline. She can’t deny the fact that the future is coming, but she also resents how her children seem to want her to respond to the changes.

The image in this passage of parents walking straight “like mannequins” exaggerates how rigid and restrained Kiki believes her children expect her to be. The metaphor makes clear that Kiki feels observed and judged whenever she deviates from what her children think their mother should do or feel. She compares this posture to having arms “pinned” and face “fixed.” She feels as though they think motherhood leaves her with no room for reflection or change.

Zora almost always feels like she doesn’t belong, but in the company of these friends she suddenly sees herself as being a real part of the world. The phrase “daily miracle” positions their connection as something almost magical. It’s made more so by the fact that it’s repeated so often that it becomes woven into everyday life. Smith describes the interiority of Zora and her friends—their private thoughts and feelings—as opening outward in moments like these. Rather than staying inside them, it reaches outward like a “million-petalled flower.”The experience of enjoying one another’s company, in Smith’s hands, takes on the shape of a blossom with countless petals. Each moment of connection or understanding is a new petal of “being there.”

Students at Wellington use “tomato” as a joking shorthand for the object of study of any given class; a math class might involve investigating “the square root of tomatoes,” for example. In this scene, Victoria claims Howard’s art history class is about refusing to enjoy or admire the “tomato”, by which she means the pieces of art the students are analyzing. Instead, she says the ”tomato” must be treated as something meaningless. She thinks the purpose of his class is to expose the art Howard is talking about as flawed and false, holding no value in itself. This metaphor mocks the idea of beauty being redemptive. In Victoria’s opinion, Howard’s class is not really about understanding or engaging with art; it’s about the idea that art is a “phoney construction.” 

The way Victoria delivers her praise is full of situational irony. She says she loves the class because it discourages emotion or personal reactions to art, yet her tone is emotional and full of enthusiasm. She shows obvious excitement even as she praises the rejection of the “tomatoes” Howard asks them to discuss. She wants to seem serious, but the praise actually reveals how little she understands the ideas she repeats.Her tone of flattery undercuts the argument she thinks she’s making.