Week 11: On Beauty

Perhaps the most striking feature of Zadie Smith's novel On Beauty is it's parallel to Howard's End. There are quite a few differences, of course, but On Beauty seems to be a modern version of Howard's End.

The novel is more political in it's nuances; what I mean to say is that both families are quite distinctly liberal and conservative, rather than "feminin" and "masculin". And whereas before there was quite a lot of emphasis on the gender of the characters, in On Beauty the emphasis is put more on their personalities.

The number of characters have changed to reflex a more modern family and the characters, instead of being predominantly white, are predominantly black. This skews the entire original novel's plot from it's previous sexual baseline to a new political baseline. This underlines the shift in modern thinking away from gender and towards racism.

That is perhaps the most interesting part of this novel, in my opinion. The differences between Howard's End and On Beauty serve as a timeline. They define the populace's wants and needs as time progresses, and to me, that is the true genious of writing. The ability to acurately define a specific time and place for future readers is a singular gift.