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On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
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
Helen Keller once gave a lecture at Wellington College, and as a result, it has a library named after her. Howard shows up at the library for a faculty meeting, wishing he had a seat that would allow him to sneak out early if needed. He looks around and resents some of the other professors that are more prestigious than he is.
Helen Keller was born deaf and blind but famously learned how to communicate and eventually went on to study at Radcliffe College (then part of Harvard, the inspiration for Wellington), later becoming a progressive activist. There is humor in the fact that such an impressive person’s name is attached to a library where such a boring faculty meeting is about to take place.
Active
Themes
Dean French gives a rambling speech to start the meeting. It goes so off topic that his assistant, Lydia, has to summarize and repeat several parts for the crowd. Howard looks around the room to try to predict who will side with the complaint he’s about to make and who will side with Monty.
Although Monty is a big believer in the concept of meritocracy—the idea that people earn high positions by working hard, excelling, and deserving their success—this passage provides evidence to the contrary. Though Lydia is a much better communicator than Dean French, he has nevertheless somehow obtained the more prestigious position.
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Dean French finally gets to the part of the agenda set aside for Howard. Howard begins to give a speech about how free speech is important but must not conflict with other rights. He’s unnerved when he sees Monty smiling at him and starts to lose his train of thought. When Howard pauses, Monty asks for a chance to defend himself, but a nervous Dean French says perhaps it would be best to let Howard finish his opening remarks.
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Howard continues his speech, talking about how a political speaker the previous year was banned for being “Anti-Israel,” a decision that Howard disagreed with but which he respected because it was democratic. Howard says he doesn’t want to ban Monty—he just wants to review his lectures to make sure they don’t go against the university’s hate policies. He brings up a recent article of Monty’s that he claims contains homophobic material (and which also had an attack on Howard).
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With Howard finished, Monty stands up to defend himself. He makes some comments about how they’re not in England anymore—they’re in “the land of the free,” and so Monty declines all Howard’s requests. Monty accuses Howard of scrutinizing Monty’s intentions, when Howard’s own theories don’t believe in intention. Howard replies that Monty is dismissing intentions despite being a constitutional originalist.
Monty claims that as a conservative, he’s the victim of extra scrutiny on campus. He then starts ranting about affirmative action again. Howard accuses Monty of going off topic, and Dean French agrees. The dean leads everyone back to the main issue: Will Monty submit his lectures for review? Monty refuses, and he even refuses to allow the room to vote on the issue.
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A professor asks if Monty’s lectures are really so dangerous. Howard replies that, like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom Monty admires, Monty believes homosexuality is evil. Monty doesn’t necessarily deny this but clarifies that his views are nuanced, earning a mixed reaction from the crowd.
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Dean French decides that, given the impasse between Howard and Monty over Monty releasing his lecture texts early, perhaps there should be a group vote on whether to hold Monty’s lectures at all. Monty agrees. When it goes to a vote, everyone except Howard’s closest supporters approves of the lectures.
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Zora enters the room and congratulates Howard, assuming he did a good job on whatever he did before she arrived. She’s there to give the speech that she promised Claire she’d give about the students in her poetry class who aren’t technically enrolled at Wellington
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