The End of On Beauty

Howard at the End
By the end, Howard has done pretty much everything to sabotage his career and his life. This final talk is his big chance to redeem himself, and he shows up an hour late and without his speech. He could have at least have tried to wing it, but he chooses not to. His speech was against Rembrandt, and he couldn't do it because he didn't feel that way. He ruined his own life because he hated what he was doing so much. As he stood up there on the podium, it seems as if Howard realizes all his mistakes for the first time. He cannot speak against the genius in the art because he sees in that final painting the beauty that he used to see in Kiki. He attempts to portray this to her through his look, but I fear it is too little too late for him in that regard. The weight and import of what he has done bears down on him. The way in which the story ends truly puts Howard in his place for failing to realize what beauty and genius are, and for idealizing, as he said others should not, some faulty standard of beauty. Howard is immersed in the debate on objectification. He says he is above the bias and the mentality, but he is the first one to fall to it (in the form of his affair). And one was a student, which is beyond unforgivable.

Howard and his relationship to his father? His father does not really give a shit about Howard and his work. He is really lower class and just sits in his house and watches t.v. and does not read. Howard leaves all that behind and "surpasses" him. Is that perhaps troubling to Howard? I would say that it isn't that much of an influence. I do not feel that he is troubled by betraying his own class. There are always many subconscious factors that can contribute to certain decisions, but of all the stresses on Howard I feel this is one of the more minutae.