Only the Beautiful

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-10

Part 1, Chapters 11-20

Part 2, Chapters 21-28

Part 2, Chapter 29-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Socio-Historical Context: The Implementation of Eugenics

In each aspect of the overall narrative, Only the Beautiful engages in a scathing critique of the implementation of eugenics, different versions of which were embraced by the Nazi regime and in the United States. Broadly speaking, eugenics is defined as the intentional manipulation of the human gene pool in order to create a predetermined population based upon arbitrary standards. During World War II, for example, the Nazi regime enacted the “Aktion T4” program in Austria, which forcibly removed certain citizens who were deemed unfit for living a normal life. Such individuals were forcibly euthanized in order to remove their genes from the population. Designed as part of Hitler’s plot to create a so-called “master race,” Aktion T4 was active throughout World War II and resulted in the murders of hundreds of thousands of people.

However, eugenics practices were not limited to the depravities of the Nazi regime, for just as Rosie’s experience is designed to illustrate, American psychiatric institutions once engaged in a form of eugenics themselves by forcibly sterilizing patients that they deemed to be unsuitable parents. Rosie experiences this ideology firsthand when she is forced to undergo such a procedure after the birth of her daughter. Likewise, the themes of activism and reform are emphasized when Helen discovers that the state of California has been forcibly sterilizing citizens deemed mentally unfit, for she actively campaigns against these practices, telling of her experiences in Europe during World War II and working to spread awareness of the abusive practice of eugenics.

Historical Context: World War II

The earliest point of the narration occurs in February 1938, while the latest portion occurs in June 1953. The official dates for World War II span from September of 1939 to September of 1945, so the arc of the narrative begins slightly before the outbreak of the war and resolves in the years of the war’s immediate aftermath. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and two days later, both the United Kingdom and France issued declarations of war on account of this offensive. Germany continued the war allied with both Italy and Japan, forming a trio commonly referred to as the Axis Powers. Two years later, Germany began an assault on the Eastern frontier by attacking the Soviet Union.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, finally drawing the United States into the war after an extended period of opposition to getting involved. The most famous battle of World War II occurred almost three years later, on June 6, 1944, as American and British troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in northern France. After almost a year of fighting, Germany fell and offered their unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. Three months later the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs dropped by American bomber crews, leading to Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945, effectively putting an end to the war. It is estimated that the war cost the lives of more than 80 million people, with civilian deaths likely outnumbering the deaths of combatants by a factor of two to one.