What are the motifs in How Proust Can Change Your Life ; Not a Novel by Alain de Botton?

Beauty in the ordinary is a recurring idea. In an essay, Proust addresses the problem of a young man facing the bleak prospect of a mundane and ordinary existence, sitting in his ordinary kitchen. Proust urges this young man to discover the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Chardin, who painted ordinary scenes of crocker, kitchen utensils, fruit, and everyday peasant activities. Chardin was able to portray the beauty of everyday objects, be it the delicate and fibrous nature of a peach or the complicated gleam coming from a silver vase.