Alice Walker Beauty

Alice Walkers Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self speaks about how ones perception of beauty affects ones self worth. From childhood we see that Walker was praised for both her beauty and intelligence leading her to become self absorbed and snobbish. At this point I found her to be a annoying child and when she refers to her siblings who were unable to go to the fair due to the lack of room in the car as the "unlucky ones" it seems though she thinks she is better than them. Though as she grows she gains respect for her older sister and brothers. At the age of ten Walker was shot in the eye by her brother while he was playing with a be-be gun leaving her eye blind and deformed. Overwhelmed by shame and self loathing as a result of her injury she

In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”

Some may confine to societies expectations, rebel, or even enforce them; however, Alice Walker “dances” over the categories that society has believed she should be placed in to find something more meaningful and significant about herself. Alice Walker, known for her numerous awards and 1983 Pulitzer Prize winning work, The Color Purple, is an American novelist, poet, and activist. Her essay, Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self, is an autobiographical account of an incident that caused her to go blind in one eye when she was eight years old. Walker’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which were cultivated by the standards and pressures of society, are described in her story. While some may overlook its purpose, the metaphor of dance is significant because it represents her individual liberation of societal standards and categorization, which in turn influences readers to consider their oppressors and realize their self-worth.

In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker focuses on a rural family and their different interpretations of the African- American heritage. The story begins when Dee, the educated older daughter, comes to visit her Mama and younger sister, Maggie. The two sisters are completely different physically, mentally, and emotionally. Dee lives an educated and financially stable life with her boyfriend in the city, away from her family; while, Maggie lives an uneducated and poor life at home with her mother. Some may argue that there is no difference between Dee and Maggie’s Interpretations; however, Alice Walker uses characterization and different types of symbolism in her short story to show the difference between Dee and Maggie’s interpretations

In Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, her view of beauty changes through different stages of her life. In her childhood Walker has a misunderstanding of beauty. She is concerned with superficial signs of beauty and fails to appreciate her inner beauty. A tragic mishap as a young child leaves her right eye blind and deformed. She enters a period of depression her life, living her life in shame and disappointment because she believes her beauty to be lost. Even getting surgery as an adult doesn’t help defeat her demons. She continues to struggle until she finds her inner beauty through her daughter’s love. As a child, Alice Walker got her definition of beauty from her family, in her teens she turned to her peers to define beauty, her perception finally changed again in adulthood when she discovered an inner beauty.

In the essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dance is the Self “, Alice Walker describes how her identity is affected when a traumatic accident occurs that mangled her eye and took her eye sight. One been confidence in her looks she felt exalted by those around her. After her accident occurred she struggled with accepting her new appearance and the consequences that came along with it. Walker became insecure which cause she to feel disregarded, and misunderstood. After years of pain, she got her “glob” removed which helped her gain her self-confidence but still felt overlooked and unnoticed by the people around her. Walker’s journey is proof that accidents can cause changes that you must accept. Although she felt overlooked by adults in her life, she finally embraced her scar, “imperfection”, when a child saw the real beauty in her eye.

If you ask twenty people to define beauty you will receive, in all probability, twenty different definitions. Beauty, being as ambiguous as it is, leaves room for interpretation. Alice Walker, in “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, attempts to demonstrate that perception is subjective, and she successfully does so. Albeit, our perceptions do change as we go through life, experiencing and learning. By taking the reader on a sequential journey throughout her life and establishing a sentimental and sympathetic tone, Walker is able to portray that accepting and loving yourself is greater than being considered “beautiful” by society.

During the civil rights movement many women and minorities were suppressed from being able to be true to themselves and what they believe in. Civil rights advocate and “womanist”, Alice Walker, in her poems, “Burial,” “Be Nobody’s Darling,” and “While Love is Unfashionable,” analyzes the importance of breaking away from the stereotypes set by society in efforts to prevent struggle. Walker uses a variety of parallelism, allusions, and metaphors to persuade readers to break free from the crowd and embrace the outcast found within the truest version of oneself.

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

Adversity can be seen in many different ways. Some people look at adversity as a learning experience, while others view adversity as a situation marked with misfortune. When a person is faced with adversity, rather than viewing it as something to hate, they should see it as a opportunity to grow. In the stories by Doris Lessing, W.D Wetherell and Alice Walker, they all show different types of challenges each character had to over come and their journey to do so. These stories all shared similar outcomes, they demonstrate how each character used an obstacle they were faced with, and turned it into a beneficial experience and how it shaped them into the person they are today.

She puts a sentence at the end of each main point to bring everything together. An example is, “It’s another dead end.” (Copeland, 20) She uses these sentences to sum up what’s happening and tell the reader what to expect next. There’s even emotion tied to these small sentences. The sentences hold impact for the reader, both emotionally and purely where they are placed. With that sentence, the reader can feel how Alice did, at a loss. Alice didn’t have anything else to do but wait for more DNA test to try and match up with hers. She then switched her sentences up, “Clearly, their mother had contributed no Jewish ancestry to her son.” (Copeland, 8) This explains what the whole paragraph was saying as the paragraph used more technical terms. By breaking the whole paragraph down into simpler wording, Copeland brings the reader the main points. It helps the readers follow the story even when the story can get

A blustery March wind whipped the steam coming out of the manholes, and people hurried along the sidewalks with their collars turned up.” Mrs.Walls makes use of a short sentence to shift focus and transition into her next line she also uses it to start creating her setting. She shows the readers that it is cold out in new york by the use of imagery “hurried along the sidewalk with their collars turned up.” she doesn't outright say it is cold out instead makes use of the setting around her to show us making the writing cohesive.The next part contains of the author using a series of descriptive words to paint us a picture of the mother in her current state and one state in her memories. She makes use of contrast to show how her mother used to be brave and one for the arts compared to her current broken down homeless state. We move on to the use of long sentences “It had been months since I laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she'd see me and call out my name, and that someone on the way to the same party would spot us together and Mom would introduce herself and my secret would be out.” Here the author uses long sentence to build suspense create her mood and present her complicated

Throughout their lifetimes, children discover themselves within their own realm; in their home, neighborhood, classroom, etc. as shown in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. The young, fair-skinned, blonde Alice and the young, good-tanned, brunette Natasha, are both plagued with society’s definition of their identities, as they travel through a fantasy wonderland and the rural south of Mississippi. In a struggle between class and physical appearances and its outcome because of the differences in growing up in an era of peace, prosperity, and national pride (Victorian era) versus an era of muddled civil war, inequality, and the struggle to find national credence (Civil rights era).

As Walker concludes the short story, she incorporates many details and descriptions. This is an effective way to support her purpose of describing how her lifestyle change stemmed from her inner thoughts. Although there could have been too much information for readers to comprehend, her syntactical choices prevent this from occurring. This is shown after Walker describes her countless memories. She writes “But mostly, I remember this:” and talks about a meaningful event

The short story is written in a colloquial tone and reads similarly to an unfocused train of thought, conveying simplicity and realism within the piece. The narrator frequently drifts from a complete statement to an aside throughout the narrative; for example, while discussing the poem his wife composed about her friend Robert he offhandedly recalls, “...I didn’t think much of the poem. Of course, I didn’t tell her that. Maybe I just don’t understand poetry,” (Carver 356). This passage, and others similar to it, cause the flow of the plot to meander, rather than adhere to a strict linear format. Additionally, while the abrupt and nonchalant remarks hold little substance to the narrator, they give the reader a window to the substantial disconnect between the narrator and his peers.