Alice 's Three Gifts By Louisa May Alcott

I believe that my response is based on the way the author received her ideas on what beauty is.

Annie Dillard, in “A Christmas Story,” expresses the difference between seeing and understanding, and simply looking without understanding. She begins the story by describing an extravagant banquet. This banquet took place in a hall filled with chandeliers, decorated tables, and centerpieces. Young adults and adolescents were present, while musicians entertained the guests.

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.

Everyday people stare at billboards, magazine covers, movies, television, or pictures on the Internet of someone or something that they classify as beautiful. Some things people glance over and other things fascinate them. For example, when Farrah Fawcett’s famous picture of her in her red bathing suit came out; many teenage boys hung that picture in their bedrooms. Their idea of Farrah’s beauty was based strictly her outward appearance.

The giver by Lois Lowry was an interesting book to say the least. In the beginning you are lead to believe these are normal kids and characters, possibly in the future, but in pretty much the same state of mind as our definition of “human” today. As the book goes on, you are slowly let in on details, like the characters can not see color, and that the parents are not biological parents, and everything is organized and decided for the characters in the book. The author did a great job of slowly bringing us into the world of sameness quite the same way the giver slowly brought Jonas into the world of memories. I believe the subject of the book is the Importance of the Individual. As corny as it sounds, we spend much of our life trying to be just like everyone else. I think Lois Lowry wrote this entire novel just to show how horrible it would be if everyone was the same as everyone else.

The autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Harriet Jacobs illustrates the life of a former slave in the South who was subjected to mental and physical abuse by her slaveowner and details her escape to eventual freedom. After living through a long and tumultuous life of enslavement and abuse at the hands of her master, Jacobs was eventually able to escape to the North and write an autobiography of the horrors and hardships she faced. The institution of slavery was a destructive system in which thousands of African Americans were separated from their families, forced to work hard labor, and abused

The book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, tells the story of a slave girl named Linda Brent who fought many mental and physical battles throughout her life in order to oppose the system of slavery. This autobiography was written by Harriet Jacobs, known in the book as Linda Brent, and uses a multitude of psuedonyms in order to conceal the identity of those within the book. Harriet Jacobs had succeeded in putting forth a new, unconventional slave narrative that depicted the emotional and mental anguish slave women were subjected to on a daily basis. Through sexual victimization by their masters and the ever-present maternal fear of losing their children to the slave trade, slavery was a far more terrible fate for women than for men. Throughout her twenty-seven year life of being a slave, Harriet Jacobs attempted to defy the idea and social structure of slavery at every turn.

A woman is given limited freedom. Something as simple as a room could give her a sense of liberty. In Virginia Woolf's article, she claims that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Woolf suggests that having a room literally allows women to have their own space to write, but figuratively traps them in their own thoughts due to a lack of freedom. In the works of Jamaica Kincaid, Virginia Woolf, and Alice Walker, the female figures have shown how their own thoughts, reflection, and creativity could be used as a sense of freedom.

The book, Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl starts off by introducing the us to a slave girl who is known as Linda who represents Harriet Jacobs. The books narrates the life Harriet who was born into slavery in 1813 near Edenton, North Carolina. The time period where racial slurs had been widely and slavery was very popular. She had not know she was a slave girl until the solid age of six years after her childhood had been demolished. The main idea for publishing this book was to show the hardship she had faced through her childhood and growing up as a slave. The book is suppose the appeal the sense of empathy towards those that still suffered in slavery or are still suffering in third world countries and provide a better point of view to historian. It was written for everyone to show compassion through her enslaved brothers and sisters. Chapter 1 starts off by introducing a girl that had lived a great life until her mother had died at the age of 6 and she is sent to work for the mistress her mother had worked for all her life and live with her Grandmother. The Grandmother had raised $300 dollars and the mistress had borrowed that money from her. Eventually the mistress dies and instead of letting all her slaves free in her will she gives her slaves to relatives. The slave girls is inherited by a five year old girl. The main point of this first chapter was to argue and support the suffering of slavery. The young girl who had only lived six years of her life is basically

Next, as Helen Keller explained, “beauty is not always seen, but it is also felt in the heart.” Beauty felt by the heart can also be found anywhere. This attribute of beauty can define a person’s heart and personality; not described as an inspiring view, or it can explain a person’s actions. In fact, a person can be beautiful just front the way they act towards others or the way they go about their daily lives. For instance, a simple smile from an individual helping a homeless person can be defined as beautiful. Additionally, someone sitting in a coffee shop lost in thought while reading a book or a child playing in the park. Beauty can also be found in a baby sleeping peacefully or even an elderly couple walking and holding hands. During these unintentional moments, the viewer is allowed to see past what society wants people to think is beautiful and is truly able to catch a glimpse of what Keller describes as beauty being felt by the heart.

Little Women can be viewed as a classic book or girl’s book. It was written after the Civil War after the author received endless demand from the young female readers. Initially they were published as two books where Chapters 1 to 23 where issues back in 1868 under Little Women title, however, after becoming a highly sensational success, Chapters 24 to 47 were published in 1869 under the title Good Wives Louisa (1869). Louisa May Alcott’s personal life is demonstrated in the first book hence acting as a form of semiautobiographical where it largely reflects on the experiences as she grows up with her sisters in New England. She was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832 (Reisen). Thus, the book reflects her personal live with the authors demand on the need to know whether who of the sister married forcing her to add the book. The second book illustrated how Jo married Laurie with Alcott herself remaining unmarried all her life hence forcing her to write the sequel by departing from the autobiography by writing may feel straight up fiction. However, without her personal experiences the other part of the novel may feel less realistic. Little Women has been largely popular since the initial publication for over 140 years where it largely appealed to readers young and old, male and female (Myerson). This was based on the major trend of the novel as based on the lifelong lovers who are female. The novel has been transformed into

Beauty sets standards for society through appearance, especially in younger generations due to use of social media and picture editing. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” is a saying that has been around for ages (Plato, n.p.). It is an accurate phrase because of contrasting views within particular individuals. Beauty is present in the good deeds of community members as well as the unity exhibited through dreadful events. It is a flower bud breaking through the dirt into the fresh, spring air. To clarify how beauty is viewed, it is often times the exposure of evil accounting for the new appreciation of something beautiful. After recognizing the privileges we acquire, the existence of beauty is revealed and expressed more easily. In current society, appreciating beauty is substantial to

What is beauty? How do we decide who is attractive and who is not? Society is full of information telling us what is beautiful, but what fact is that information based on? The topic of beauty has been studied, analyzed and controversial for centuries. We all know the feeling you can have when you hear a beautiful song that brings joy to your heart, stand in a field of flowers that excites your eyes, or admire a face that is visually pleasing. As human beings, we are all drawn to beauty, but what is it that makes something beautiful? The controversial issue that surrounds beauty is that some believe that true beauty is defined by someone’s outer appearance, while others believe it is something that is experienced through a person’s

“Nothing is quite beautiful alone; nothing but is beautiful in the whole. A single object is only so far beautiful as it suggests this universal grace.” written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Nature

Everyday beauty arises out of aesthetic objects in daily life. These objects fit together to create and usher harmony, pleasure, and peace to my life. Little items that carry everyday beauty are the things that should be treasured; this is not always the case in my life. Things that are present every day can become items that are overlooked and expected. Everyday beauty can, but should not, be easily disregarded. Everyday beauty needs to be appreciated and not taken for granted.