Analysis Of Beauty In Alice Walker's Beauty

The discovery that evil exists within the most beautiful aspects of nature is a daunting revelation. It is the sudden realisation that not all discoveries are uplifting and that there will be a moment in our life when naivety will be lost and stark reality will be faced. Alice Walker’s short story “The Flowers” (1988) illustrates how an abrupt discovery can lead to the ultimate loss of innocence. Walker uses “The flowers” as an allegory of innocence where children gravitate towards the sweeter, unaffected aspects of life but eventually are bound to stumble across the corruption inherent in human nature.

“Beauty” by Tony Hoagland was written in 1998. In this poem, Hoagland expresses his feelings on how women care too much about physical appearances. Throughout his poem he tells the story through the eyes of a brother of a girl who learns to love herself for who she is. Hoagland’s poem stresses the importance that beauty goes deeper than the surface. Throughout his poem, Tony Hoagland uses many literary devices to perfect his poem. These devices include the message, tone, imagery, figures of speech, and personification.

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker is a very well written yet short and sweet story that paints a very vivid picture of main problem the times. It expresses the reality of the lynching of the African American community in a way that is very easy to understand. Alice Walker uses vibrant details to bring to light the severity of the problem and what people of that time period went through. The story also showcases a deeper meaning that does not necessarily revolve around lynchings but represents the loss of childhood innocence. “The Flowers” explains the reality of racism and lynchings of the time while also providing an inner lying message about one’s coming of age and loss of innocence.

Alice Walkers "Roselily" is a short story about a woman who is about to be married, but is having second thoughts about the marriage. She is also looking into the past and the future trying to make sense of what is happening. Roselily is being torn between choosing between her current or possible future Economic status, Societies view of her, her religion and her freedom. All these thoughts go through her mind as the wedding ceremony takes place, and she begins to wonder if she has made the right choice is marrying this man.

The short story/essay “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” written by Alice Walker demonstrates the story of Alice accepting herself despite her flaws. As a child, Alice is a pretty, outgoing, and messy girl; but that all changes in a matter of seconds. Alice loses sight in one of her eyes, changing her perspective on life for a majority of her life. She went from the outgoing girl whom everybody seems to love, to the girl that doesn’t look up anymore in fear people will see her messed up eye. Growing up in 1947 with her family, she is not a rich child, in fact, almost dirt poor, so her parents can’t afford a car to take her to the hospital, contributing to her losing sight in her eye. Although she tells her parents a reason causing her to injure her eye, it is a lie, so that she is able to protect her siblings from becoming in trouble. Alice Walker demonstrates a theme of lying to protect siblings in her life which I can relate to because I oftenly as a child had to lie to protect my siblings as well.

In Alice Walker’s, Nineteen Fifty-Five, a young white singer, Traynor, acquires song rights from an African American rhythm and blues singer, Gracie Mae. The song makes Traynor rich and famous. Obsessed with finding out the song’s meaning, Traynor remains in contact with Gracie Mae through letters, gifts, and visits. The conflict of the story is in Traynor’s inability to ascertain the meaning of the song. Traynor eventually passes away, without ever resolving the conflict.

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.

A person’s perception of anything is always influenced by their experiences. Alice Walker, the writer of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, is no different in regards to her perception of beauty. Walker uses various stylistic elements throughout her writing to convey her shifting outlook toward her own beauty. She also employs various rhetorical strategies in order to deliver a clear and luring story that keeps the reader engaged as she describes her life as a flashback. Walker uses the accident that happens during her childhood to prove that one’s mindset can be altered because of a profound experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a conceited and arrogant child into a newly reborn woman who sees a new kind of

A form of adversity is in Alice Walker’s essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, it shows how a person’s perception of everything is always greatly influenced by their past experiences. Walker uses various elements throughout her writing to show her outlook towards her appearance. Walker uses the incident that happened in her childhood to show that a persons mindset can be changed by a experience and how her attitudes changes from a sassy, conceited kid to a matured and powerful women who finally sees beauty in her life. Alice Walker’s essay is a great example of a person whose fear of adversity allowed themselves to be worn down by it. She begins the story with a cocky outlook on life where she knows she is beautiful. “I’m the prettiest!” (Alice Walker), as a young child she would use her

Alice Walker's short fictional story, "Nineteen Fifty-five", revolves around the encounters among Gracie Mae Still, the narrator, and Traynor, the "Emperor of Rock and Roll." Traynor as a young prospective singer purchases a song from Mrs. Still, which becomes his "first hit record" and makes him rich and famous. Yet, he does not "even understand" the song and spends his entire life trying to figure out "what the song means." The song he sings seems as fictional as certain events in this story, but as historical as Traynor's based character, Elvis Presley.

Page 1 of 2 ZOOM In Alice Walker’s short story “The Flowers” (1988), a young girl begins to enjoy her summer in the woods. This girl—Myop—strays further away from her home than she usually does. She later stumbles upon something that no child should ever have to see. Walker relates this scene to the reader through the use of different types of imagery in each of the three sections of the story.

1 The poem "Women", written by Alice Walker, discusses the hardships of her mother and other women during the time of slavery and how they overcame these struggles for their families to have better lives. She not only shows us how strong these women were, but also how loving and caring they were. In this poem, Alice Walker uses many literary devices including metaphors and imagery. Throughout lines 12-18, Alice implicates women as tough generals in the army, leading armies of soldiers into battle.

The importance of maintaining the self-love throughout the essay goes beyond the simple explanations; it fulfills the author’s intended meaning through strong figurative language. Alice Walker captures the meaning of self love perfectly in the essay, “Beauty, When the Other Dancer is the Self.” As a young girl, she was shot in the eye by her brother’s BB gun which left lasting affects on her physically and emotionally. Walker’s ability to frame the central idea of self love by her use of tone and one concluding metaphor.

Woolf also implements her moment of being technique by shifting the protagonists thoughts of negativity to the cheerful moments of her and her husband when she is left alone on the sofa at the party (Woolf, 1924). This moment of being allows the protagonist to finally conquer these negative moments since she realizes she is forty years old and needs to begin thinking of herself appropriately. This excellently portrays the Modernist mindset of writers within the realm of European fiction by emphasizing inner emotions, consciousness, and alienation. The symbol of the dress represents how this object causes the protagonist to experience complex inner emotions, experience continuous conscious thoughts of inferiority and the alienation of not being good enough. Critical sources on this work by Virginia Woolf have also interpreted the symbol of the dress to represent these distinct Modernist characteristics. Psychologically, Mabel Waring has created an imaginary world where she is continuously inferior, but the reality is the only person critiquing her is herself (Vonepho, 2013). In addition, this relates to the cultural aspect of the early twentieth century in which she seeks the approval from individuals from upper-class since she comes from a poor background (Vonepho, 2013). This supports my analyzation for the existence of stream of consciousness through the symbol of the dress by repeating the cycle of oppressive thoughts (Vonepho, 2013). The critical commentary by

Adrian Mitchell, an English poet, novelist and playwright, once wrote, “most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.” Born in 1788, George Gordon Byron, commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and one of the most famous poets of the romantic era. Romanticism was one of the most influential poetic movements, which brought Lord Byron into the literary forefront. Although he has many famous literary works, She Walks in Beauty is one of his most favourable poems. The poem was inspired by a woman wearing a mourning dress whilst at a ball. Love is the overarching theme, focusing mainly on adoration and captivating love. This is seen by the overwhelming sense of his attention that is captivated by her, and the fact that the woman seems unobtainable. Through his work, Lord Byron captures the reader's attention with his use of literary devices and the presentation of different gender roles through the nature of love.