Research Paper On Alice Walker

When Alice Walker was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her with a BB gun in her right eye. She lost the use of that eye and was left with scar tissue that was noticeable. Other kids would ridicule and laugh at her. This caused her to become very withdrawn. She became more of an observer and she started composing poetry in her head. She was afraid to put them on paper because she thought that her siblings would find her writings and tear them up.

The societal expectations for beauty are an ingrained concept amongst the minds of almost every individual, who in turn project these standards on each other and their own children. Throughout her adolescence, Walker seeks for validation of her beauty through others. “When I rise to give my speech I do so on a great wave of love and pride and expectation.” (Walker 2). Walker was seeking a reaction from her audience as she read her Easter speech to her church; a reaction of approval and admiration, which then confirmed her “cuteness”. The emotional toil brought upon by the accident caused Walker to go into a dark place of unacceptance of herself. She did poorly in school, was bullied in school, and kept her head down for several years of her life because of the shame she felt from the appearance of her eye. “I tell it I hate and despise it. I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty.” (Walker 5). At twelve years-old, Walker talks about the eye that has gone blind and development of her self-unacceptance can be seen here. The lack of concern she had about the function of her eye, but rather the aesthetics, shows how dependent Walker was on in achieving societal standards.

In “Beauty: When the Other Dance Is the Self”, Alice is forced to lie for her siblings in order to protect them and herself. Alice must lie to protect herself because her two brothers will hurt her because she told on them causing them to be in trouble. Next, I will discuss the quickly changing events that cause Alice to lose sight in one of her eyes. At the age of eight, Alice is a tomboy, where she oftenly hangs out with her brothers. The parents of Alice and her

She becomes very reactive and unapologetic. Her final step in harming her marriage is stonewalling. Alice starts to pull away from Michael and his love. He wants to help her, but she is not ready to accept that yet. She makes is difficult for the entire family to heal by doing this. She becomes withdrawn and pushes away those who love her. These things are very are very apparent in this couple’s relationship.

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.

Walkers essay is great of getting her audience to reminisce on the past by describing some childhood memories of life on the farm with the use of her beautiful language to share an image in Walkers memory.

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.

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 feather landed in a splatter of yellow paint on the dusty concrete, and was trampled by the passersby as they hurried past in their haste to get to the highlight of the fair: the prized bird judging. Ellie sat in a corner perched on the edge of her stool, cheered by the queue of people waiting for her to paint their portrait. As an Art student, she used the money she earned from selling her paintings at the local markets and fairs to pay her tuition fees, her rent and feed herself.

     Alice Walker is an African American essayist, novelist and poet. She is described as a “black feminist.”(Ten on Ten) Alice Walker tries to incorporate the concepts of her heritage that are absent into her essays; such things as how women should be independent and find their special talent or art to make their life better. Throughout Walker’s essay entitled “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” I determined there were three factors that aided Walker gain the concepts of her heritage which are through artistic ability, her foremothers and artistic models.

She feels like no one looks at her the same anymore that everyone has different opinions about her, and they all feel that Alice is a new person all together including her family especially her sister. Alice’s sister feels like she is not the same person and will not treat her the same because of her looks even though Alice explain “ [t]his is me in here Jenny, my brain is still me” (Coakley 2). Alice is really trying to help her family especially her twin sister Jenny recognize that it is still her on the inside of her body “my brain is me”. Alice wants to keep close to her sister and does not want to lose her because she thinks slice does not look the same. Part of the reason why Alice does not know her identity is because her family is not understanding and they need to try and realize it is Alice to boost her confidence in who she is. In addition Alice knows her family has not been very supportive of her new body all her family cares about is how different she looks and that they feel like she acts differently, they do not seem to care how them acting like this affects Alice when they judge who she really

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.

A major influence on Alice's identity was when she was a young child and her grandmother would tell her stories about events that occurred in Cambodia. In Alice's teenage years, her beloved grandmother has a stroke, developed disabilities and eventually had passed away. It is around this time where serious psychological problems occur for Alice. This almost forces her into a mental state in which she knows she does not fit in with the Australian culture. She believed she had to do everything she could to change that otherwise Alice knew she would break down mentally. Alice was forced to attempt to fit the social standards of Australia.

Alice Walker recounts the events of her childhood in some of her stories. When she was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her in the eye with a BB gun while they were