The Analysis of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”

“Long Beautiful Hair,” wrote by Ann Hood, is a piece most would assume just to be a narrative of how the author goes through different hair phases in her lifetime. However, that is only the superficial meaning; Hood’s piece is metaphorically set up for a greater purpose. If analyzed correctly, her piece is a complex explanation of a life lesson that people often struggle with: figuring out who they are created to be. In order for her to convey the message fully to the audience, she tells her story in a time progressing sequence while also using rhetorical strategies such as pathos and a metaphor.

“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 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.

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.

She claims, “for six years I do not stare at anyone because I do not raise my head” showing that because of her injury confidence strips away and she loses this view of perfection in herself. Scars tear one apart from their confidence and true beauty because something unnatural and terrible must have occurred in order for one to submit involuntarily to absolute vulnerability. Walker states, “I watch as its trunk, its branches, and then its leaves are blotted out by the rising blood.” “Blood,” in this sense refers to the beauty that is drawn out of the soul when an inner crisis occurs (Walker). McCloskey claims, “The gender crosser is trying to join the women. To pass as one, and instead they are treating her like a man, maybe nuts, probably dangerous, definitely another one of those bloody men” (McCloskey, 294). When McCloskey uses the word “bloody,” she references being drawn out by exclusion and how the cruelty she endures strips away her

Walker discovered her personal identity when she got into an accident that left a scar not only in her physical but into her life, she was insisted on a fight, and she even lost her self confidence and same as Cofer’s she faced discrimination and was disrespected. It was stressed in Walker’s, “after months, of torture at the school, my parents decide to send me back to our old community, to my old school.”(444) and also when she said that she beat a child at her old school who continually calls her ”one-eyed bitch” (445). On the other hand, Walker’s discovery differs from Staples’ because she was not feared nor misjudged. The epiphanies the three writers experienced, led them into their discovery of their personal knowledge and identity.

Walker's shallow perception of beauty changed following a tragic accident when she was eight. Her brother shot her

In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” she uses a tactic to set a mood for the reader by bringing in the character Maggie. Walker's use of language when describing Maggie creates a picture of a physically scarred and unintelligent girl. Maggie's physical scarring is pointed out

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

In the short story, Walker writes quotes about what other people say about her speech. She remarks “Oh, isn’t she the cutest thing!” frequently floats my way. “And got so much sense!” they gratefully add.” This shows that Walker cares about what other people think of her. It answers why she becomes insecure when she goes blind: she thinks everyone will make fun of her flaw. Walker becomes so absorbed into what others think of her that she fails to recognize that they treat her the same. Furthermore, Walker uses parallelism to show readers her main idea of the passage. The recurring sentence “You did not change” starts out as a general hint to readers that Walker’s changes were not apparent to others. However, with each subsequent “You did not change,” it becomes clearer and more obvious that the change in her life was all in her head. If Walker only included one of these sentences in the story, her intentions of the passage would not be as evident to readers.

Unlike Dee, Walker’s description of Maggie is seen as an unattractive and awkward girl. Her mother notes “good looks passed her by” (355). Furthermore, she carries herself with low self-esteem, “chin on chest, eyes on ground” (355). Besides her appearance, when Maggie is first introduced in the story, Mama points out that she is nervous about her sister’s visit and “will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (355).

The narrator’s life changed walking down the hallway that day at school, taste of blood in her mouth, as she looked at reflection in the mirror of her scar it foreshadows changed of her inner beauty. The Bitch and her have been friends for years until the Bitch engineers a new personification of herself, leaving the narrator lost in wondering, trying to

David Sedaris You Can't Kill the Rooster story is centered on Paul, who is the last born in a family with six children. Paul is foul-mouthed in nature and has not managed to meet the expectations that his father had for him. However, he is good natured and is always watching out for his father, since the death of his mother. Over time, his father has come to accept his behavior and rather than get offended, he chuckles whenever Paul something that might seem to other people. It seems he has finally come to terms with the character of his son, and appreciates him the way he is.

She is praised for her vivid depiction of her life experiences. Perhaps the most memorable moment was when Curtis, her brother shot her in the eye with a BB gun at the age of eight. Isolated from the people, she turned to reading and writing poetry as an escape. Walker was awarded a partial scholarship to college because of her accident that caused her loss of vision in her right eye. She describes her accident in detail in the essay Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self. Walker’s work was mainly influenced during her time in activism and the struggles and hardships that African-Americans faced during the time of slavery and the time that followed. She expressed it once in a quote, “There is a special grief felt by the children and grandchildren of those who were forbidden to read, forbidden to explore, forbidden to question or to know. Looking back on my parents’ and grandparents’ lives, I have often felt overwhelmed, helpless, as I’ve examined history and society, and especially religion, with them in mind, and have seen how they were manipulated away from a belief in their own judgment and faith in themselves.” (Anything We Love Can Be Saved." Google

Alice Walker’s writing style normally grim and sad. The reason she writes mostly about this is because she lived in a time where there was all this controversy going on and there were wars going on as well. Therefore, she learned from them and wanted to teach others about these topics in a way that can be easy to understand and intriguing to