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Truth and Beauty Analysis Essay

Decent Essays

Truth and Beauty Essay

Ann Patchett’s Truth and Beauty can most simply be summed up as the life of Lucy Grealy and her lasting impact on people. Patchett writes from a colloquial sidelines point of view meaning Grealy is depicted as a type person who is like an unyielding force. She was a force that gained momentum as it swept up more followers and Patchett became subject to this overpowering presence that Lucy effused. Patchett uses letters from Grealy to explore a part of this invisible attraction which Grealy seemed to radiate. The message derived from Patchett’s book is summarily this: Lucy Grealy was a unique woman with exceptional talents with her own set of qualities that made her different. One aspect that Patchett …show more content…

Primarily, it says that Lucy probably valued at the very least some type of human interaction. The letters setting is that Lucy was living in Provincetown, a town described as boring and lifeless in the winter which was not a suitable condition for Grealy. She had a dream and she wished it to be real so much that she was able to fool herself into thinking it was true. This definitely shows that Lucy is for sure different than other people because she self-imposed what she wanted to be real, not what was reality. Again, this advances Patchett’s message because most people wouldn’t say they thought their dreams were reality after they had woken up. Another thing which Grealy’s letters reveal is that she often put her suffering in perspective. It is all the more significant when in her own autobiography written some time later, she chooses to focus on how she was a “survivor” and how she was able to be stronger than others throughout her life.. In one of Grealy’s letters, she recalls a book she was reading: “I’m not sure how I was able to turn this around to myself, but one day I realized maybe my accusations of ingratitude could be pointed at me.” (92) The two viewpoints from which Grealy viewed herself are very different. In one she viewed herself as a loner, somebody

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