Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Selfhood
I agree with the author Alice Walker's idea of selfhood in Beauty: When the Other Dance is the Self, and how she perception of herself changes throughout the story. Walker was always considered the "Pretty" girl and was idolized in her community until a traumatic event happens to her at just a young age of 8. Her 2 older brothers ruin her Beauty by shooting her with a BB gun and she loses sight in one eye and becomes inverted and shy. Walker loses a part of herself when she loses a part of her eye, Confidence. As a young girl, she thinks that she is ugly now and different because of the white scar in her eye but really she is just as beautiful. It takes her a long time to see that but eventually one of her older brothers takes her to a doctor and she becomes "Beautiful" again. She rises to the top of her class in high school and becomes popular again becoming her old self. She will eventually get married and have an adorable baby girl who grows up one day to find the white scar in Walker's eye but instead of rejecting her difference she embraces it. Walker realizes in that moment that it's ok to be different and not to be the ideal "Beautiful" person she used to be before the accident. I value Walker's idea of selfhood in this story because it tells the reader it is ok to be different because your just as beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I completely agree with your statement that is okay to be different and still beautiful in your own way. Alice Walker does go through a traumatizing event in her life that changes how she looks and it makes her self-conscious, but she does not change her identity in herself. Alice Walker did go through pain and suffering that changed how she looked, but that did not change herself which proves that people can be different and still be beautiful in your own way. In addition, I do agree that Alice Walker changes her perception of self-identity as she goes through the phenomenon because when it happened she was very upset and she held her head down everywhere she went because of how embarrassed she was and how other kids would tease her. Nevertheless, Alice Walker eventually grew out of that stage and realized that it is okay to be different with the scar on her face and how she is blind in one eye. This lesson taught her a lot and made her realize that she loved how she looked and that she loved herself and even though it took losing an eye to realize it, self-identity is important because everyone should think they are beautifully unique.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with your statement on how being different doesn't make you less beautiful. I also agree with Walker's attitudes on selfhood. The way Walker overcame that obstacle in her life after such trauma is truly amazing. Most of her childhood was compacted with embarrassment and a real lose of her actual self. Although it took some time she was able to see the good in herself and reclaim her self-identity. Now realizing that her self-identity was more important than the judgement of her physical appearance. Helping her come to the ultimate conclusion that her self-identity was what made her beautiful and unique.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the fact that Alice Walker's idea of herself changed over the course of her life. This essay starts out by Walker talking about going to the fair with her father at a young age, and how she was picked to go because of her beauty. At a young age Walker believes she Is very beautiful, but that all changes at the age of 8. At 8 years old, one of her brothers accidentally shoots her in the eye with a BB gun, leaving her blind in that eye with an absurd scar other it. From this point forward, the way Walker views herself and her perception of what others think about her, changes for what she thinks will be forever. She is bullied in school and later sent to live with her grandparents, where school wouldn’t be so rough on her. Late on in life Walker’s brother take her to get the scar tissue removed, which really improves Walkers vision of herself. Walker is no longer deprived completely of her confidence; she starts to realize that she is, once again, beautiful. In later years she starts to doubt herself again as her daughter first notices the scar, but is relieved when the child tells her “there’s a world in your eye.” From this point on in her life, I believe Alice Walker’s view of herself stays strong and confident.
ReplyDelete