Alice Walker Loss Of Innocence

In life, many instances occur solely because one has been unfortunate enough to be placed into a location at the exact time when tragedy will strike. As a result, the victim is unable to control their fate. A primary example of an occurrence of fate transpired in the life of Alice Walker, the youngest child in an impoverished sharecropping family, when she was shot in her right eye with a BB gun and was forced to lie about the accident. Due to the injury, Walker would become blind in the right eye. For years, a blob left on her eye by the gun pellet forced Walker to lower her head and constantly be pestered by her classmates, teachers, and even close relatives. Six years after the accident, the blob on Walker’s eye was removed but left a small
After the incident, Walker repeatedly states that many told her, “You did not change,” after the injury of her eye. With the reiteration of this particular statement, Walker demonstrates she is worried that her injury has affected her in ways beyond her physical appearance. As a result, she seeks the reassurance of others that she has “not changed.” An insecurity which I had to overcome was a birth mark of mine that was unfortunately placed in the center of my forehead, between my eyebrows. The mark was a large blotch of pink skin known as a salmon patch. Although salmon patches in this particular location were lovingly referred to as an “angel’s kiss,” I considered mine to be a “devil’s kiss.” When at school, being the only one with a birthmark of that distinctness, I would receive confused looks from my classmate and was constantly pestered as to what had happened to my forehead. Although the birthmark eventually faded away, I had never overcame it. However, after seeing how Walker managed to come to grips with her eye after her daughter’s comment, I realized that I needed to sanctify my view about my “devil’s kiss” and view it as a beautifully unique aspect of my character and not as a symbol of
However, besides the effort required to love one’s imperfections, the process showed how the “lens” in which one witnesses a sight can completely change their views, corroborating that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, the tale of Walker’s acceptance of her own insecurity illustrated how humanity has been forced to look through a lens that has unrealistic standards regarding beauty. In fact, the decisive viewpoint that forced Walker to change her own mindset was from a mind that had not been forced to conform to society’s lens: the viewpoint of her young daughter. Although many view children as being subordinate beings whose minds have nothing in them, some people, including Robert Fulghum, understand that children possess powerful ideas that an adult mind cannot develop due to their simplicity. Fulghum, an author of children’s literature and inspirational fiction, once stated, “Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” With this statement, Fulghum epitomized how children look up to their parents for the base of their own mindset. Since Alice Walker never attempted to hide her eye from her daughter, her daughter did not ridicule her; instead, she wondered with curiosity about the world in her mother’s eye. Even though the