Preview

Alice Walker's Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
283 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Alice Walker's Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self
Alice Walker’s Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self In this essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” by Alice Walker, is about the realization or fulfillment of one's own potential or abilities, and a detailed and harrowing account of how the author's life has been affected by a childhood accident that left her disfigured and blind in one eye and that the world is what we make it to be. As a child Alice Walker has great confidence in herself, her capabilities, and her beauty or cuteness. We see the different changes and her realizations about herself, which she goes through throughout her life. Walker gives us much more than a simple report of what happened in her early years, however. She engaged the readers in delivering a straightforward and attractive story relating to her life as a recollection by also using the accident which happened during her childhood. She shows that she is confident in her beauty at the age of two and a half when she wants to go to the fair with her father and tells him “take me daddy. I’m the prettiest.” She also shows she is confident in her capabilities and her beauty on Easter Sunday, 1950, when she is all dressed up in a green, flocked, scalloped-hem dress that had a smooth, satin petticoat and hot pink roses. She feels everyone is admiring her beautiful dress. Alice also states that it was not her dress they admired, but it was her spirit they adored. She thanks them to this day for saying things like “isn’t she the cutest thing” or “and got so much sense”.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Destructive Use Of Imagery In Alice Walker's Bravery
    • 79 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Destructive Use Of Imagery In Alice Walker's Bravery

    A passage from the book showing her bravery is read: Mary struck out, stamping on the man’s instep, using her elbows as weapons, twisting hard and fast out of his grasp. Hid face loomed indistinctly in the gray mist, and she attacked again, landing a hard punch on his nose. This passage is detecting her bravery when she is beating up the man who harassing her. If there was anyone else on her spot, she would simply ran away.…

    • 79 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self
    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis Of Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

    “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” written by Alice Walker, is a gentle and easy to understand story. It is not that the story is a boring and no highlight. When reading the book, it’s like I am hearing my friend’s story.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Personal Narrative: The Painted Ladies
    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page

    Personal Narrative: The Painted Ladies

    After Big Sur and spending the night in Pacifica we went further north to San Francisco. When we spent the night in Pacifica our hotel was right near the ocean. It was such a beautiful view to wake up to. I just absolutely love the sound of the ocean. In San Francisco we went over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a pretty cool thing to see with the views of San Francisco and the ocean. We then went to the park across from the Painted Ladies. The Painted Ladies are the houses that appear in the background of the opening of the original Full House series. It was an awesome thing to go see as I grew up watching Full House and will still watch it from time to time. Once we were done at the park we went to the San Francisco Giants stadium. Although…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Beauty When The Other Dancer Is The Self Summary
    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beauty When The Other Dancer Is The Self Summary

    Alice walker was born February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia the youngest of the eight children of sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker (poetry.org). In 1952 when she was only eight years old, she lost her right eye site in a game of cowboys and Indians when she was shot in the eye with a BB gun by her older brother, Curtis. To avoid getting in trouble her brothers came up with a story and made Alice follow along. Several years later, when she was fourteen years old, her brothers provided her with the encouragement and resources to get eye surgery. She describes the impact of this surgery in the essay: “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” (emory.edu).…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Frog Princess
    • 2861 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The Frog Princess

    Unlike most fairy tales, "Beauty and the Beast" has been a traditional tale where there are two paths to be developed in which Beauty faces challenges and the transformation that is sustained by Beast. Therefore, this shows how two opposing allegorical characters resolve their differences in joining wedlock. The version of "Beauty of the Beast" by Madame de Beaumont shows how Beauty 's happiness is found on her abstract quality of good features. In this version, Madame de Beaumont not only stresses the importance of obedience and self-denial but advocates the transformative power of love and the importance of valuing oneself over appearances. Madame de Beaumont not only shows that looks make a woman happy but character, virtue, and kindness…

    • 2861 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's Culture
    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page

    Alice Walker's Culture

    In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker the author explains Maggie and Dee’s views on the world and culture. The way people view Maggie and Dee’s lifestyle is how they can interpret their outlook on culture. Maggie says “I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day.”(Walker 59) She is referring to the clothes she wears as a part of her daily lifestyle. I can relate to that by the school clothes I wear five days a week, six hours a day as a part of my daily recurrence. Dee on the other hand dresses differently than Maggie. “A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school.” (Walker 60) This text shows that Dee is more dressy than Maggie. One way we can view Maggie and Dee’s culture is that Dee is more…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography
    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography

    One of the typical definitions for the term censorship includes, "Official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression believed to threaten the political, social, or moral order. It may be imposed by governmental authority, local or national, by a religious body, or occasionally by a powerful private group." Books are challenged and are then, sometimes, in turn banned for reasons stemming from moral, political, or social issues. Censorship of books itself has been around as long as there are books in print. However, while book burnings may be symbolic, it is more typical to go about book censorship in a much more civil manner. Many books have been challenged or banned as years have passed, and many take note that most banned books…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's Pride Goes Before A Fall
    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alice Walker's Pride Goes Before A Fall

    In a bid to exemplify the notion’s statement, “pride goes before a fall,” Alice Walker, Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike draw on their main characters Dee, Connie, and Sammy in their stories “Every day Use,” “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “A&P” respectively. Dee, Connie and Sammy are an example of how the notion of pride is shown in various ways and how as their pride reaches its peak, they fall. Dee shows her pride in her self centered personality that causes her to lose her appreciation for her mother and her sister Maggie, and causes her to abandon her heritage and become distant. Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” shows pride in her overconfidence that leads her to act impetuously…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker
    • 616 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Alice Walker

    The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker (Norton 1530) is a story told in first person from the perspective of “Mama”. The piece depicts two sisters, Dee and Maggie, as opposites in their personality and way of living. While Maggie is shy and quiet, Dee is materialistic and bold. Furthermore, Maggie loves where she lives and her way of living. In contrast, Dee loves the urban life and wants to display her heritage when in reality she does not want to live it. This is evident when Walker describes the battle between the sisters for the quilts. Alice Walker not only portrays the rivalry between the two sisters but also uses the two characters, Dee and Maggie, as a symbol for the dichotomy in the idea of living the heritage.…

    • 616 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's The Color Purple: Analysis
    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alice Walker's The Color Purple: Analysis

    From reading the extract from The Color Purple, the reader is shocked almost straight away from how the character/narrator (who in this case is the author Alice Walker) is treated and brought up by her father.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "Mirror Image" by Lena Coakley
    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "Mirror Image" by Lena Coakley

    The character of Alice in Lena Coakley's "Mirror Image" is insecure and uncomfortable. Alice is going through a change; a change brought on by a devastating car crash which left her clinging to her life in an unresurectable body. Alice becomes the first patient to ever receive a brain transplant, giving her a completely new appearance. Although Alice is entirely aware of this, she is still extremely confused about the new changes, which seem to surround her new life.…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Beauty: When the Other Dancer is The Self
    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Beauty: When the Other Dancer is The Self

    “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” by Alice Walker is an essay describing her personal experience with what beauty truly is. Alice Walker is an African American writer who has won many awards for her writing. A few of these awards include a Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. In her autobiographical story “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self,” she tells us the story of how she tragically lost and then finally regained her self-esteem after much agony. She tells a personal story of how she never had to work much for attention and for people to tell her that she was beautiful. After getting shot in the eye by her brothers, she struggled to have the same attention. Throughout the essay she explains how she overcame her hurt eye, which lead her to be stronger and accept herself. She strives to prove anyone can learn to accept themselves with time and patience. When Alice was eight years old one of her brothers shot her in the eye with a BB gun while they are playing a game of Cowboys and Indians. This event causes this once pretty, happy, outgoing girl to lose faith in her beauty. She walks us through the experiences she has before and after the accident, and shows us how her life changed because of her abnormality.…

    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Creativity
    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Alice Walker Creativity

    Alice Walker also uses her own mother as a method to explain the way they are and the creativity they have lived in . She explains, "Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and respect for strength-in search of my mother's garden, I found my own."(Walker 675) This quote shows how Walker was able to find her own creativity by seeing her mother's creativity in the creation of her gardens. Walker's mother grew beautiful gardens at every single house they had ever lived in,it was so original in its design, and so magnificent with life and creativity. These gardens inspired Walker to a degree and by viewing her mother's creativity she was able to write and find her creativity in writing. This shows that even to this day, black women are keeping…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    How Did The Victorian Era Affect Alice In Wonderland
    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How Did The Victorian Era Affect Alice In Wonderland

    In the novel, Alice wore a knee length puffy dress, stockings, her hair down with a headband, and an apron over her dress. In the Victorian times grooming was very important. “A lady’s hair was always tied up in a chignon (a knot of hair put together in…

    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Alice Walker
    • 1998 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Alice Walker

    Alice Walker began her childhood in a crowded household with five of her older brothers. The house she lived in was a small and cramped hut with temperature extremes that sometimes made life uncomfortable. During the Georgia summers filled with bright sunshine, it was very hot. During winters when the frosts would come, it was equally cold. And when it rained, the roof leaked.…

    • 1998 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More