Alice Walker
Beauty When the Dancer Is the Self
“Beauty when the dancer is the self” written by Alice Walker is a well written and thought provoking essay that makes the reader reflect the meaning behind beauty. As a young child Walker lost vision in one of her eyes and in doing so lost her confidence and self-esteem. The essay is made up of different memories that come together to tell her personal story of how she learned to accept herself and her abnormality.
As a little girl Walker thought beauty was in the attention and complements she received from others, in the pretty dresses she wore, and in the confident attitude she commanded. For Walker beauty was materialistic, manifesting itself in the physical world. When she was injured and her eye permanently damaged her life changed, she thought she was no longer beautiful because she was no longer receiving the attention she had before; her father no longer chose her and the complements ceased.
Going forward Walker became painfully shy; she thought “the glop of white scar” had turned her into someone who was ugly and disfigured. No longer did she have the confidence of her childhood. For six year Walker did not raise her head lacking the confidence, afraid others would stare. It wasn’t until the “the glop” was removed from her eye that Walker began to pick her head up and began to regain her confidence, because she wasn’t as ugly, or disfigured as she had been before.
However, her eye still bothered her, even if she wasn’t willing to admit it to herself. She hesitated to have photographs taken because Walker was still questioning if she was beautiful. For Walker it wasn’t until her child looked at her eye and told her there was “a world in her eye” that she realized how little her eye truly affected her, how little her eye defined her beauty. It was just an eye, and Walker had allowed the belief that a scar ruined her; to disfigure her vision of life and of beauty. Thinking back Walker realizes how close she came to
“Beauty when the dancer is the self” written by Alice Walker is a well written and thought provoking essay that makes the reader reflect the meaning behind beauty. As a young child Walker lost vision in one of her eyes and in doing so lost her confidence and self-esteem. The essay is made up of different memories that come together to tell her personal story of how she learned to accept herself and her abnormality.
As a little girl Walker thought beauty was in the attention and complements she received from others, in the pretty dresses she wore, and in the confident attitude she commanded. For Walker beauty was materialistic, manifesting itself in the physical world. When she was injured and her eye permanently damaged her life changed, she thought she was no longer beautiful because she was no longer receiving the attention she had before; her father no longer chose her and the complements ceased.
Going forward Walker became painfully shy; she thought “the glop of white scar” had turned her into someone who was ugly and disfigured. No longer did she have the confidence of her childhood. For six year Walker did not raise her head lacking the confidence, afraid others would stare. It wasn’t until the “the glop” was removed from her eye that Walker began to pick her head up and began to regain her confidence, because she wasn’t as ugly, or disfigured as she had been before.
However, her eye still bothered her, even if she wasn’t willing to admit it to herself. She hesitated to have photographs taken because Walker was still questioning if she was beautiful. For Walker it wasn’t until her child looked at her eye and told her there was “a world in her eye” that she realized how little her eye truly affected her, how little her eye defined her beauty. It was just an eye, and Walker had allowed the belief that a scar ruined her; to disfigure her vision of life and of beauty. Thinking back Walker realizes how close she came to