Analysis Of Lucy Grealy's Autobiography Of A Face

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Society has and always will obsess and pressure the preoccupation of outer beauty. The memoir, Autobiography of a Face, gives poetic insight into Lucy Grealy’s physical and emotional difficulties in life. With the diagnosis of Ewing Sarcoma at age nine, Lucy is left with a deformed jaw and undergoes chemotherapy and radiation. Beginning at a young age, Lucy, is faced with people constantly questioning her self-worth and beauty. Through detailed chapters, the reader learns about the absent attention Grealy experienced within her family by the empty emotional relationships between her parents and siblings, which provides a clear reason why Lucy has a love for hospitals and the attention she receives. To Lucy, hospitals are a place where judgment does not exist, and courage defines a person not their outer appearance. Although, Lucy cannot come to terms or accept herself after her is jaw removed, she draws strength from everything she has endured. Secretly wishing to …show more content…

Lucy did not feel guilty or shameful at hospitals, it was expected that she gave little "but since then she spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that she always viewed as the great tragedy in my life. The fact that she had cancer seemed minor in comparison” (Grealy 1). Regardless of how many times Lucy tries to ignore her reflection in the mirror, but she is constantly reminded by negative comments and looks from others. The hospital is a comfortable place where Lucy can openly walk around without the fear of rejection or judgment. It takes years for her to overcome the feeling of loneliness and isolation rooted from classmates, family, and society. Instead, she used it as a lesson to learn about herself, and believe in an unusual type on

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