The Concept Of Pain In Autobiography Of A Face By Lucy Grealy

How is someone supposed to convey a normal state of mind when pain is encompassing his or her being? Experiences of pain are very common in the healthcare system, yet there are still gaps in distinguishing between the different types of pain that people experience. In addition, pain is physical, emotional, spiritual, and in some instances a combination of them all. Throughout literature, pain is represented and treated in various ways by conveying a patient’s experience and interpreting the meaning of pain and how it can shape an individual. Pain is subjective and each person experiences pain in unique ways. Representations of pain can take place in many forms; pain is personified, pain is self-perpetuating, and pain is selfish. In the

Within this memoir, Lucy Grealy is faced with distinguishing between the mental and physical pain that she is dealing with during her life. The mental pain that seems to immerse her includes the shame and guilt she feels when showing her negative reactions to the painful chemotherapy. Lucy uses the physical pain of enduring over thirty surgeries to deflect from emotional insecurity of her facial deformities. To find her inner values of her self, she must first emotionally overcome her outward

Pain can trigger many intense emotions, having a big effect on someone. Some people respond differently to pain, but others experience an emotional transformation. Each text possesses a transformation that allows the reader to well understand the identity of the characters. Throughout “The Interior Castle,” the reader is not aware of the personality of Pansy before the accident, but as a result of the pain she chooses to isolate herself from the rest of the world seeking to stay secluded in her own thoughts. Contrasting from Pansy, Lucy Grealy in Autobiography of a Face has a different spin. Lucy suffers a progressively different change including her reconstructive surgeries and her desire to find her sense of self. It is unclear whether Lucy overcame her deformity and found herself, but the reader can gather that the pain she felt altered her state of mind in a deep way. “Pain Has an Element of Blank” describes the building blocks of pain that causes the transformation in Pansy and Lucy. Emily Dickinson presents pain as being an all-consuming world with infinite ends. The reader sees this element of physical and emotional pain as being the key to the transformation in both women. It is clear that pain possesses a certain power over people and their experiences in