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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…
desperately attain perfection, Lucy learns throughout her life the reality of her situation. Beauty on the inside versus beauty on the outside hold different values depending on the person, and through confrontation, self-worth, and reflection, Lucy embarks on a lifelong journey to discover the concept of beauty and approval. Looking into a mirror has never been easy for Lucy, and daily torture of peer rejection in middle and high school reinforced her insecurities. It is not the illness that defines Lucy’s beauty, her altered appearance after surgery changes how she views herself. “Beauty, as defined by society at large, seemed to be only about who was best at looking like everyone else” (Grealy, 187) shows her social awareness and her understanding about being different. Despite the fact that the feeling of ugliness confronts Lucy on a day to day basis, through her words, she redefines what traditional beauty really means. For Grealy, it is an ongoing struggle to face life without believing she is an abstraction in a world where the desire for approval is substantial. During the times Lucy attends school, other students take it upon themselves to confirm Lucy’s lack of beauty, by harassing her to the point of wanting to eat in the guidance office alone. “I was so ugly, so people were going to make fun of me: I thought it was their right to do so simply because I was so ugly, so I’d just better get used to it” (Grealy 145) explains the biggest tragedy of Lucy’s life is feeling ugly. After middle school, Lucy made a change from having an outgoing personality to completely reserve. No matter how many reconstructive surgeries she undergoes, the feeling of beauty is cannot be met. On the contrary, Lucy may feel a void when it comes to beauty on the outside, but she learns to love herself and figures out who she is by dealing with her insecurities. Lucy learns over time to make the best out of her life and understands facial reconstruction is not the only way to make life bearable. Even though society may be obsessed with the need and want for physical perfection, Lucy challenges the idea by discovering her own unconventional idea of beauty. Spending an extreme amount of time at hospitals made it easy for Lucy to ignore her outer appearance, and become dependent on others taking care of her.
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
beauty. The way people see themselves, and how others view them are two exceedingly different notions. Coming to terms with her facial deformity is a never ending battle for Lucy, and constantly believing she is being punished for something that is out of her control. Many times Lucy questions and struggles with her self-worth which makes her at times want to give up on her journey, “I tried to imagine being beautiful, I could only imagine living without the perpetual fear of being alone, without the great burden of isolation, which is what feeling ugly felt like” (Grealy 177). Between school and random encounters with the opposite sex, Lucy believes she is ugly and deserves all the rejections. More specifically, the boys at school harass Lucy, and it is not what they say that is so important, it is how Lucy reacts to their immaturity. Boys make jokes about her face, and tease each other about being Lucy’s boyfriends (Grealy). Wise beyond her years, Lucy realizes their jokes are not meant to necessarily hurt her, but rather meant to impress each other. Being forced to grow up quickly, Lucy grasps an understanding of social situations faster than others. Throughout life, the concept of beauty never leaves Lucy’s mind, but at the same time she comes to a realization that being socially accepted as pretty is not what life is all about. Outer appearance and internal life balance out when Lucy finds her love for horses as a teen, and poetry as a college student. As Lucy grows older, she becomes friends with horses and cherishes the unique feeling and sensation she receives from the daily interactions, “the very presence of horses overwhelmed me” (Grealy, 8). The horses never judged her based on outer appearances or treat her harshly. With animals, Lucy gives love, time, affection, and respect, knowing she will be given the same treatment back. With humans, on the other hand, she rarely experiences the same attention or emotional support from her peers and family. Later on when Lucy attends college, she finds a similar feeling, but instead of horses it is poetry. The power of poetry helps express her inner pain and suffering without vocalizing her thoughts. Lucy’s new found love for the fictional world leads her to carry around stacks of books regardless if she is going to actually read them or not. College may be the place where Lucy finds her true self with the help of poetry and writing but still fears how people perceive her. With a new judgment free friend group, Lucy “felt acceptance never experienced before and was able to genuinely open herself to the love they offered” (Grealy 196). Also during school, Lucy takes a courageous step and cuts her hair to a short length exposing her jaw to everyone. For a long period of time, Lucy used her hair as a way to hide from the world and protect the outer appearance of her face. Lucy works hard in life to become the person she is suppose to be. Depending on the individual, values of inner and outer beauty vary, and the main character, Lucy takes a lifetime trying to understand the true meaning of beauty and approval mainly through confrontation, self-worth, and reflection. Everything she experiences in life adds to her strength and understanding. Horses gave her the attention she sought, and poetry gave her an escape from her verbal thoughts. In many situations, Lucy is lead to believe she is ugly and incapable of love. Yet, she overcomes adversity by realizing beauty is not everything, and not everyone will accept her for who she is on the inside and out. By working on and overcoming her insecurities, Lucy learns to love herself in a way she never thought was possible. The hospital was a crutch for Lucy, and overtime she can face life without the security and comfort of people taking care of her. By looking deeper into life, Lucy realizes the peer rejection and mockery she encountered growing up was not meant to directly hurt her, instead impress each other. At the conclusion of the book, Lucy never attains perfection but comes to terms with her own unique beautiful life.
Autobiography of a Face is a memoir written by Lucy Grealy about her childhood and brave battle with cancer. When she was nine years old, Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, in her jaw. Because of the cancer, a portion of her job needed to be removed, leaving her face disfigured. Autobiography of a Face tells of her experiences, emotions, and thoughts while battling her illness. While reading the first few chapters, one paragraph that stood out to me was on page 29, the first paragraph of the chapter “Petting Zoo.”
While reading the short story, the author demonstrates that Pauline, the protagonist is having a hard time. At first, Anne Carter uses the main character to show us that her transformation helps her from reaching her dream. Also, the author employs contrasting characters to mention the current state of Pauline’s safety and ambition. At last, Laurel uses settings to show us that the protagonist is ready to sacrifice her safety to attain her dream. Finally, Anne’s point is aimed at everyone, not only people who have a difficult body condition, but also the people that desperately want to achieve their dream. To read a story that deals with this theme makes us realize that it is not everyone that can accomplish what they really want in their
She tried to do many things to be “better” than she had been. Showering everyday to be the cleanest version herself made her feel that it enhanced her quality of life. She was doing this day in day out and even sometimes twice a day as part of her “cleanliness”. While she did not have much money, she spent her extra cash on what she felt was its place to be spent in. Herself. Her appearance. Edith had bought the nicest and most soothing scent of perfume along with a flashy wristwatch and admirable dresses in an attempt to boost her self-esteem and self-image. Amidst the scent of roses and nice clothes Edith tried to change her attitude. She refused to gossip anytime Mrs.Henderson would endeavour at gossip. Edith read beauty magazines and books about proper etiquette one of many customs she had adopted. She did this daily and accustomed to it believing that she needed to it to be the more proper version of herself as the way she wanted to execute her plan of a changed woman. Edith altered herself and the way she did many things. Although she still knew who she really was and where she came from, she refused to accept it. Along with many things were done Edith’s decisions were overthrown by her self-image on her role of a daughter
Hattie spent much of her younger years living with different relatives because both of her parents had died when she was five. As Hattie was “tossed” from one relative’s home to another throughout her childhood, she never had a sense of belonging. To make matters worse, her relatives treated her like a hassle—as though her very existence was an annoyance. Needless to say, Hattie’s relatives were neither supportive nor encouraging of her. By age 16, Hattie’s feeling of self-worth was at an all time low. The story did not describe her appearance in depth, but it did say she was very modest and dressed humbly.
The beautifully written title Till We Have Faces, composed by C. S. Lewis, explores the nature of judgement and perception derived from looks throughout the story and characters. Said frequently in day to day life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yet seems to be widely agreed upon subconsciously by all characters in this novel what a human should look like. The three main female characters, named Psyche, Redival, and Orual, must each struggle with their varying degrees of beauty.
Everyday people are judged based on their appearance. We need to learn to look beyond a person’s physical image. In the young adult fiction piece If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson, the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and the realistic fiction novel The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, the authors illustrate how individuals face prejudice based on their appearance, race, gender, and social class.
The misfortunes Jane was given early in life didn’t alter her passionate thinking. As a child she ...
In the beginning, the author introduces Connie, a 15-year-old teenager, who is a self-centered girl that believes beauty is everything. Her mother however, does not see her for her beauty, but for her lack of ambition. She constantly compares her to her olde...
Like Esther, Joan Gilling grew up in the same small town; she also won the writing competition and was sent to New York to work for the same magazine. Joan was also very conscious about how the world identified her as an individual. She didn’t want to conform to what society sa...
Jane in her younger years was practically shunned by everyone and was shown very little love and compassion, from this throughout her life she searches for these qualities through those around her. Due to Jane’s mother’s disinheritance she was disowned by Mrs. Reed and her children, and was treated like a servant consistently reminded that she lacked position and wealth.
Louise is trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8). When Louise acknowledges that her husband is dead, she knows that there will "be no powerful will bending her" (paragraph 14). There will be no husband who believes he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (paragraph 14). Louise knows that her husband loved her. Brently had only ever looked at Louise with love (paragraph 13). This tells the reader that Brently is not a horrible ma...
Susanna is an 18 year old girl who just graduated high school in the late 1960’s, after a suicide attempt and a session with a therapist sends her to a psychiatric hospital called Mclean, where she spends two years with a group of girls who all have mental illnesses and issues of there own, Susanna’s thoughts are her thoughts of what went on in the hospital with this group of girls and how she was able to analyze herself, in this book you follow her through the journey of a mental asylum where we learn about insane and sane and recovery of the insane and sane.
Lucy has since passed away a few years back she was diagnosed with the final stages of Alzheimer 's and stage four breast cancer. When I seen her face staring back at me from the obituaries I did the only thing that seemed right. I dropped to my knees and I thanked God for the Angel he sent me when I didn’t deserve her and I prayed for him to help her find Harry. I knew she was no longer in pain and that she finally had the ending to her perfect fairy tale love. She didn’t have to love me but she did.
People are always complaining about how they aren’t as pretty as models on billboards, or how they aren’t as thin as that other girl. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s benefitting absolutely nobody and it just makes us feel bad about ourselves. The answer is because society has engraved in our minds that we need to be someone we’re not in order to look beautiful. Throughout time, society has shaped our attitudes about appearances, making it perfectly normal and even encouraged, to be five feet ten inches and 95 pounds. People have felt trapped by this ideal. Society has made these beauty standards unattainable, therefore making it self defeating. This is evident in A Doll’s House, where the main character, Nora, feels trapped by Torvald and society’s standard of beauty. The ideal appearance that is prevalent in society is also apparent in the novel, The Samurai’s Garden, where Sachi is embarrassed of the condition of her skin due to leprosy and the stigmas associated with the disease. The burden of having to live up to society’s standard of beauty can affect one psychologically and emotionally, as portrayed in A Doll’s House and The Samurai’s Garden.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.