BEAUTY: When the Other Dancer is the Self

BY: ALICE WALKER

SUMMARY In this essay, Walker narrates in retrospect, with an acquired enlightenment, some of the small events that changed her life. The miscellaneous childhood events that she illustrates are used to emphasize the lesson she learned about life perspective. She recalls how her daughters innocent remark changed her outlook on life. Walker uses the story to emphasize the lesson she learned; that even after years of living with a fixed attitude and outlook on life, it could be dramatically transformed by the innocent remark of a child. Walker underscores this theme with the story of how a beautiful childs world was turned upside down by a miniscule BB pellet. Alice Walker uses this story to present her attitude on how fragile life really is, regardless of age, disposition, and vulnerability. Walkers right eye is shot out by her brothers BB gun. Her brothers then coerce her not to tell their parents for fear of getting in trouble. Having two brothers, and being on both sides of the conflict, this is an overly familiar situation. Also a familiar situation is not going to the emergency room or doctor until years after an accident. This adds a sentimental and sympathetic element to Walkers essay. Walker also presents a second theme of a beautiful thing resulting from a very unpleasant experience. After the unpleasant years of struggling with a scarred eye and the risk of going blind, it has made her value sight with an appreciation she lacked before. She shows her appreciation in the poetry she writes after seeing the beauty of the desert for the first time. Walkers second theme is easier to associate with, being a teenager and spending a lot of time wondering when the beautiful result is going to show up. Alice Walker's essay, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self," is an account of how the author's life has been affected by a childhood accident that left her disfigured and blind in one eye. This is an autobiographical story. In her story, Alice Walker recounts and compares her life before and after her "accident". When Alice is eight years old, she is shot in the eye by one of her brothers while playing cowboys and Indians with a BB gun. The incident leaves a once cute and outgoing girl with a destroyed sense of self beauty. Alice traces her experiences throughout life as it was changed by her "deformity": 1. She dresses in her Sunday best so that her father will think shes the prettiest and take her to the fair. 2. She gains confidence to give her speech on Easter because everyone sees her as the cutest thing. 3. She hides in her bedroom when relatives come to visit. 4. She worries that her own child will not see her as beautiful and be embarrassed.

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While in her teens, the narrator turns to her peers for the definition of beauty: 1. At school the children ask, Whats wrong with your eye?. 2. Before the accident she did well in school, but after the accident she does poorly in school. 3. She prays for beauty". 4.Her peers make her feel ashamed, and she becomes the girl who does not raise her head. As an adult, the narrator finds an inner beauty: 1. Her brother has a doctor remove the glob in her eye, but the surgery does not resolve all of her anger. 2.Even as a successful adult, she struggles with the definition of beauty. 3. The narrators feelings about herself change when her daughter says, Mommy, theres a world in your eye. 4. Her daughters acceptance makes her feel joyous and happier than shes ever been in her life. 5. She finds the other dancer within herself, which finally makes her feel beautiful, whole, and free. Her essay is a snapshot of a life affected by many powerful forces outside the teller's control, such as race, social class, and family dynamics, as well as cultural ideas about "beauty." The author shows us how each of these factors can affect an individual's sense of self-worth throughout life. Ultimately, the essay lets us in on the author's profoundly personal - yet universal - search for selfacceptance and love. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS We put so much emphasis on beauty in our society today. We define ourselves by what we see in the mirror rather than what we know is on the inside. Flaws in our appearance can influence our view of ourselves and our self-worth. Our perceptions of beauty can change and the way we see ourselves can sometimes be altered by events that happen in life and our self image and self esteem can be altered by these events. Alice Walker is an African American writer who has won many awards for her writing. These include a Pulitzer Prize (the first by and African American for fiction) and the American Book Award.and several others. (Samuels 526) In her autobiographical story Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self, she tells us the story of how she lost and then regained her self esteem. When Alice was eight years old one of her brothers shoots 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 deformity. She brings the scene to life when she tells us how she manipulates her daddy into taking her to the county fair by swirling around, with her hands on her hips, in her pretty dress and biscuit polished patent leather shoes and says Take me, Daddy, and Im the prettiest. (Walker 95) This makes us believe that she is satisfied with her looks and shows us that she is confident with the outer beauty in herself. We feel the sadness in her words when she states It was great fun being

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cute. But then, one day, it ended. (Walker 96) She continues to make us feel her pain as she goes on to describe the day of the accident that changed her life forever. THEME Alice Walker's Themes of Womanism, Community, and Regeneration Alice Walker is considered one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century, because of her raw portrayal of African American struggles and the injustices towards black women. She was the first African American female novelist to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Her work is appealing and powerful because Walker's novels can be read as an ongoing narrative of an African American woman's energence from the voiceless obscurity of poverty and racial and sexual victimization to become a reshaper of culture and tradition (Gray 527). Through Celies experiences in The Color Purple, Alice Walker stresses the importance of womanism, the African American community as a whole, and the regeneration as an individual. By allowing Celie to find liberation and freedom from the men in her life, Walker conveys her support for womanism and the female-self. Alice Walker labels herself as a womanist, not a feminist, because As a womanist, which is different from a feminist, she sees herself as someone who appreciates women's culture, emotions, and character (Wilson 1586). She concentrates on the hardships and struggles of African American women which she separates into three categories: the physically and psychologically abused black woman, a black woman who is torn by contrary, and the new black woman who re-creates herself... (Bloom 52-53 1998). Celie, the main character of The Color

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