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Bryan Kurp

Professor Haak

English 1510

24 September 2018

An Analysis of Alice Walker’s Essay

Resiliency is a word to consider after reading “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the

Self” by Alice Walker. When Walker was young, she always considered herself to be beautiful

and cute. Then, she encountered an incident that she thought took away her beauty. For years

after the accident, she had thought that she lost her beauty, regardless of others saying that her

appearance isn’t different and she didn’t change. Then she changed her opinion about her

appearance, and she was able to find out that she still had beauty even with her scar.

In “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” by Alice Walker, she discusses how she

was always considered as “cute” when she was young. For example, when she was very young,

her father would have to decide who would go to the county fair with him. Walker would tell

her father “Take me, Daddy, I’m the prettiest” (42). Then on Easter of 1950, Walker gave a

speech in front of her church and people would say things like, “Oh, isn’t she the cutest thing”

(43).

When she was eight years old, she encountered an accident when she was playing with

her two older brothers. One of her brothers accidently shot her in the eye with a BB gun. When

she was at the doctor, the doctor stated “Eyes are sympathetic. If one is blind, the other will

likely become blind too.” (Walker 44). From this point forward, she thought that she lost her
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beauty. She also started to struggle in school: something she had success with before the

accident. She ended up moving to another school and eventually moved back because she was

tortured. Alice would hide in her room when her relatives visited because she didn’t want to be

humiliated. Even though these people told her that she did not change, she knew that her

physical appearance did change, and she lost her beauty.

When she was fourteen years old, her older brother took her to a hospital in Boston,

which is where she had the “glob” removed from her eye. After this, she began feeling more

confident about herself. She found plenty of friends, a boyfriend, and was the valedictorian at

her high school. When she was twenty-seven years old, her young daughter noticed her scarred

eye. She stated “Mommy, there’s a world in your eye” (Walker 47). Alice Walker realized that

she can find a way to appreciate herself and her appearance.

Alice Walker uses several repetitions in “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”.

For example, at different points of the text, Walker would mention her age. She said “I am eight

years old…” (Walker 43), “I am eight…” (Walker 44), “I am twelve” (Walker 45), “I am

fourteen…” (Walker 45), and “I am twenty-seven,…” (Walker 47). I find this repetition to be

interesting because she kept reminding the reader of her age. In my opinion, Walker used this

repetition for the readers to better understand her story throughout her life. Another repetition

that was noticeable in the text was people telling her that she had not changed. In the text, she

states “’You did not change,’ they say” (Walker 45 & 46). This quote is present after the she

talked about her mother being sick, after she looked in the mirror at her scar, and after she talked

about the beautiful girl in her high school being shot while she was pregnant. Walker seemed to

place the statement after she talked about the rough times in her life. She probably wanted the

reader to know that no matter happened to her, she did not change. Alice Walker most likely
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repeated these quotes throughout her essay because she wants to remind the reader of her quotes.

Therefore, these quotes more than likely carry significance with them.

As well as repetitions, there were also binaries present in Alice Walker’s essay, meaning

that there were aspects of the essay that are considered to be opposites. One binary that I noticed

was Walker’s brother and daughter. Walker’s brother did not want to get in trouble, so he

decided to make up an excuse. The text states “’Here is a piece of wire,’ says the older brother,

picking it up from the roof; ‘say you stepped on one end of it and the other flew up and hit you,’”

(Walker 43-44). This quote is proof that Walker’s brother was not too concerned about her

situation, but he was more concerned with getting in big trouble with their parents. Walker also

knew that her brothers would bother her if she told their parents what really had happened. On

the other hand, Walker’s daughter found beauty in her mother at the end of the essay. In the text,

the daughter says “’Mommy, there is a world in your eye.’ (As in, ‘Don’t be alarmed, or do

anything crazy.’) And then, gently but with great interest: ‘Mommy, where did you get that

world in your eye?’” (Walker 47). Walker felt more confident about herself and her appearance

after her daughter stated this. In the text, Walker states “For the most part, the pain left then.

Crying and laughing I ran to the bathroom, while Rebecca mumbled and sang herself off to

sleep. Yes indeed, I realized, looking into the mirror. There was a world in my eye. And I saw

that it was possible to love it,” (47-48). This quote was the real turning point in the essay.

Walker had realized that she can find a way to appreciate herself, even with the scar on her eye.

Walker realized that she still had beauty after all.

I also noticed that there was an anomaly present in Alice Walker’s essay, which means

that something stood out as being different from the rest. The anomaly that I noticed was the

part when Walker was talking about the girl that got shot in high school. She states in the text
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“…and I leave high school as valedictorian, most popular student and queen, hardly believing

my luck. Ironically, the girl who was voted most beautiful in our class was later shot twice

through the chest by a male companion, using a ‘real’ gun, while she was pregnant. But that’s

another story in itself, or is it? ‘You did not change’ they say” (Walker 45-46). This quote stands

out from the rest because Walker finds it ironic that the girl that was dubbed as most beautiful

was later shot with a real gun. Walker once considered herself as being the most beautiful

person.

Alice Walker also made some statements in her essay that were either implicitly or

explicitly stated. In my opinion, I think that Walker saying her age is implicitly said. She says

“I am” several times, but other than organization of her life, I do not find her stating her age

several times to be important. I also think that the statement “You did not change” is explicitly

stated. She mentions “You did not change” several times throughout the text, and this statement

has a lot of meaning. According to the people in the passage that said that, they think that even

though she has a deficiency, she is still herself.

There can be several plausible interpretations of this text. Some people may think that

this essay is about beauty itself. Others may think it is wanting a better world and wanting

people to appreciate others for who they are. People may also think this essay is trying to teach

people to appreciate themselves, regardless of their appearance.

Initially, it might seem that this essay is about Beauty or people learning to appreciate

themselves and others; however, considering the evidence that I found throughout the summary,

I argue that this essay’s is about being resilient, which means no matter what happens to a person

or their body, they can find a way to recover and appreciate themselves. After reading Alice

Walker’s essay, I learned that she was able to overcome a challenge in her life, which was the
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loss of her eye. Therefore, she was able to be resilient and bounced back from that challenge.

After reading this text, I still do have some lingering questions. First, how did the rest of

Walker’s life end up going? Did Walker continue to appreciate who she was? Did Walker face

any other challenges throughout her life?

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Works Cited Page

Walker, Alice. “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self.” In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden,

Pages 42-48, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1983.

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Professor Haak,

Overall, I feel pretty good about my Literary Analysis essay. First, I had to practice how to write

the essay in class. Activities in class that helped me be successful included the blackboard

discussions, the homework pages, and the practice in class. For example, the picture of Winnie

the Pooh we analyzed really helped me with analyzing Alice Walker’s essay because I was able

to analyze the picture using the five-steps, rather than just looking at it. Then, I had to figure out

how I was going to write my essay. I had to figure out the format in which I was supposed to

write it as well how I was going to organize my writing into paragraphs. Finally, I was able to

write my rough draft.

In my rough draft, I had trouble filling up the four pages that I was required to write. To

help solve this problem, I decided to give more detail when explaining each aspect of my

analysis. At first, I had a very short summary of the text. As a result, I decided to use more

details in my summary. This turned a half page summary into an almost two-page summary.

My audience in this essay was anyone who was interested in learning more of the analytical side

of Alice Walker’s essay.

After I wrote my rough draft, I was able to go through a peer reviewing process. I found

this very beneficial because my classmates were able to help with aspects of the essay that I

struggled with. I was also able to see how the other students wrote their essay so I can use a

similar approach when revising my own essay. Given the feedback from my classmates, I was

able to revise my essay even further and I had more confidence in the effectiveness of my

literary analysis. Overall, I think this was a successful analysis that I wrote, and I also learned a

lot along the way! Hope you enjoy reading it! -Bryan Kurp