Below, you should respond to one or both of the beauty-themed essays:
Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self by Alice Walker and
Beauty by Scott Russell Sanders. You should not write formulaically, and we should be able to hear your own unique voice in your response.
64 comments:
I found the essay “Beauty” interesting because of the way in which Sanders presents the idea of beauty. The idea that beauty is both a means of survival and a deeper understanding of the universe at first seemed to contradict itself. Sanders argues that beauty is complex and is experienced by people in different ways. However he also goes on to say that the traits and senses that allow us to recognize beauty were passed down by our ancestors. I did not see how beauty could play a role in evolution while continuing to be this idea of deeper understanding. The further I read on the more I understood that the idea of beauty was just that, an idea, and it should not be limited to certain aspects of life because everything can hold some sort of beauty. The argument that equations could be beautiful and that language could fail to describe beauty captured my attention because science is not usually described as beautiful and words that are carefully strung together can usually describe all of the beautiful things one may see. I realized that Sanders was trying to explain that beauty cannot be limited to physical traits or detailed descriptions. It has to be experienced and appreciated first hand. He points out that through our elders we learn how to notice everything around us which not only allows us to survive, but also unleashes our interest for the patterns and mysteries of the universe. Our ability to notice these patterns and strive for the understanding of beauty in turn allows us to comprehend the universe. I always found it amazing that humans could develop theories about how the universe functions, and Sanders’ unique explanation about beauty brought that into perspective. As human beings we are compelled to understand our surroundings, so we develop methods that consequently allow us to see the beauty we did not know existed.
Beauty is a concept created by man in order to describe and unanimous object that could otherwise not be described with words. However in Sanders essay Beauty, Sanders seems to convey a reality about beauty and how its a universal message can be interpreted by individuals different ways. Sanders initially argues how when times slows down and individuals take time to analyze the events meticulously, one tends to take in more information about what makes that object so special. As Sanders later argues how beauty is far to vast in order to comprehend and to fully understand. Just like his detailed section about space and the many wonders that hide within the darkness, SAnders seems to find the relationship with earth and outer space beauty and how to interpret it all at once. Yet he seems to doubt how much beauty he can actually see and if beauty can become a burden due to the endless capabilities beauty can manifest. With the events of space and connections with the realms of life, SAnders tries to connect how beauty can exist in two world and not just one as a whole. For example, primarily Sanders has two locations. Earth and outer space. Yet he remains rather confused on how to take in this beauty and how to interconnect it with. All this to say it seems that Sanders communicates a message of how beauty is complex and inconsistent. to the point where one believes in multiple beauties that wonders why can all just find one single beauty developing the meaning of beauty into an interpretation of oneself and unreliable at times due to its multiple meanings. (Mitchell Santos)
My stepmother once told me that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I'd say this was inspiring but this was coming from a woman the size of a small adult hippopotamus that shunned my size two waist and blamed my cross country work outs and health conscious eating habits on anorexia. Needless to say, like Alice Walker and many other young women, I struggled with the comfusion between self love and trying to achieve the social tabloid-esc standard of beauty. At twelve, I was already beginning to despise my almond eyes under outdated glasses, my beat up knees from years of far too many accidents and like many others, the sweets that seemed to cling to my abdomen. I always wondered why I wasn't "beautiful" like other girls. Girls that didn't have to roll up the waist of their skirt so that a boy would give them a second look and didn't seem to worry if people looked at all. Now, at seventeen, I'm inspired by Walker's recollection of her daughter staring into the milky world nestled in her eye and loving her unconditionally despite the physical imperfection. While a hinderance to her physical attributes it was a part of her raw being and THAT is what made it beautiful. When my beau kisses the scar upon my cheek that I glare at through the morning mirror it feels all the less intimidating knowing someone else doesn't mind it. Sometimes it takes someone else to love and accept us through worldly imperfections for us to realize that it's raw and it's what makes us who we are. Beauty is raw. Which brings me to the fact that I LOVED Sanders' response to beauty. While in a completely different direction from walker's ideas, it still revolves around the idea that beauty is this raw form. As someone who grew up in a very hippie, nature-loving environment, I can't help but feel sanders' love and wonder for the complexities for the universe and I love his idea that beauty is an experience. I can't begin to explain the way the galaxies sparkle and dance in an unpolluted sky the way I saw them this past spring break, but had you been lying in the wet grass beside me you'd understand why there are countless paintings and poems devoted to such a spectacle since the dawning of man. Everything is built so perfectly to fit so perfectly and react oh so perfectly. Survival or not it's natural, raw, and beautiful. It's a take I had never thought through but find it intriguing enough to make me reconsider the billboards and Cosmo articles that establish the definition of beauty in modern society. Not only can I find this in myself and in others but in the world around me. It's something that cannot be recreated because it is a raw beauty. Like the freckles on ones nose or the dew on a morning rose. They're things that mean more than smeared on eye liner and the amount of cat calls a girl can rack up in a day. Something far from our reach. I like that. It's complex and beautiful in a mysterious kind of way.
Beauty is defined as a combination of qualities such as shape color or form that pleases the aesthic sense, especially the sight. But in "when the other dancer is the Self" by Alice Walker beauty is depending on how one person sees itself. Walker reflected on her childhood throughout her story and we noticed that she viewed herself as pretty and that is all she did.when her dad had to choose who to take to the fair Walker was saying "take me daddy I'm the prettiest".but not everything last forever, the next thing she she was shot in the eye with a BB gun that her brothers are playing with.Turns out that nothing ended up being the same after because because her face was the main thing that she believed was the "prettiest" but not anymore because of the BB. Throughout her life she had to start realizing that beauty doesn't come from the outside but comes from what is within. Walker finally realizes that beauty within itself and beauty From others are way different. People need to stop trying to fit into the world's opinion of beauty but find beauty in themselves because with finding beauty in the world is difficult because everybody is different in their own way. I had to scar from the BB was still in her eye she never saw herself as beautiful but realized when her daughter asked her " mommy where did you get that world in your eye". After that Walker didn't care what other people thought because she knew she she saw herself as beautiful. Walker couldn't have been happier to hear her daughter say that because she spent all those years trying to make her beautiful but in the end it's all about what you think of yourself. She also realizes that through her life she had the wrong mindset for herself when she said "I do not pray sight.I pray for beauty" because all she wanted is for people to think she is beautiful but knowing she had a bigger problem didn't matter to her.
Beauty is such an important factor in todays society. I feel there is not a specific definition of Beauty because it is so diverse that every single person has their own perspective of the definition of beauty. I feel we should appreciate who we are, and see the inner unique beauty we all have within ourselves. I really enjoyed reading "When the other Dancer is the Self" by Alice Walker. It is a really interesting essay that shows how the perception of beauty changes in a young women life through years, and experience. In the first few years of Alice Walker life all that matter to her is her beauty and how she was a pretty girl and society admire her beauty. Her main focus was just "love,pride,and expectation" which in today society we take that really serious we want every thing to go our way and we do not focus in how we feel or think but what will others think about us. One day everything changed for her one of her brothers hit her with a BB gun hitting her right eye, she completely changed from that moment. The happy popular pretty girl isolated her self and became shy. She felt different and ugly because she had a cataract in her eye and society would not complement her for her beauty anymore. All she cared was beauty and what others would think about her. She suffered knowing she couldn't be the same after the accident that changed her life. She couldn't accept herself because she had the mentality of others not accepting her . After going through really difficult moments of pain because of her eye the cataract was removed ,she was still nervous of the comments of others . Finally at the end her daughter Rebecca tells her "there's a world in your eye", this words of her daughter change the fear of being questioned and not being accepted from her daughter to a inner peace that help her admire who she really was and the great inner characteristics she had. I enjoyed this essay due to the fact that even thought at the beginning Beauty managed her life and her self esteem at the end all the boundaries that enable her to be a women full of joy and happiness where removed when she acknowledge she was a valuable women no matter her looks. In Beauty by Scott Russell Sanders he sees Beauty as a different perspective than Walker ,Russell encourage people that beauty has many factor and that all the images and patterns around the world and the universe have a meaning. I really like how in his essay he explains how human history has evolve and we have though each other many ideas . He connects evolution with beauty and how everything that is form has a meaning and helps us live a better life . Beauty is so diverse and makes us free it makes us be connected to all the things around us . The message trying to get across in my perspective is that we should value and appreciate what we have because everything has a purpose although everyone will have their own way of living , we have to accept everyone how we are because we were created for a purpose and in unique way.
Alejandra Perez
Although their are many factors involved in living, beauty plays a huge factor in living. Society has revolved itself around beauty thats not within you, but the physical appearance.The meaning of beauty and society itself has pushed people into their grave in an early year of their unfinished life time. As exaggerating as the statement sounds, it has been proven true by the large amount of suicides and an overdose on depression pills due to appearance. If someone is not satisfied with their beauty it can lead to making life unbearable. Sometimes we ask ourselves how did people become so judge mental and made it difficult for others to appreciate their beauty. Its because of the word "normal", people have been using this word in a variety of selfish ways weather its a disease or a physical appearance. We the people are all criticized and haunted by "normal", Alice Walker never implied on the word normal but could it be that her childhood was difficult because others did not see her eye as normal, of course. This essay is unique because although it shows how words can emotionally hurt a person it showed how children have a huge impact on this world, children may be the most criticized but they are also understanding, its beautiful how a child has a big imagination and acceptance towards their loved one and played a big role of family acceptance. Beauty has to be accepted in everyone to love yourself and be able to be free and "unflaged".The main reason why Walker built up an abundance of hatred towards the eye was because others made her believe that her beauty was no longer visible due to the human eye. Through time walker was allowed to make peace and accept the beauty of her eye just as others are slowly accepting their beauty. Beauty can be a drag if someone has not accepted themselves or have been able to make peace with their looks. Furthermore "Beauty:When the other dancer is the self" by alice walker was written to show that to accept your beauty you are testing dance tricks with yourself and are perfecting your dance moves in a way to perfect your beauty.
Jasmine Campuzano
Alice Walker's piece of her childhood and having to deal with the struggles of growing up "ugly" has truly inspiring and powerfully written. Alice Walker describes how she saw the beauty and innocence in everyone and everything as a child. however, as she had a little accident growing up that made her "ugly" she began to notice that people's perception of beauty changed as they judged and only cared about physical beauty instead of the beauty of an individual's personality and spirit. Alice Walker grew up bullied as the other kids began to tease her for her "ugliness" and even Walker herself began to believe and give in to the bullying that she really was not beautiful. she began to feel ashamed of herself and wanted to do anything to get accepted by her peers again. However, one day Walker had an epiphany as she realized the acceptance of others does not matter if you cannot accept your own flaws and beauty. Self acceptance is far more important and key to fully believing that one really is beautiful even with certain flaws. Also it wasn't until she had her daughter that she really accepted her true beauty. If her infant daughter can see the true beauty within her, then that was the only opinion that truly mattered. she was finally free to begin to call herself beautiful with her flaws and true beauty really is struggles and acceptance. Alice Walker's experience is truly relatable with kids having to grow up with struggles with physical appearances, trying to fit in and wanting approval by society and that is what makes her story beautiful. - Jaylyne Gonzalez
Beauty depends on perspective. Every person sees beauty in a different way, one might consider something beautiful while others may not. People often say "you are your worst critic" because when search for flaws where there aren't any. Alice Walk considered herself "ugly" after the accident because she focused on just one aspect, she failed to look past her eye and notice everything else. Alice let her eye take power over her life, the day when she started "to look up" she got everything she had dreamed of. She had once seen her eye as a flaw, but what she didn't realize is that others did not give it as much importance as she did. Something i found shocking is that sh no longer saw herself as "cute" when she became a tomboy. Society has associated beauty with feminism.Society has set the standard as to what beauty is and some people spend life trying to live up to it. Just because she had become a tomboy did not mean she was no longer beautiful. I feel as though people base beauty merely on appearances and disregard personality and character. I found the end of the essay very inspiring, Alice Walker was finally able to see herself for what she truly was, beautiful. The essay serves to show that what truly matters is what we think and how we see ourselves. Beauty is everywhere so we should not waste time worrying about it. - Erika Ruiz
In “When the Other Dancer is the Self” the author emphasizes the importance of beauty and how that is what is most important, someone’s physical appearance over someone’s mental capacity. It is a story of how the author’s life has been greatly affected all because of one event. A childhood incident that has left her disfigured and blind from one eye. Before the incident she was known as someone who was admired and praised for her appearance but prior to the incident she became someone who was overwhelmed with shame and anger. She send to readers the message that self-acceptance is indeed much greater than trying to conform the rest of the world’s standards and definition of beauty. It is learning to accept who you are both internally and externally. In the beginning of “Beauty” the father and daughter are on their way to walk to the groom and his mind races with thoughts of how he can only describe this moment as many different things but the only word that seems to best fit is “beauty” continuing to describe how beauty to be on the outside but what he continues to realize is that sometimes that’s not the case. He continues to explain how the truth may be acquired through beauty, how someone’s true color will show and as he hands off his daughter he realizes the moments throughout his life that he has encountered many aspects of beauty and how he is certain that there is more definition to the word beauty than what most think. People around the world have acquired many definitions of beauty. I agree with both these essay in the fact that there is many more definition to the word beauty than what most people might think of. Some may think that it is how you carry yourself on a day to day basis but throughout my life I have learned that there is something beautiful about each person whether it is their caring personality or just their way of expressing themselves. I believe that deep down someone can be beautiful and true beauty beams out naturally not just by what society believes is “beauty” but what your own self believes is what real beauty stands for.-Ann Perez
Beauty is perceived differently by each person, just how the cliché saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” states. To some people, the word “beautiful” might mean an aesthetically pleasing girl or a dazzling dress, but to others the word “beautiful” might be used to describe a scenery or maybe outer space. Alice Walker and Scott Russel Sanders both see beauty in different ways, but that doesn't mean that either of them are wrong. To Walker, being beautiful meant having a pretty face and pretty hair, and she was blessed with these things throughout her early childhood. However, when her brother shot her in the eye with a BB gun, Walker became extremely conscious of her eye; she no longer thought of herself as beautiful. Even after she got surgery, she was still self conscious about the fact that her eye sometimes wandered off, so self conscious that she didn't want to appear on the cover of a magazine, something that her younger self would've loved. Sanders however, does acknowledge the fact that there is beauty in those things but he also sees nature and the universe as beautiful. Beauty really is everywhere, it just takes a new set of eyes to acknowledge parts of it. Both Sanders and Walker were self conscious, Walker of her eye, and Sanders of the way that he walked down the isle, they both had insecurities. However, no one else sees their flaws as strongly as they see their own flaws. Walker’s daughter sees the beauty in the eye that Walker considers ugly and Sanders’ daughter does not get mad at the fact that her dad walks awkwardly. Insecurities are inside of a person, and what one might be insecure about, other people probably wouldn't even notice. What one considers ugly about themselves, somebody else might find beautiful, and that itself is beautiful. - Sofia Velazquez
"I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean towards the opposite." This quote by Shane Koyczan, a Canadian writer and poet, rang through my mind while reading Alice Walker's story on Beauty and acceptance. The quote means that although there are insecurities and anxiety over one's appearance, you must not submit to these crippling thoughts and love yourself for who you are. As a child, Walker was "beautiful" and "cute" in the eyes of those in her church and community but her accident quickly changed their descriptions of her to damaged or ugly. Being a young and impressionable girl, Walker was hurt by these snide comments throughout the years and avoided any form of attention, keeping her head down, as a result. When her daughter was born, Walker dreaded the day she would notice the difference between her mother and "normal" people. Her comment on the beautiful world in Walker's eye however, led to a realization that the thoughts of those around you are not nearly as important as that of those closest to you. Walker's epiphany on outer and inner beauty reminded me of another quote by Shane Koyczan, "Your beauty isn't determined by those who see you, it is treasured by those who know you" because she was so obsessed with pleasing everybody else that she was blind to the love of her husband and family. Personally, I've grown indifferent to any attempts of ridicule by strangers to boost their own confidence after discovering that your own perspective and actions in life will drive you farther than a fixation on appearances. No matter how overused the quote of "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is used, it really does hold true in life. The only limitations and insecurities in life are self imposed and once they are removed, you can be happy and content with yourself, uncaring of how others perceive you. -Andres Olvera
"She is beautiful, whole, and free. And she is also me.” This story really made me remember the cliché saying: “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Even though this saying usually says that everyone holds beauty to a different criteria and that only the only opinion that matters is really your own opinion, this story contradicts it in a way. Alice’s story focuses more on the aspect of how one person’s positive opinion of something that would usually be deemed ugly in society as pretty can change your own perspective of beauty and self-love. In the beginning of Alice’s life she was praised for her beauty and her appearance, but when the “accident” occurred it changed her perspective of the important things in life and her perspective of herself. Growing up being praised for meeting a superficial social expectation made her believe that a person’s physical being is what matters and that caused her to lose faith in other people and confidence in herself. Alice lost hope in being fully socially accepted because of the scar her “accident” caused. It wasn’t until her owe creation, her daughter, made a positive comment about her eye did she actually begin to love herself. Instead of seeing her scar as something negative, she begins to see it as something unique and something that no one else can have. Throughout Alice’s life she allowed for her scar and her past to be her social and physical identifier. She allowed for what she hated most about herself to be the only thing people see about her. Since she never rose her head she didn’t allow for people to see past her scar. Her inability to get past her “accident” caused it to be a ruling factor of her life. Notice how I used society’s opinion more than her own opinion. Alice focused on the opinion of the wrong people and that made her opinion of beauty to change and become superficial. Now a days, society pressures many people to fit in a small range of what is accepted. Society makes it difficult for people to accept what needs to be accepted and be what they need to be. Beauty shouldn’t be in the hand of the mass, but instead be in the hands of the individual.
Beauty is seen as the ultimate factor is one’s first impression as seen in Alice Walker’s “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”. As I was reading I saw a pattern that continued to occur in the story. Since the beginning one’s physical appearance was described in great detail. For example explaining her father as “a fat, funny, man with beautiful eyes” and furthermore saying that she is a “tomboy” because she wears “a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, checkered shirt, and pants. This showed that as a young child Alice observed people by what they wore and what they have whether it is eyes like her dad etc. So with her observation of people focused on what they have Alice is harsh to herself when an accident occurs that leaves her blind and with a white cloudy spot in her eye, she hates it and only wants her beauty back. This wish is simple; however her beauty has been stripped from her and the people around her only care about the “accident” not herself. Alice puts herself through emotional and mental turmoil as she does not ask people to stop making comments on her eye. As she grows into adult hood Alice actually begins to be thankful for the fact that she can see out of one eye. This led me to think about things in my own life to be thankful for, and even if those things brought immense pain I grew as a person from those experiences much like Alice herself. Despite this growth Alice struggled for a small period of time. This shocked me as I was reading because even her own husband had not seemed to mind, like it did not factor out his feelings for her, which exactly what Alice wanted. She gets through this small time with the help of her baby daughter who tells her that she has a whole world inside her eye. The comment from her daughter also reminded of a belief that I hold dear which is that just because someone is young does not mean that their opinions, thoughts, imagination, etc. does not matter. A young child was able to erase the shame that Alice had felt for more than a decade, a pain that she inflicted on herself. She learned from her daughter that beauty comes from inside not outside.
Beauty is one of the many ideas that have millions of opinions; there are those who believe beauty is a thing, an idea or a belief. “When the other dancer is the self” and “beauty” represent many of those millions ideas. In “When the other dancer is the self,” Alice Walker goes through difficult and insecure moments but only to be able to learn that there are more than one meaning of beauty. She believed beauty is being an epitome of something, or beauty being what others would desire to be or have. The way she wrote the essay made her accident seem like a tragedy; although it was, she was still able to live a life. Her idea of beauty was destroyed and therefore saw her life as a change. Her perception of beauty was meaningful to her that blinded her from discovering the many meanings of beauty; her perception can be noticed by her detailed description of the appearances and not so much on personalities or inner self beauty. The anaphora “you didn’t change” is intended for the reader to see that just by affecting the outer beauty does not mean that the inner beauty has been affected. Alice finally discovers new meaning of beauty by the most innocent person, her three year old daughter. Her innocent way of describing the thing that Alice hated the most, made Alice see that not everything revolves in appearances; beauty can also be the way your personality is or who you are in general. However, the essay “beauty” explores the concept of beauty more trough memories. The father realizes that his life has been filled with beauty not because of appearances, but because of the many cherished memories he has had with his daughter. He learns that besides appearances, beauty is everywhere and can be found through the truth. That one memorable moment of walking the aisle with his daughter, helped him learn a valuable life lesson on beauty. I have not have a moment like the one in “beauty” where I realize many things in a short amount of time. I am still on the journey of finding out what beauty really is because I have a very vague knowledge on beauty. I am still trying to find the meaning of beauty trough nature, a person, and in myself, although I feel like beauty has many meanings that will take me my whole life to even get to know them.
-Jennifer Gomez
It is amazing how different a person can be when they feel beautiful. In Alice walker’s article she shows how beauty has changed her life dramatically. Because she had a damaged eye, she felt ugly and damaged. Not only did it affect her social life but it also affected her grades in school. She wasn’t the “little cute girl” everyone adored and she felt it. This prevented her from raising her head and also kept her from socializing with people because her self-confidence was at an all-time low. Beauty can do so much for a person because if they believe they have a sense of beauty there is no telling what they can accomplish. This is because when they believe they are beautiful inside or out they gather up so much confidence within themselves. This makes them be able to accomplish whatever goals they have set or set goals if they did not have any already. In Alice walker’s case when she had the surgery made on her eye she transformed into a totally different person. She changed because she finally thought that she was someone beautiful. This made Alice gain more friends when she didn’t have any, not because people ignored her but because she gathered enough confidence to actually get out there and make friends. Not only did it improve her social life it also improved her school work. From being one of the lowest students Alice improved to being one of the top students of her class. It is astonishing how much Alice has changed since her transformation.
First impression significantly matter to some people, to Alice Walker, what people thought of her impacted her deeply. To Walker, beauty was the notion of having an appealing face and appealing hair in which people could talk about her and remember her for her beauty. Alice would flaunt to her sibling about the good times she had because her father chose her to go to places with him because she was “the prettiest”. Soon her style began to change as she grew older and started playing more with her male siblings. One day she had an accident with a gun and her eye in which she was left blind and with a blob for an eye; she thought herself to be “ugly” and shamefully walked around the streets with her head down because she was no longer pretty. Even though Walker got surgery, she was still widely concerned for how her eye looked. Scott Russell Sanders however, believed in the notion that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and that there is more to beauty than just a person. Sanders believed that there is beauty in animal, landscapes, and even quantum mechanics. Sanders acknowledges that there is beauty everywhere, it just depends on how one defines beauty. Both Walker and Sanders believed there was something wrong with them, Walker believed that her eye was nothing but bad luck brought upon her until one day her daughter made her change the way she perceived the her eye. Walker’s daughter turned something that was once ugly and made it beautiful again. While Sanders was self-conscious in how he walked and how he would ruin his daughters beautiful wedding day by walking too fast down the aisle, this was an insecurity that nobody else noticed but him. Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it because people have been raised and taught differently in what beauty means.
Before I began to read , I began to think of myself and my own relationship with beauty. While it has taken time ,reflection, and routines of self love I have begun to accept myself for the individual I am. When I read the title, I was drawn in by it's creative and positive twist. Often we admire the dancer for their grace and beauty and compare but when the focus is changed to ourselves we shift the admiration, something that can feel strange at first. When I first began to read the immediate connection I made was associating beauty with physical qualities. Alice's anecdote of her father picking her because she was the prettiest was touching. It placed a focus on the importance of femininity and beauty to a woman. Although an individual human with unique thoughts and opinions , Alice considered her physical cuteness as her main attribute and worthy of attention. I absolutely loved the compliment "and got so much sense!" because although small it shifted the focus from physical qualities to Alice's intelligence. It was heartbreaking to see Alice loose her confidence when she did not fit the mold of femininity and even more heartbreaking when she was shot in the eye with a BB gun. Not only did Alice submit to her brothers demands but cared more about her physical beauty than her health. I could not help but wonder whether Alice believed confidence and beauty was skin deep .When Alice's "glob" is removed , her life immediately changes and it is unclear as to whether it is due to positive self love or physical qualities. I enjoyed the final anecdote with Alice's daughter admiring her eye because it looked like the world. The imagery shifts from a gruesome, painful portrayal of her eye to a beautiful world. I enjoyed the ending because it provided closure and connection to the title.
Beauty in a way can make or break you, I say this because in today's society many people idolize those "beautiful people" they see on television, magazines, and in movies. In Alice Walker's piece she emphasizes that throughout her early childhood, she was known for her beauty and many people admire her for it. Walker was aware of the beauty she had and that was the way she won people over. People would look at her and think, "oh, isn't she the cutest thing" and she would always get these flattering remarks because of her outer appearance. When Walker's eye got maimed she lost part of herself, she lost that beauty that many people saw and admired her for. This is the part where beauty can break you, because it was as if people did a 360 on her and only saw the negative in her rather than who she really was. Those sweet compliments she got turned into godawful hate and people would call her the, "one-eyed bitch". These comments made life unbearable for her as a child because she was so used to love and acceptance, but people tore her down after she lost her beauty. All these hateful comments made her see herself as nothing, but a waste. She despised her appearance and she wanted her beauty back more than anything, "I do not pray for sight, I pray for beauty" she would say every night. She wanted her beauty back because she wanted to feel acceptance once again and rid her life of hate. It is shocking to see how much beauty has an effect on a person's life and to see how it can tear them down and make them despise themselves. Although Walker did struggle with her confidence because of her eye, she realized it was a flaw she could not change, so rather than hating it forever she decides to accept and come to peace with her eye and see it as a characteristic of herself. Even though beauty can make or break you Walker surmounted this and realized the only thing she needed was self acceptance and then nobody would be able to break her down again. Walker used her words to tell readers that it doesn't matter how anyone sees her as long as she accepted and loved herself, happiness triumphed. Beauty is a strange concept, but many people see it as the most important quality in a person, but really self love is the more important quality.
-Josh Lind
Wow, I found the essay, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self", so empowering and uplifting. I have been a fan of Alice Walker since I was 15 years old and I have always deemed her as a beautiful black woman; her eye never made me waver from my opinion about her physical appearance or who she is as a world renowned author. In the beginning of her essay before the incident where her eye is damaged by an unfortunate accident with her brothers, she gloats about how she was the "cute" and the "prettiest" one and took much pleasure in being seen as an impeccable being with a plethora of confidence at such an early age. However, when she acquired her damaged eye, she became self-conscious and so concerned with not being seen as beautiful that her self-esteem lowered tremendously and instead of wishing "for sight", she "prayed for beauty". It wasn't until the "glob", the cause of her lowered self esteem, was removed and she regained the recognition again for her beauty in the eyes of others that she felt somewhat wholesome again. What people fail to realize is that our imperfections do not define who we are. Many adolescents struggle with the deemed "negative effects" of teenage puberty such as acne, not having the "perfect body", and etc. These "flaws" or "imperfections" causes them too to feel as though they're less than or do not fit society's standards of beauty. We as a whole have to learn to love ourselves for who we are and realize that the opinions of judgmental others should not stand a chance with our opinions about ourselves. Also, most of the time, the opinions of those that we crave, these "judgmental others" that I mentioned, are probably so insecure about themselves that they feel the need to criticize others for their physical appearance. We should not be looking for acceptance or some kind of attention from other people, but rather search for acceptance within ourselves. Perhaps the powerful moment in Alice Walker's essay was during an encounter with her daughter that she finally realized that her eye should not and will not impede her from believing that she is beautiful and in that epiphanic moment, she finally felt free; free of caring how others perceive her beauty and ultimately free of her own negative perceptions about herself.
As I read this piece by Alice Walker, I thought to myself "wow it is so unreal how one defect can make you so self-conscious". Alice's defect was the "glob" she had in her eye, which made sure she knew why she was feeling the sense of shame and ugliness. I wonder if the shame she felt was because she paid more attention to her trying to feel the beauty than to how she could have been blind from both eyes and that didn’t seem to matter more than physically looking beautiful. I believe beauty comes from loving yourself. If you love yourself, you will see your defects and still believe you are beautiful because you have learned that you can’t change it and you love them anyways. To Alice beauty was from physical looks, ever since she was a little girl she would get simple little complements here and there, and when she had the “accident” she noticed that she wasn’t receiving complements that boosted her self-esteem which made her feel like she was being judged; which is why she then began to not look up, to not let anyone see her eye so they could quickly judger her. When she got the “glob” removed, she started to feel her beauty from her childhood that she started to look up and participate in school. I was really hoping for Alice to find her inner beauty such as her personality, her intelligence and how much bigger the world is without having to fix her defect. I personally loved the end to this piece, it was so inspiring. Her daughter made her realize that she loves herself and she is happy with her life. When she says “she is beautiful, whole, and free.” It made me think that she doesn’t believe that her eye is a defect anymore, she is now a different person. Like a quote says “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” in this case Alice wasn’t the beholder for a while, her daughter helped her see it was wrong and made her change her perspective. –Paloma Hernandez
Being self-conscience is like living in fear with your own body. Bringing yourself down with the words you tell yourself is being a bully to your own body. Alice Walker was afraid and being a bully to her body. When she was younger, she was always being told that she looked very pretty, but after the accident the word pretty and beautiful had a total different meaning to her. In her eyes, she did not feel like she was pretty. She constantly brought herself down because of a scar in her eye. She did not feel the same about herself after the accident. It took her plenty of years after the accident to finally accept and see the good with the scar. The struggle that she went through does not only happen to her, but I feel that this happens every day with girls all over the world. Many girls and even women all over the world struggle with their image. Looking into the mirror and telling themselves words that Alice told herself, words like "ugly" and "ashamed" of how they look. I feel that what Alice was trying to accomplish by telling her story is that feeling insecurities is normal, but that should not define the way we all look at things. Your insecurities should not hamper out ability to see the desert for what it fully is. We are all unique in our own ways and we should all embrace that. Within our insecurities "there is a world" that we have not explored and maybe if we take the chance to explore and embrace that world we will be able to see "The Desert" that lives within our world.
While I was reading "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" I had this idea in mind, what beauty is to one person may not be beauty to another. The idea of beauty really fascinated me after reading this text that I looked up the definition of beauty in the English Dictionary which defines beauty as "the combination of all qualities of a person or thing that delight the senses and please the mind" demonstrating that it is not only the looks, but it is every aspect of a person's character that should matter.The text foregrounds a central focus on Walker's eye. An eye ordinary is a viewed as a body part; however, the eye also has connotations attached to it such as beauty, sight and vision. Therefore the cataract is identified as more than a medical condition, the "glob" was the scar that was changing Walker from the inside. As she did not yet realize that beauty comes within. Beauty provides a solid overall structure and helps tie a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes or life moments together. It is multifaceted concept as Walker presents beauty so that we are forced to think about all the implications in her life as well as our own and how today's society views young women and adulthood. The beauty and appearance of an exterior can deeply affect one's interior. This theme is commonly shown in young girls from a young age to womanhood. I also started thinking of identity with the gender theme of femininity that is prevalent in the text.Cultural assumptions that views woman and young girls as fragile and sensitive. Having also brought up as the only girl in a family of boys demonstrating the fault of having gender equality while the boys having guns and Walker having only a bow and arrows. Characters like Walker establish their sense of self-worth based on the idea of beauty. In turn, beauty and ugliness become internalized conditions, which have devastating effects on the lives of the character. Being beautiful is a personal choice that took Walker a long time to realize until she had a child of her own and what once was a default and an error to her was now a unique and beautiful characteristic that her daughter saw as something special. I believe every girl goes through the idea of if they are beautiful or not even if its once in their lives and in my opinion beauty shouldn't matter to society but in reality it does. The idea of beauty is so much bigger than we think because not being "beautiful" leads to many teenagers deaths and being outcast by many people without realizing the effect they are on those who beauty means everything to them. Like many people, Walker had self-doubt if she was beautiful or not which lead her to always had her head down and missing all the true beauty in life. Someone's looks shouldn't make them beautiful, their appearance is not always going to stay beautiful but who they are in the inside will always stay true to themselves. Everyone is different but they are special and unique in their own way just like Walker was special to her daughter. - Alejandra Castillo
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Everyone has their own definition of beauty, so things and people can be beautiful in their own way. For example, I very much so believe that powerful and soulful singers is one of the most beautiful things anyone can ever hear, but someone else may believe stars or mountains or even a piece of literature can be beautiful. Beauty is the type of concept that encourages us to aspire for a deeper meaning within ourselves; meaning while we see beautiful things we do not always see the rooted feelings that arise beneath the first layers of truly understanding how it connects within our emotions. Reading Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self by Alice Walker, I realize that we miss so many beautiful things because we cannot face the fact that we do not consider ourselves beautiful most of the time. Beautiful things pass in front of us every day but like Alice Walker; we tend to not look up so we are not seeing all the beauty that is staring us right in the face. Learning to accept our flaws, we should no longer fear rejection or dissatisfaction from the way others view us. We should make “peace” and remember what beauty we have seen and we should be thankful for the things we have seen because twenty years can pass by without us ever knowing how truly beautiful everything really is. Being able to see the “world in your eye” can only mean it is time to look up and show how “beautiful, whole, and free” you are. –Marissa Sanchez
My honest opinion is that beauty is based on perception. You find yourself attractive if people think you are attractive but if no one thinks you are then you obviously start being more self conscious about it . the problem when you start being more self conscious you can start to change in personality and originality. The little girl was always praised until her accident. She started thinking as an ugly person because people would stare more to humiliate than to praise her. instead of embracing her flaws she decides to repair it. The point was to love who you are both internally and externally. Everyone is flawed someone people is noticeable and some others arent but your flaws make you up. - jailine
Beauty, a 6 letter word that every girl no matter what age wish to hear one point in their life. Beauty is a word that gives off context of being attractive and pleasing to be seen and if not referred as to "Beautiful" some start to question their attractiveness to the world. In alice walkers piece she was the cutting image of caring of what others have to say about looks in order to accept herself. My personal opinion no one should ever have to tell you you're beautiful or attractive to be confident in yourself or accepting your self for your true beauty. In todays society it's sad that most women/girls in america have a hard time accepting themselves due to factor on how they may not accept themselves just because of the way they look. society has set of this image of meeting up to certain factors to be consider pretty or attractive to the eyes of society and you know the people who write on how your "Average girl" should look like or act like are incentive monsters who do not know the struggle of accepting yourself or changing yourself for people. The truth is you need to love yourself and accept who you truly are before anyone else can. If you love yourself and accept yourself for who you are then you never need anyones approval of how you dress the way you act or even if society considers you pretty. Honestly everyone is beautiful in their own way and everyone can express themselves in their own way and no one should ever have the power to diminish your own confidence because if anyone ever makes you feel less then what you truly are go ahead and let them go from your life because obviously they don't accept you for who you are. - Sarieyah Orellana
From reading both articles I received similar feeling towards the idea of beauty and the many ways people view beauty. Beauty at times can begin with something stressful or unattractive , however, as time begins to roll forward changes Accor that you never realized or noticed that eventually lead you to a place of fulfillment and joy. Or beauty can be an instant occurrence that strikes you from the beginning to the end and nothing seems to change except for more desire for that specific beauty. Or beauty can be a science that because of human nature we as humans are already attracted to it. Which ever the case may be, beauty is fascinating because the countless meanings it can be given just by asking a small group of people. beauty is my opinion is something that always seems to fascinate you and you are deeply involved in that subject because you want to learn more and more and because it simply brings you fulfillment.
For years, I myself have struggled with the concept of beauty. I mean, how can one six letter word carry so much substance that it ultimately affects a person’s every day life? It’s one of those words that authors sit on, and tip toe around in writing in order to not offend a specific audience by claiming it as one thing or another. However, in my opinion, the best authors are the ones that make a consistent claim throughout their whole piece. They are the best authors because they allow me to disagree or agree with them on their claims of beauty! After reading both excerpts, I found myself drawn to Sanders’ excerpt the most. Sander explores the ways in which beauty can be perceived, and how it cannot just be “skin deep”. The difference between the two is that I feel Sanders explores the actual word beauty and the weight it carries with it while Walker only describes her personal struggle with the label of beauty. Walker does an excellent job in revealing how the idea of being labeled beautiful gives one reassurance which can turn into self-confidence. She depicts images in her life when she truly did not feel beautiful anymore, claiming “for six years I do not stare anymore, because I do not raise my head”. Her excerpt clearly shows her inferiority and how it was not until her daughter taught her that the thing that made her feel ugly was actually beautiful. Her transformation in the end is quite beautiful itself- she found the true life inside her. However, the Sanders piece was still my favorite. One point in his essay, Sanders states “beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the obvious kinds” and I do agree with his claim. Walker taught me that beauty means we have to stop searching for it from others, and learn to find it in ourselves. Sanders taught me that beauty is more than what I can see in front of or inside of me, and that beauty is harder to identify. Beauty is all around the world, but as society we have categorized things to be beautiful and ugly; we created these limitations in ourself and have created our own insecurities. If we want to find the beauty in more things, more complicated things, we have to look harder and think more critically; however, that will not happen any time soon. As humans, we cannot ditch the norms and categories we have already created. Change is scary, and the uncertainty of not knowing where things belong to is the world’s greatest fear. However, I feel that the uncertainty of things can be beautiful itself- why must everything be defined? If today we are still struggling with the concept and meaning of beauty itself, why do we still feel the need to call certain things beautiful? What gives us the right to categorize them if we can’t even be clear on what beauty is or means? Whatever the answer may be, I hope it is not definite, but clarifying. -Bianca Carrizal
Beauty is a universally known word that means a variety of different things as to what beauty is. However, many people are tought that beauty is only a superficial feature that is used to impress others and not ones self. These people live their lives according to what their tought about beauty because they believe if they are beautiful they are happy. In Alice Walker's “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, Alice always believed that she was beautiful because of what others said about her. Once she was in the accident and no longer considered beautiful to others around her, she was unhappy because of how others saw her. Alice only wanted to be beautiful she would "not pray for sight. [She] pray for beauty.” Alice only wanted to be what she was once before, she only wanted to be beautiful, so others would start to compliment and be impressed by her. Since Alice, like many other people were raised to believe beauty was a superficial feature, that is all Alice cared about and not her inner beauty that made her who she is. She believed that she could only be happy when others are pleased with her appearance. Alice believed beauty only had one meaning and it was to be beautiful to others not ones self. Once Alice learned that beauty has a variety of meanings that can be different to each person, she was able to understand her beauty. She understood that beauty does not have to be superficial, it can be inner beauty. She was able to understand her beauty and be happy with herself. So, beauty is not how others see you, it's how you see yourself. Beauty can be found in everything it's just a matter of understanding what true beauty actually is.- Cynthia Rodriguez
When I began to read about the concept of beauty, the essay by Sanders ended up going into a topic that I found extremely interesting. His concept about beauty and how people "need alert intelligence and our five keen senses" to really perceive beauty was great. I loved the fact that he mentioned that beauty is not just based on things people in our generation perceive as beautiful but in things like math equations. He has such an interesting essay that contemplates what beauty is and how beauty is interlocked with our creation. In the essay by Alice Walker, I was easily transported into her childhood. As a child, I felt that she ravished all the attention she would get from comments like "Oh, isn't she the cutest thing!" I felt that in that time period that she lived in there wasn't much a girl could have except a complement. Most women valued the beauty that they had because women were only valued for the way they looked. As her world came crashing down, she didn't have the beauty she always had. What hit me the most was that she prayed most for beauty that the eyesight she lost. It dawned on me how much she valued her beauty over anything else. That moment in the essay along with the epiphany were the strongest moments on the essay for me. When her epiphany came to her, it was a great moment when she realized how her life was something to be grateful for even if she was blind in one eye. I loved that moment when she realized that she was seeing beauty and after all this time she accepted who she had become. I thought that was a powerful moment in the essay.
What is beauty? Beauty is what describes someone by their looks. I think from reading the passage that beauty can make someone have their opinions. In the passage "Beauty"by Scott Russell Sanders he explains what he thinks of beauty. He also explains that our traits are what allows us to recognize how beauty was passed down by our ancestors. He also states that beauty can be experienced by others differently. Beauty can describe others by their looks, actions and attitude. Sanders uses many examples to desribe beauty in the passage he is trying to point out there's beauty everywhere.
Like Alice Walker I feel that we all have our own insecurities about ourselves, at times its as small are a mole on your face or as big as your weight , but in the end it all depends on how you make peace with yourself. For many years Alice Walker feared about how people saw her and that her own daughter would might feel a sense of embarrassment of her mothers presents. She soon realizes that she had made peace with her presents many years ago and that she doesn't have to feel embarrassed, but in a brief moment that she shares with her daughter one day. When her daughter focuses on her face/eye in a that split second she feels all those insecurities come back but her daughter states "Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?" smiling and laughing she realizes that yes a world does exist in her eye and she does love it. She finally finds the beauty that has always existed in herself. Beauty now is always focused on how you look, dress, or sometimes weigh but beauty is not at all physical. 'True Beauty' is focused on ones personality and how you carry and respect yourself, the intelligence of ones mindset and morals.
When you google the word "beauty" the immediate definition that pops up is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. I believe that googles definition of beauty is wrong and generic. To me, beauty is defined as being deeper than what is on the outside but actually getting to know the story behind the object or the person. In "Beauty: When the other dancer is the self", Alice Walker is vulnerable because she is retelling the moment that, what she sees as her most fatal flaw, she became blind of one eye. Alice Walker is injured by her brothers who threaten her to not say a word unless she wanted to be hurt even more. Alice chooses to make up a lie in an effort to abstain from any more pain her brothers could inflict on her if she were to tell the truth. Alice goes through a rough patch in her life where people are critiquing her at school for her blind eye. Because of the, she chooses to hide in the shadows because she felt as if her eye was making her look unappealing resulting in her amplifying all the insecurities she already had. Alice walker, as a 12 year old, exemplifies what a person should not do because of the idea of being beautiful. She starts to abuse her eye in an effort to become beautiful. The idea of abusing your body to become beauty is not right. A person should accept themselves and there flaws instead of pining over them every night and abusing oneself. Alice starts to develop courage as the excerpt goes on because she has found the love of her life. I think that because she found the man that will accept her even with her blind eye, that has given her a little more confidence and acceptance. In reality the person that is able to help Alice Walker accept her blind eye is her daughter. Alice was afraid that her daughter would see her as frightening for having a blind eye, but instead she realized that her daughter saw the world in her eyes. Those simple words from her daughter completely changed Alice's perspective on the idea of beauty because she no longer finds the need to question whether she is beautiful or not since the people she loves the most have exclaimed that she is beautiful just as much on the inside as she is on the outside. Alice Walker grows as a person because she learns to move past her appearance and accept the fact that even with a blind eye, she is beautiful.
There are varying perceptions of beauty and the ones that you mostly identify with are based on the type of the perspective you have on yourself and and the rest of the world. Your overall view of what is materialistic beauty and what is genuine beauty will have most likely formed on experiences you have encountered, what type of emotional and physical environment you have been surrounded by throughout your life, and the knowledge you have gained within all those aspects. In "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self," Alice Walker presents herself as someone who has always seen "beauty" in one particular way growing up. And because of that, she lost confidence in herself as she was transitioning into different phases of her life where she was no longer the center of attention. So once she had hit a breaking point, she fell into a vulnerable state that eventually pushes her to reevaluate her perception of beauty and accepts her life does have imperfections; but that she should allow it to define her in a positive light. I can somewhat relate to Walker in that I have struggled to immediately display my true colors and personality to others because I was afraid of judgement and not being accepted by society's "norms." With that, I felt like a nobody fully understood me and even felt like I was just an outcast. It is interesting to think that our biggest concerns when we younger were having playdates and playing with dolls and action figures, and but now we are bogged down with "the perfect image" displayed by the media and how our imperfections do not fit that. But as I grew older and some realities hit home, I learned to be more comfortable with exposing parts of who I am without stressing over what others will think of me. Because by allowing myself to be over absorbed in the image of "fitting in" will only limit me from having confidence in myself and focus on what I actually value.
I like to think that you can find beauty in anything and i'm pretty sure that's the point of Alice Walker's essay. It took here awhile but Walker was able to learn how to appreciate her eye and all that she was forced to endure because of it.Walker's hardships added to the beauty and meaning of her eye which shows that there are different types of beauty. Most people are familiar with aesthetic beauty but different things can be beautiful for their own reasons. Walker's daughter found her eye beautiful because of what she saw and Walker herself found beauty in her eye because of the experiences it brought her. Even though their reasons weren't exactly the same both Walker and her daughter thought of the eye as beautiful. Everything, with the exception of Ryan Gosling, has its own faults but there is still beauty to be found. Different people find beauty in different things, but just because one person doesn't see it it doesn't mean it isn't there.
Beauty is a concept many people believe, meaning looks when in reality I believe real beauty is a person personality. Specifically in our society where in every news and report there is a famous person described as a beautiful person, for instance the Kardashians .For I to discover what real beauty was took a long time then I realized what it really was. Alice Walker's essay radiates what real beauty is. She at first thought that everything was beautiful for her, the dresses, the colors, the speech that she gave until an accident happened that changed her life. That accident made her feel that she was not beautiful herself but as well that nothing was beautiful no more. She had the idea of beauty meaning looks and no imperfections such her eye. Everything changed when her daughter helped her, she discovered that beauty is not looks, beauty is how a person feel about themselves and the acceptance of imperfections. Beauty became the definition of believing in yourself that everyone is beautiful in some way or another. I love how her own daughter thought she was beautiful that her eye was beautiful. In general I loved this story because it shows the real meaning of beauty and appreciation. She is the writer that can show anyone that looks don't matter that not everything to the appalling eye is beautiful, it takes the person to choose to feel beautiful.
Most people hear the word beauty and think of appearance. The way someone looks and dresses. In Alice Walkers “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” she mentions how the way someone speaks is beautiful, like if they don’t stutter or stammer their sentence, they are considered beautiful. A person can be considered beautiful for their personality; no one will know how that person is beautiful unless they have a conversation with them. But if someone’s appearance is not pleasing to others then it is likely that no one would go up to that person and talk to them to get to know them, they could be the most fun person to be around but people’s looks is what stops someone from talking to others. It is sad that that’s how society is today but I think that looks are not everything. No one is perfect nor can look perfect, everyone has flaws so it is better to embrace them and move on with it. Your true beauty comes from your personality. And not everyone will find someone beautiful because everyone has a different type and not everyone is attracted to the same person. You will not always be able to please everyone around you but the only opinion you should care about is your own. If you think you are beautiful the way you are, with makeup, without makeup, it doesn’t matter because it is what makes you happy and what makes you feel confident and beautiful. –Giselle Garza
We can all define beauty in our own way, and what we deem as beautiful is strongly affected by our everyday surroundings. Media is often the biggest contributor to societies idea of beautiful, and often times we try to conform ourselves to fit into those unrealistic ideas of beauty. In Alice Walker's article " Beauty: The Other Dancer is The Self" after being struck in the eye with a pellet Alice's perception of herself is altered. This minor issue she had is what she let define her. She let it rob her self confidence and her self worth. Her "flaw" made her stand out and open to ridicule. We all have "flaws" and things that we wish that we could change about ourselves, so we should not judge others for having flaws. We often times let other people's idea of beauty and the media's idea of beauty affect us. But just as Alice Walker learned are flaws are what make us, us, and they make us unique. Alice learned that she should not let her eye stand in the way ,or let it define her she is more that her physical appearance. However, embracing the thing that makes you different is easier said then done when all people can see is the "flaws" that you have. Our idea of Beauty should include the media's idea of perfection, but the idea that we all have flaws. We all have flaws, but we should not solely focus on our flaws but other aspects about ourselves that we love. We are more than just our outward appearance, and therefore our personalities are what should stand out as well. Learning to love yourself may take time but when you do you learn just how valuable you are, and in the end you'll be much happier just like Alice Walker was in the end.
In today's society, we hear the term beauty used everyday, whether it be from social media or from others around us complimenting and demeaning each other's self worth. Alice Walker's extract helped reflect open how I view myself beauty and the cultural assumptions that surround us, that have been brought by "higher" authority such as celebrities or even men. Walker shares how she begins to feel disoriented from the cute, confident child she once was after an incident she went through at a young age changes her life forever because it leaves her permanently blind from her right eye, which then shatters her sense of self-beauty and damages her self-esteem. She then expresses how she no longer feels comfortable enough to show her face and explains how incident begins not only to affect her social life,but her education and mentality as well. Once she's older and has a family of her own she still struggles to see her beauty and is worried of what her own child might think of her. This really affected me because as young girls growing up we all battle with our self-beauty image and it's interesting to see that no matter what age every woman can relate and it's sad to know how cruel the media can be and how tough it can be for all women trying to change in order to be good enough. Beauty not only affects how we see ourselves, but how we act. Walker's story taught me to learn to embrace my flaws because they make each and everyone of us beautiful and unique. Beauty isn't just our features or what is on the outside, but it's who we are by our actions, our passions, our hearts and our confidence in that we can do anything. We shouldn't let scares make us ugly or make others feel any less because of their scares, if anything we can make a change and help others acknowledge their beauty.
Sanders description of beauty seemed very abstract and philosophical, whereas Alice Walker's idea of beauty seemed more relatable. Sanders went into depth about how beauty was not superficial but a way to appreciate life and your surroundings. I could see how this connected to his idea that we need beauty to survive, because without appreciating the value in life society would be bland and life would not be worth living if nothing caught our attention. However, I enjoyed the way Alice Walker described her struggle with accepting her flaws because it was easier to connect to personal experiences. Walker struggled with her image and it kept her from enjoying life to the fullest. In a society that attempts to dictate what is beautiful and what isn't, it can be difficult for both boys and girls to be comfortable with themselves and be confident. Sometimes the reassurance and praise of someone else helps ,but in all reality it shouldn't. However, Walker wanted the appraisal of her daughter because she wanted to be the best version of herself for someone she loved. Sander's idea that beauty has different value to everyone is proven with Walker's account. Walker values the acceptance of her daughter and herself because they are what is most important in her life. When people see things as beautiful, it really is in the eye of the beholder, because finding beauty in things adds to the prosperity of someone.
I feel the same as Alice Walker when talking about beauty. As we are each different people with different types of talents, hair, body type and different perspectives. Growing up everybody goes through different stages that descried their own personality. Like Walker, I myself have taken a while to see what "my style" is but yet it might change. See Walker didn't feel like it was the outside that counts, its all about the inside that counts. She wanted to teach her daughter that its not the outside that counts and that they don't need to "fit in" its all about being yourself and not worrying about what others say because your personality means more than what you look like.
-Jackie Gonzales
Beauty, a six letter word that holds an infinite amount of connotations, like the millions of galaxies floating around in space. The general definition of beauty is "a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight." As cliche as it may be "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I may see a beautiful dress that catches my attention with its striking features, but my sister, who has a different taste in clothe, may find it utterly disgusting and out of her fashion sense. This idea also reminded me of gratitude and how receiving clothe instead of jewelry or technology on Christmas morning is viewed differently based on a family's income. Alice Walker's message about beauty is that our eyes are the beholder of the world we wish to see and live in. The world we all share and live in is earth. We may come from different cultural backgrounds but if we look up at night we will see the same side of the moon, the same craters, the same everything, just at different times of the day. Alice Walker chronologically develops her story, in order to clearly indicate the most important shifts in her life. Walker is only three on the day of the fair, and already knows word "pretty" and refers to beauty as luck. Because Walker is young, full of wit and charm, she pleads her father to take her to the fair because she is the "prettiest" and deserves it. Undoubtedly, it is unfair to chose the "lucky" children because they are more attractive than the "unlucky" ones who have to stay home. To a certain degree, this is a euphemism: the lucky ones are the attractive people in society who gain all glory and attentions, whereas the unlucky ones are the ones who are an outcast in society's eyes. Society is all about conformity. You see the media promote the beauty of women through glorifying their image on the runway, then you see young girls starving themselves to "perfection". Society is never satisfied, it will always find a way to rebuke our appearance, conduct, decisions, opinions, etc.
Alice Walker is such an inspirational women who finds beauty through different lenses, her own earth, her eye. Although Walker experienced an "accident" that kept her from seeing half the world, she gained more vision than society has ever seen. Walker grew up embarrassed from her scar, and no longer saw a reason to look up at the world who bashed her down because her beauty wasn't ordinary to their expectations. Living in a world where there were "passing faces going nowhere" (Mad World, by Gary Jules reference), the weeks pass but she is hardly aware of it anymore, numb to the feeling of life and existence. It was not until Walker looked up at the world she had been missing all these thirty years that her perspective on her own self image improved. The image of the desert is beautiful because not many people may find a hot land of sand attractive, but she did. It was extraordinary for the desert to sustain live creatures and have its own moon that has no flag of possession on it, it is free and beautiful, just like her. I believe that self love is important because until you learn to love yourself, you will see the world and universe you've been missing because you were too scared to lift your head up and face your only enemy who can be defeated with society
The way people perceive beauty is something we cannot control. Some people may see a lizard and think "wow nature is beautiful", while others may be utterly disgusted by the sight of the creature. Our experiences, what we see, what we've done, where we live, all shape our perspectives to mold our own perception of beauty. Not everybody is going to think the dress you're wearing or the hairstyle you have or the car you drive is beautiful. The superficial side of beauty is never set in stone; it is always changing because people see and experience different things everyday. In "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self", Alice Walker clearly depicts the idea of different people who have experienced different things see beauty in distinct ways. Alice, grew up with vanity and pride in her appearance, she even saw it as the reason her father chose her over her other siblings. She owed all her joy to her physical beauty as a young girl which is why she saw beauty as essential in ones life. Losing her beauty, in her eyes, led her to losing her confidence, her joy, her liveliness because to her, beauty was all that mattered. Growing up putting such an emphasis on her beauty led to her reaching a nadir when she didn't have it, she was now an outcast and to her that was ugly. It took her three year old daughter, to make her realize that her looks didn't matter as much as "what's on the inside", her health, her emotional state, herself. Going off of the idea that your experiences shape what you think is beautiful, Scott Russell Sanders further explores this idea in his essay "Beauty". He relates the feeling he gets walking his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day to the sight of the Milky Way because both bring joy to him. Both these experiences are completely different to one another, but the feeling is the same because both seem beautiful to him based on his "profound sense of how things ought to be" (Sanders 14). Everything a person goes through changes the way in which they believe things should be and once that is met, beauty is what they see.
Beauty is seen in any different ways, the way people dress, act, look, and are overall. Although many people want to see beauty as in only looks, it should not be that way. Beauty comes in many different shapes and ways as people like to say. In the article ¨When the other dancer is th self ¨by Alice Walker, was really impressive, the way she use to view her self as beautiful in her looks and the way sh dressed only. Until her insident with one of her brothers. She saw her self ugly because of her eye, she was afraid of people looking at her, because of what they would say. She hated her eye so much that she would tell it by string at her self in the mirror , until what her daughter said. She ended up realizing she was beuatiful all along. Scares, different nose, lips should not define what beauty is.Many people stuggle with that but should not. Alice Walker made me realizehow no matter what if we have a positive attitude towards our self we are all beautyful in some way. That you can find beaty in anyone but we just should not be so hard in finding it.
Beauty is very different to many people. It’s like the saying goes “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The meaning of this quote means that beauty cannot be judged because what one person may find beautiful another may not see it as so. In "When the other dancer is the self" by Alice Walker, beauty is described by how one looks. The narrator feels that because of her accident she is not beautiful since her flaw is visible to those around her. Going back to the saying, even though she sees her imperfection as hideous and feels it ruins her life that is not how others feel. The narrator’s husband does not care much for her imperfection. In fact he loves it and does not see her as hideous but more as a uniquely beautiful woman. Even more so, the narrator has made herself become self-conscious because of her flaw and this makes her fear how her daughter sees her. When she looks at her daughter and her daughter begins to notice her eye the mother fears what her daughter will say. When her daughter says “Mommy, there’s a world in your eye,” the narrator suddenly feels a sense of relief because her daughter sees her eye as something beautiful and not something to make fun of or hurt her feelings for. In the end the narrator realizes that her imperfection is something that she should not fear but rather something she should embrace. She realizes that how she saw herself was a mistake because she let it over come who she really was. This realization helps her embrace the beauty she has on the outside and even more so that her beauty is not completely defined by what one sees on the outside but by what one sees on the inside.
Anything aesthetic to the eye of somebody that otherwise catches our attention whether person, place, or thing. Being the small, undermined, chubby kid throughout my life has not bothered me at all. In my early stages of life or elementary school beauty was never thought of until the third grade. Although the next two years felt different and even the small chubby kid found some beauty and her name was football. My thoughts of beauty now my mind goes straight to women, sports, and food. Whenever I watch the food network and something captures my attention quickly I respond, “Wow that is Beautiful” like a dog in a dog park head spinning, tail wagging. Looking at food is just so pleasing to the eye that I respect the beauty inside through the smell and the taste just pleases my senses. Now sports encapsulates beauty better than the word itself whether it’s JJ Watt pick sixing the Buffalo Bills, James Harden stirring up the competition seamlessly, or Carlos Correia web gemming Crush City through a hopeful playoff run. Sports and Beauty to me go hand in hand just the overall glitz and glamour from a certain person we will never see again assists this viewpoint. Finally whenever I say beauty I think women and our overall appearance toward a man or a woman will always matter. This viewpoint is developed in Alice Walker’s story with herself being young she was always best dressed and fine-tuned to every occasion. Looks and impression create our own beauty because we all have beauty inside us it is just up to us to search and find our own fascination.
Beauty is an interesting concept to talk about because it can appear in different things or moments. To me beauty like many people can be found everywhere it just depends on what you consider beauty to be. There are not specific things that I find beautiful all the time it kind of just depends on the how things or moments makes me feel. For example some days when I am really hungry I find cheese burgers beautiful because you know food is life and other days I can be disgusted it by them because maybe I have just been eating them to much. Also there are moments that I find beautiful. I recently got back from my trip from Russia and there were many moments that I found beautiful but there is the one moment that I remember clearly. My friends and I were just hanging out with some Russian friends outside of the place we were living at and we were playing volleyball and just having a really good time. Though it may not seem much, to me it was just beautiful being able to casually talk and hang out with friends and make connections with so many people. The "Beauty" essay by Scott Russell Sanders reminded me of how two completely different thing can bring out the same feeling and fascination. I like how in the essay how Sanders compares how he found beauty and fascination in his daughters wedding and in space. The fact that he recognized how both these things carried the same kind beauty to him and explained the feeling he felt was in my opinion was really cool. Also I really like how he said " beauty is in the eye of the beholder" because it i so true. Beauty is something that is pretty much based on opinions. What I like or think is beautiful may differ from someone else which what makes beauty such a complicated and interesting topic to talk about.
Sander comparing his daughter’s wedding to the universe absolutely blew my mind. He explained that the complexity of the Big Bang lend to the simpler wedding of his daughter. The memory of his daughter’s marriage caused him to completely analyze the concept of beauty all the way back to the creation of human beings. Beauty has caught the eyes of even the earliest civilizations, and still manages to awe us in modern times. Beauty is usually thought of as a physical quality, such as a man finding beauty in a woman. However, Sander emphasized the point that beauty is more than something physical; there can be beauty in anything and everything in the universe. Like Sanders pointed out, our ancestor would decorate the items they have because it made them more appealing to the eye; made it beautiful and added value to it. But we now see these artifacts as beautiful because the history and knowledge it is able to provide us about earlier civilizations, and the decorations are beautiful because they are different version and style of art. Things in life can be beautiful because we cannot understand them in just a glimpse. People find beauty in something they do not understand because it gives them the opportunity to unravel the information, or beauty, hidden it. Beauty can also be a feeling or a sensation, much like what Sander feels at his daughter’s wedding day. All the riches and golds made the wedding physically appealing, but it was the feeling of love and pure happiness among the family that added a true sense of beauty to the wedding. All the things that occurred in that past that lead to the wedding added beauty to the day. And the wedding will do the same to future events, such as the wedding of Sander’s future grandchildren.
Beauty is everywhere, and it does not have to be the way someone looks. Everyone has a different opinion on what beauty is. In the essay by Alice Walker she describes how a accident that damaged her eye affected her socially and emotionally but in the essay Beauty by Scott Sanders he sees beauty in things other than the way a person looks. The quote "beauty is in the eye of beholder" shows that everyone sees beauty differently. In todays society it seems that beauty is the only thing that matters to people even though there are more important things to worry about. Alice Walker gives an example of this in her essay Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self. As a child Alice Walker was very confident but when she gets injured and damages her eye she changes because she does not feel beautiful. This affects her grades and social life, because she goes from one of the smartest people in her class to barely passing. In this situation she was affected because she did not feel beautiful anymore. Today beauty is advertised everywhere even though it's not very important. Since Alice Walker grew up seeing beauty but not being able to obtain it, it had a negative effect on her. Since there is such a high standard on how everyone should look people do not feel comfortable in their own skin. In the essay Beauty by Sanders the author was able to see beauty everywhere. He looked beyond what the eyes could see. I admired him for that because not many people can see deeper than what is on the outside. He saw beauty everywhere he looked. To him everything had a deeper meaning.
When I hear "Beauty," many clichés run through my head, which are really annoying, therefore I will try to not bring them up. I cannot be a hypocrite and say looks do not matter because sometimes that is what attracts someone to start a conversation and get to know that person better. I have recently had an experience where my little sister, age 10 and in the 5th grade, was teased and made fun of due to how her eyebrows grow out naturally. One day after school she took matters into her own hands, when no one was looking, and grabbed a razor and shaved away at her eyebrows hoping that would make them look better. Since she is only 10, she resulted with half an eyebrow and random spaces on the other eyebrow. When my mom and I noticed, we asked her why she did it, and she told us that some boys and girls tell her that her eyebrows are "ugly" and "not normal." This really broke my heart considering she is only 10 and her classmates were teasing her for something she cannot change, at least not right now, she should not be worried about her looks (except hygiene). Walker's article is truly inspiring since she learned to accept herself for who she was, the scar in her eye that made her realize that she is beautiful and there is no need to hide. Most of her childhood she tried to avoid making eye contact, or being in public in general. Walker was worried that even her daughter might be embarrased of her eye but Rebecca, her daughter, said there was a "world" in her eye which made Walker realize that she loves her eye and it is beautiful, although she went through all the humiliation and anger of having the scar. Beauty is not just in or on people, it is in art, nature, architecture, science, animals, and the list goes on forever. For me, dance is a beautiful thing to watch and analyze, I could spend hours in a studio or my room by myself dancing my little heart away or hours sitting on the computer (ok maybe sitting a couple inches away) watching videos of people dancing because that stuff amazes me. It is also one of my passions, which is probably why I see it as such beauty, and why every person sees beauty differently. We cannot force someone to see something as beautiful. It is also not just the aesthetic of things, but the inside, whether it is physically: a clean home, or a healthy system in one's body; or mentally/abstractly: personality, mindset, or goals.
Before reading this excerpt, i had always used the word "beauty" to describe someones or somethings appearance. When to beauty there is something much deeper the word beauty has much more meaning than that i give it. I am guilty of having a narrow few on beauty and thinking that beauty is one specific thing when in reality it can be meaning things. Something that i may describe as beautiful may not be seen the same way to someone else and via versa. i blame myself for having that terrible view of beauty but at the same time i understand how easy it is to form that idea especially with the society we live in. Being a girl in high school or even being a women i feel we struggle with this idea of beauty. we all want to be beauty we all want other to think we are beautiful. but that beautiful is the stuff we see on tv, the stuff we see on magazines and movies. I remember telling my mom that i wanted to have clear skin like the women on magazines and not have a single blemish and my mom turned and told me that all that wasnt real. after reading the excerpt by Sanders Ive come to realize that there is something much deeper to beauty that beauty isnt just one things beauty can be many things. beauty is beyond just appearance. beauty doesnt always have to be in something good you can find beauty in something bad, like flaws and imperfections. there is no law to what beauty is because what i may not find beautiful someone else may. everything is beautiful because in this world someone will come to the realization that it is.
Beauty. Such a powerful word with many meanings and interpretations. A word that can either make you or break you. Nowadays beauty is seen from the outside , the "physical" and a lot of that has to do with society. Society makes us believe we are not "beautiful" that we are not "charming" or even "attractive". Over the year beauty has gained many meanings that just makes the word itself seem something to hide from , because we are too scared to be told that we don't have beauty. Alice Walker's "When the other Dancer is the Self" , tells a story of herself as a young girl growing up , having confidence feeling beautiful , smart , and happy. She then experiences and accident where she looses sight in one of her eyes and has a scar making her eye cloudy and grey. She feels as if she is not beautiful as if shes this monster everyone is afraid to look at , talk to , or bump into. Growing up she lost her confidence and was never the same; as she later became a mom she feared the day her little girl would bring up her "horrendous" eye . The time came and she did, her daughter so young and carefree asks about her "world" in her blind yet beautiful eye. She realized how much she stressed about her scar , how much she downgraded it , how much she hated it when in the end she knew it beautiful it embraced it for what it was , a world. We are lead to believe we are not beautiful because of our scars , we are lead to believe we are not beautiful because of our body , and we are lead to believe we are not beautiful because of our emotions ; but those things that they say are not beautiful are what makes us beautiful .
While reading this passage I started to think why does ones appearance mean so much to them? Then I started thinking about todays media and how it portrays both men and women. But most of all I began to think of identity and first impressions. On an everyday basis I see hundreds of people and whether or not I interact with them I find myself having some sort of feeling towards that person simple because of what their wearing, how they carry themselves and even scars like addressed in the passage. I came to the conclusion that as people no matter how humble a person may be is bound to a have an opinion of a person even before hearing them speak. I then began to think about a time when I was spoken to differently because of the way I looked. I was once talking to a person I had just met and after removing my jacket my tattoos became visible. As soon as this happened I could sense this sort of tension between the two of us. And before I knew it the person was making what to me seemed like a sorry excuse to excuse herself and walk away. I couldn't help but think that it was simply because of the ink on my arms that this women's image of me changed in the blink of an eye. This experience help me to sympathize with the women in the passage and understood why ones appearance does matter a lot because it is how we appear to the people around us, and is what their first impressions are of us.
The definition of beauty is shown in a wide variety of ways depending on the culture that it stands on. Beauty itself is universal and its meant to bring some form and interest to others. But in other aspects beauty is determined in how you looked like not in any other category which bring in the cliché beauty on the outside is what mattered most to people in this generation. Just like alice walkers story “when the other dancer is itself” shows that beauty is shown on physical appearance rather than what’s in the inside the entire time. That even the narrator herself see that she is hideous because she is imperfect that gives her a worry feel that what others think of her. Opposed to her husband saying that her imperfection is unique that he does not care In hoe she looks like. Even in this aspect that beauty is universal showing that physical appearance is not what really matter rather is that of the personality that sparks off real beauty to others brining in some self awareness to the person to be more comfortable rather than what the others say or think about that persons views on beauty.
Many people have their own way of expressing their beauty. Alice Walkers and Scott Russell Sanders go beyond what we think beauty is. It is not all about looks and appearance of someone but it is who they are as a person and what is around them daily. Who they associate themselves with and what they do and how they survive day in and day out. It's not about the ancestors passing down traits of beauty of it is your human. It is not evolution or science. Beauty has portrayed different meaning for a very long while but when you really think about it then you realize it is about a person and what is around them and within them.
Alice Walker talks about how she views beauty before and after the accident she has had during her younger years. I love how she starts off by talking about her life in her younger years and begins to progress though her years. As she moves along her life she begins to realize that her perception of beauty has changed and her perception of herself has also changed because of her accident. When she was young she sow herself as one of the most beautiful girls in her world and as she grew older with her blind eye she begins to describe beauty as looks and she tells herself that her blind eye with all the random things it does makes herself look not beautiful. She begins to doubt that she is beautiful and it takes her own daughter to tell her that she can see an entire world inside her eye to realize that no matter what has happened to her if she believes she is beautiful she will be beautiful. She wants people to realize that it’s not up to others to decide if you are beautiful it’s up to you and how you think of yourself. Her transition from thinking she is this amazing child to someone who thinks she is so ugly that she doesn't even want to look up to see other people to that same child hood mindset of thinking she is beautiful but not thinking she is the most beautiful.
When I think of this word, I think of the picturesque greenery as I drove through Oregon or how the stars mimic the freckles on a woman's face. I completely resonated with both essays, Alice Walker's view on beauty definitely speaks to any person that has struggled with their self image. While Sanders focuses on the endless amounts of objects, people, views, etc. that some may find alluring and questioning how we came about figuring out what radiated beauty and what did not. Based on Walker's view on beauty, it takes multiple outside factors to convince you of your worth. Personally, I've dealt with my own insecurities and not a common one, I would think. Since I suffer from eczema, I get extremely insecure about showing my hands at times. You know those that you use for absolutely everything. But I've learned to appreciate them for what they are; that at least I have working hands. Similar to Walker, it took a significant other to help me accept my odd but unique insecurity. The simple action of kissing my hands and caressing them against his face make my irritated, blotchy hands feel cured instantly. Self love and appreciation is a challenging task to achieve and if it takes someone or something to demonstrate to oneself that they were created in a certain way for a reason then so be it. This opinion is similar to Sanders' because he believes that man and woman were created on this Earth to survive and that is beauty purely in itself. He realizes that you can find beauty in anything you could ever imagine. There's this moment of utter glee when one witnesses, hears, smells, touches, and tastes something beautiful. Sanders' point is that you can discover beauty with all your five senses as well. When I gazed at the Milky Way Galaxy in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, made out every strum of the bass in my favorite songs, inhaled the wood burning scent, ran my fingers through his hair, or took a bite of a sweet mango, every one of those moments was breathtaking to me. Of course, everyone will have contrasting views on beauty according to their culture, upbringing, and generally people just have different opinions. Ultimately, beauty is one of the most prominent aspects of our lives as human beings.
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