Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

In Alice Walker’s “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” Walker describe that the idea of beauty is based on each individual perception. Walker’s perception of beauty is developed through her life journey to finally accept her appearance after a tragic accident as a young child leaving her with right eye blind. Through her journey of self discovery, Everything of her life changed from a child that is constantly praised and admired for her appearance prior to the accident, to a young woman suddenly overwhelmed by shame and feelings of self worthlessness that her injury has caused her. Suddenly, her entire life perspective is negatively altered as she faces harassment, rejection, and multiple life changes. She then finally started accepting

Even though Walker knows, beauty can be interpreted differently among various cultures, society holds a universal misconception that standards of beauty must be achieved in order to satisfy both internal and external desires, this is including acceptance from others, the need to feel admired and wanted, the need to feel self worthy and loved, and the desire to feel confident in one’s own skin. Walker is eventually able to find peace with her eye and at last discovers her self-worth that was buried by pain, anger, and shame all along. She explains this moment of true self acceptance when she remembers a dream that she had. “As I dance, whirling and joyous, happier than I’ve ever been in my life, another bright faced dancer joins me. We dance and kiss each other and hold each other through the night. The other dancer has obviously come through all right, as I have done. She is beautiful, whole, and free. She is also me" (Walker). Her dream symbolizes her previous self joining with her new self as they both come to a true realization that being beautiful does not define a person and is not essential in order to feel genuinely happy in one’s