Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face

Balancing these meticulous distinctions, then, became an almost unattainable feat, but a crucial one, as success or failure directly translated into a woman’s moral status. In Adam Bede, George Eliot contrasts the idealized preacher Dinah with the fallible dairymaid Hetty by illustrating two very different examples of feminine beauty. Eliot directly addresses the complicated understanding of “moral” Victorian beauty through her physical presentation of these women and their actions throughout the story. Physical descriptions of Dinah and Hetty establish their moral character almost immediately, and also foreshadow what will happen to each woman through the course of the novel. Dinah appears as the physical embodiment of purity and devotion, while Hetty is the physical embodiment of lust and vanity.

***include a line or 2 that states and organizes my arguments***** At first the novel seems as if it is about Janie’s quest for love. But a deeper look reveals a more profound message. The real story is about Janie overcoming the struggles that keep her from finding her identity. Her identity is tied with her ability to become a storyteller, which she cannot become until she finds her voice. Janie’s evolution occurs as she “grows to understand the loneliness of silence [and] how morality is required for community” (Meese 47).

Achieving Personal Identity in The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood In the novel, The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, the principal character Marian McAlpine establishes a well-integrated and balanced personality by rejecting the domination of social conventions, and conquering her own passivity. Through this process to self-awareness, Atwood uses imagery and symbolism to effectively parallel Marian’s journey and caricatures to portray the roles of the ‘consuming’ society. As Marian stands at a pivotal point in her life, she examines and rejects the roles presented to her by society in order to achieve self-knowledge. She is 26 years old with her education behind her. She has her first job as well as, her boyfriend Peter Wollander, who is the last bachelor of his friends.

“I wish you’d outgrow that game already” (27) says the mother, the child then explains to us, the readers, “Once I begin the question game, it is impossible for me to stop. It’s like a spell. I keep asking questions until I get banished, until my mother sends me away.” (27) In the story the mother changes her identity, or at least her name, whenever it suits her or whenever she is finished with the previous name. As we read we learn the mother’s given name is Ruth Ann, but she declares “Ruth isn’t right anymore.” (25) Then it is added “the people who gave her that name are accidents.” (25) Which indicates that the mother is the superior of the story, believing that she is above all. The mother tests out several names; Rita, Rhea, Rachel, and Rebecca, they are all deemed unacceptable.

There may even be a hint of Bradstreet’s book being like the child whose face only a mother can love. While Bradstreet takes ownership of her book at the beginning of line eleven, by the end of that line, and the beginning of twelve, she is criticizing her work, saying that “at length affection would thy blemishes amend...” Through this, Bradstreet makes a connection to the beginning of the line, as only her love, care and attention can make the piece beautiful. If she gives enough attention to her “child” and corrects it enough, perhaps the book would not be such a shame to her. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so ugly. By the end of the twelfth line, Bradstreet has taken pride in her work, and has also criticized it.

It becomes almost an obsessive relationship between the mirror and the women because she looks to the mirror for comfort only to confronted with the truth about your youth wasting away. The mirror triggers conscious and unconscious memories of her life faithfully. On line thirteen it reads "I see her back, and reflect it faithfully" once again showing that truthful charter of the mirror. Regardless of the fact she hates her reflection the women becomes dependent on the mirror, and on line fifteen you can see that relationship were it says "I am important to her. She comes and goes."

Nonetheless, she ultimately discloses that Pearl is the result of Wen Fu’s rape not a symbol of Jimmie’s love. Wade believes that “Winnie has power in her speech to change the reality of others, she also allows others to shape her reality (17).” Pearl thinks of her mother as a fighter, who witnessed the pain of Wen Fu’s existence in her characteristics, her temper and behavior matched with his quite often. This allows restrained Pearl to open up about her multiple sclerosis condition. By speaking what is on her own mind, she motivates Winnie to no longer hold back upon what she is afraid to reveal. She promotes awareness develops the confident side Pearl to talk more by giving her the statue of the Kitchen God’s wife, who was originally forgotten and voiceless after her husband a mistress.

Emmanuel Nelson. New York: Garland, 1993. 181-96. Mason, Deborah. “The Cross-Culture Wars.” New York Times Book Review.

Barron's Concise Student's Encyclopedia. 1993. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Dover, 1991.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot tells the true story of the woman who the famous HeLa cells originated from, and her children's lives thereafter. Skloot begins the book with a section called "A Few Words About This Book", in which a particular quote mentioned captured my attention. When Skloot began writing Henrietta's story, one of Henrietta's relatives told Skloot, "If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that's dishonest. It’s taking away their lives, their experiences, and their selves" (Skloot). After reading that quote, an array of questions entered my mind, the most important being, "Do all nonfiction authors take that idea into consideration?"