The online definition of self-realization is, “the fulfillment of one’s own potential”. Two different characters in the short stories, “The Moth” by Helen Viramontes, and “Beauty: When the other Dancer is The Self,” by Alice Walker, experience self- realization. These two different characters are able to find they belong on this Earth, and get rid of any doubt they had in themselves towards the end of the stories. Once they both find this self-realization, they become more appreciative towards life, and all the surprises it has to offer. From the beginning to the end of both stories, each character was able to see that family members can help you overcome a doubt you may have. “The Moths” follows the life of a young girl, who is able to find …show more content…
After moving in with her grandma, or Abuelita, as she calls her, she finds a purpose in life. At her parents’ house, she often got in trouble, and her sisters made her feel ugly. Both sisters, were more feminine than her, and they often called her, “bull hands with their cute water like voices (Viramontes, 27).” Due to her sister cracking jokes about her, she doesn’t think of herself as being pretty like her sisters. In fact, calling people names is a common scheme people use in order to hurt else’s feelings. She is receiving the message that her sisters think less of her, and possibly don’t like her. She lashes out, and gets whippings from hitting her sisters with bricks. Once she is removed from her home, and placed in her Abuelita house, she starts to transform. Her grandma gave her the feeling of being wanted and needed. Abuelita had requested the young girl’s help, and she often planted plants for Abuelita. Unlike crocheting, or embroidery, her hands were valuable for planting. This is evident …show more content…
Walker did not always have anti feelings about herself, and it took an accident to shift her self-esteem. Growing up, Walker had a lot of confidence in herself, and her appearance. This is illustrated when her father had to pick what kids would get to attend the fair. Walker told her dad, “Take me, Daddy, I’m the prettiest (Walker, 70)!” She was confident, and wasn’t afraid to show it. She once again reiterates this by later saying on her way to the fair, “It does not surprise me to find myself in Miss May’s shiny black car, sharing the back seat with the other lucky ones (Walker, 70).” However, around the age of eight, she found herself going through some changes. Walker went from being the cute girl to a tomboy. This is around the time she was shot in the eye with a BB gun, by her brother. Her eye was left with a white scar tissue, a cataract. She no longer was bubbly, and confident about herself. Her self-esteem took a toll, and it is shown by how poorly she starts to perform in school, something she had excelled at before. It’s not until her daughter notices her eye that Walker finds self-realization. When her daughter asks her, “Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye (Walker, 75)?” She instantly realizes that the eye had taught her so much about shame and anger, so it served as a learning tool. For many years she was embarrassed to look at other people, and was
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Show MoreSince Sister was affected the most by certain actions of the family, Welty narrated this short story through Sister’s point of view to show how the function of the family declined through these actions. Sister was greatly affected when her sister broke the bonds of sisterhood by stealing her boyfriend and marrying him. Secondly, Sister was affected by the favoritism shown by her family towards her younger sister. Since her sister was favored more than her, this caused her to be jealous of her sister. For example, Sister shows a lot of jealousy by the tone she uses when describing what Stella-Rondo did with the bracelet that their grandfather gave her. Sister’s description was, “She’d always had anything in the world she wanted and then she’d throw it away. Papa-Daddy gave her this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace when sh...
She has a very strong belief this and Thanks God that he didn’t make her like any of those people below her. Even goes as far as debating lives if God would have a given her a choice between any of the people she thinks she is better than. A trip to the doctor’s office for her husband’s ulcer brings a new “revelation” for Mrs. Turpin. While observing the people in the waiting room, she analyzes them and gives them titles in the groups below her. White- trash, ugly and so on. There is one girl in the room though who seems to really have something against Mrs. Turpin. Every comment she makes seems to upset the young girl and make her agitation to rise. It disturbs and also confuses her because she can’t understand why the girl who doesn’t even know her would want to ac so rudely towards such a kind a giving woman such as her. “All at once the ugly girl turned her lips inside out again. Her eyes fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin. This time there was no mistaking that there was something urgent behind them.” Continuing on in conversation with the white- trash an outburst of thanking the lord aloud causes the young lady to suddenly hurl the book she was reading at Mrs. Turpin and jumping across the table and attempting to choke her. The nurse and doctor try to contain the young girl while slowly giving her a shot in the arm to calm her insanity down.
Alice Walker grew up the youngest of eight children. She was in an accident as a child that left her blind in one eye. She is best known for her work The Color Purple. Much of her work is focused on Civil Rights for African Americans. In Alice Walker’s poem Remember? she begins by posing a question. Just by the title, the reader begins to believe that this poem is taking place in the past, it may cause the reader to think of another time where they have been asked the question, remember? To paraphrase, the poem begins rather dark, a hate for Walker’s physical appearance, which makes reference to her past time when her eye had been shot by a BB gun. She continues with detest towards her life and the way that she is living her life, "holding their babies / cooking their meals / sweeping their yards / washing their clothes." After these first two stanzas, the poem shifts into a powerful and defiant outlook. She no longer lets this hate for herself, or the hate that comes from the oppression against her skin color to affect her. She turns from looking at the bad times that have struck her life, as moments for possibility for the future.
She always getting into a fight with her mother all the time about her beauty, because she has a habit of looking at herself in the mirror wherever she found one, “…she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into the mirror or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was alright.” (126). Moreover, her mother always compares her with her sister, June, which makes she feel even more hatred toward her mother, “Why don’t you clean your room like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed – what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk.” (126). Her mother, whenever she gossips on the phone with her aunties. They always admire June over her, “June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked, and Connie couldn’t do a thing, her minded was all filled with trashy daydreams.” (126). To them, June is always the best, because she is good at almost everything and Connie cannot do anything right. Therefore, when Connie’s mother says something or complaint about her beauty, she rolls her eyeballs and wishes that her mother was
Next let us examine Mariam's plight. She is denied the chance to go to school. "What's the sense schooling a girl like you? It's like shinning a spitspoon." She lives with a cruel mother. "You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harmi"(4). She has a neglectful father. "Mariam kept thinking of his face in the upstairs window. He let her sleep on the street. On the street. Mariam cried lying down"(35). Her mother commits suicide and Mariam blames herself. "You stop that. These thoughts are no good, Mariam jo. You hear me, child? No good. They will destroy you. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault no". Mariam nodded, but as desperately as she wanted to she could not bring herself to believe him"(44). She is forced into marriage to a man she does not love. "I don't want to," Mariam said. She looked at Jalil. "I don't want this. Don't make me"(47). She is sent to live in a strange city were she does not know anyone. She has a physically abusive husband. "Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars"(104). Her husband is cruel and says hurtful words to her. She can not do anything right in his eyes. When he is not ignoring her he is being verbally or physically abusive towards her.
From his peripheral vision, he glimpsed Darlene’s angered and disappointed face, and for a moment Walker swore her pupils shrank and elongated vertically—like a cat’s. He did a double take, intensely studying her. There was nothing off. She was the same old Darlene. He might have seen a trick of the light from a passing car, but now Walker was on guard for anything strange more than he had been since she’d turned twenty-one in
When we compare to the life of Mama and that of Maggie, you find that Maggie has never undergone major challenges in life compared to her mother walker who faced a great deal of personal tragedies while in college. In order to overcome all the tragedies, she faced life with courage, dignity and strength of mind. It is with this reason that she emerges to be a very strong character who is able to live her own life confidently and also becoming and accomplished writer of exceptional calibre and competencies (Walker, pg7). Walker is an educated woman unlike her daughter Maggie who is shy and has no education. Mama is seen to be more concerned about the physical life around her as compared to Maggie who hovers around doorways doing nothing instead of involving her life with things around her and it is so evident that Mama is a very clear defined and strong character. It can be compared to Maggie who is broadminded and unselfish with a spirit of sacrifice to her
In the essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self,” Alice Walker writes about how she lost her eyesight in one eye due to a childhood accident. Alice communicates to the reader how, when losing an eye, she cared much less about the loss of her eyesight and more about how she appeared to others. In the story, Alice recalls different points where the accident affected her life. To her, the loss of her eye was not just a physical impediment, but a mental one as well. Once she had a surgery to remove the “glob of whitish scar tissue,” she felt like a new person, even though she still could not see. Alice says, “Now that I’ve raised my head,” and can stop holding herself back from being the greatest she can be. Just as Alice is affected by
Sometimes the beliefs one develops from their family stay with them. Sometimes those beliefs diminish as one gets older and starts to experience life. The old saying goes “With age comes wisdom. Acknowledgment of one’s true self then becomes apparent.”This paper shows how acknowledging one's self-leads to self-discovery.
"To be self aware is to be conscious of one's character, including beliefs, values, qualities, strengths and limitation. It is about knowing oneself" (Burnard 1992).
These days people are so busy with keeping track of the rapid changes of society and lives of those around them, that they are do not come to terms with themselves first. As years passed by and the vision for self-discovery and identity is not on the list of things to do. One day something happens- an unexpected event or experience and the realization there is no self-discovery in progress. It is never too late to find out who you are, and to embark on the journey of self-discovery which aids the individual in searching deep into one's self to find joy, meaning, and fulfillment. This is where the individual can reveal their true identity, viewing life from different perspectives, developing a better attitude, and likeness to lead to personal happiness inside out.
She is in a contest to grow the healthiest prettiest flower possible and she has entered the contest every year for the past 5 years and she always falls short of first. This year she swears she is going to win first. She imagines a seed, then she imagines planting that seed. She envisions herself taking care of this seed every day until it is a beautiful flower. She starts by planting the seed in extraordinary rich soil in an old pot her mother gave her. She then plants the pot in a spot with a lot of sunlight. She waters the seed as often as it needs it. Once the seed starts to sprout she trims the blossoming flower and she protects the newly sprouted flower from pests. In this story she is resembling what a family does. Family takes care of you, it protects you, and it makes sure you’re presentable. Most of all family wants you to win first, it wants you to be number one, and it wants you to be the best you can be. Family contributes to an individual’s identity by pushing that person to pursue her own identity, create goals for herself, and strive to achieve them.
She doesn’t cherish her life at times, but she hopes for the best. Her mask helps her win every race, to get away from her sorrows. However, sometimes that mask comes off and she can’t bare these emotions. Her mask protects her and is her anger and confident that covers up the real her, with all her mixed emotions. As we go on throughout the book, we can tell that she gets more open towards the reader, from getting open from her relations with her old friends, to her brothers issues, to problems with her mom, a character not explained a lot and a character you would expect things to be right between her and her daughter, Hazel. This shows the true colors of Hazel and how we get a different first impression than what we would actually get. Hazel gradually gets more open as the story moves along, we can see that her life is not as we see it, but once we get to know her we see a lot of things that we missed when the character was introduced. Even though Hazel shows her confidence and anger towards others, there is a lot to learn about the character than what meets the
Self-actualization happens when a person’s ideal self (who they want to be) is corresponding or congruent in character with their actual behaviour (self-image) (Rogers, 1959). A person who is actualizing is considered as fully functioning person (Rogers, 1959). This implies that the person is in touch with his or her feeling and experiences, which are continuously growing and changing. According to Weiten (2014) ”Incongruenc...
The process of knowing and understanding your true self can feel like a marathon. Often hearing the phrase “discovery of self” causes me to hurl because of the saturation of its use making the phrase an absolute cliché. Although it may seem Meaningless at times, the cliché’s original meaning has gained a new importance in my life now that I am transitioning into a position of independence. Knowing myself does not seem to be a Herculean task, but I find myself at age seventeen and I have only seen a glimmer of my inner thoughts and nature. The effortless thing to do is to follow the crowd and be pushed into a position of who your peers assume you are allowing no room for growth. The further I progress in life I find myself more influenced by my peers and forced to abide by social conventions never allowing me to be myself. Through this time of adversity my true self can emerge, and it is evident I am a sage, seeker, and creator.