Mirrorings by Lucy Grealy Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important
In her memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy tells the story of how the deformities caused by her cancer forced her into a life of isolation, cruel insults, and unhappiness. Grealy clearly demonstrates how a society that excessively emphasizes female beauty can negatively affect a young girl, especially one with a deformity. Most interpret this story as a way for Grealy to express the pain that she endured because she did not measure up to society’s definition of female beauty, a standard
Lucy Grealy tells a story about not fitting in, unbearable pain that takes up residence in one’s head as loneliness and confusion, questioning what things mean, being scared and lost in your family, enduring intense physical pain, and most importantly, figuring out who you are. Lucy had no idea she might die, even though the survival rate for Ewing’s sarcoma was only five percent. She does not present her parents as overly afraid for her life, either. Her autobiography is not a story about the fear
In her passage, “Mirrors”, Grealy discusses her struggle with appearance and beauty as a whole. Winning her battle with childhood cancer has its consequences. This aggressive cancer left her face extremely disfigured. Due to this result, many people gawked at Grealy and treated her differently than one would towards a beautiful woman. This drove her into a sense of shame and depression based on her appearance alone. Since Grealy was a young woman at the time, many cases of bullying
At the age of 9, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In her book, The Autobiography of a Face, Grealy explains the hardships she faces throughout her journey and how she dealt with them. I would highly recommend this book to my classmates because it shows the atrocity of cancer, the importance of having a support system, and puts in perspective how the little things throughout society can mean so much when you're going through such trials and tribulations. Almost everyone either has
Autobiography of a Face is a memoir written by Lucy Grealy about her childhood and brave battle with cancer. When she was nine years old, Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, in her jaw. Because of the cancer, a portion of her job needed to be removed, leaving her face disfigured. Autobiography of a Face tells of her experiences, emotions, and thoughts while battling her illness. While reading the first few chapters, one paragraph that stood out to me was on page 29, the
Face follows the story of Lucy Grealy, who as a child was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer leading to the removal of part of her jaw. With the damage to her face conspicuous to the rest of the world, Grealy struggles with her concepts of beauty and strength in the face of adversity. Her memoir makes a brilliant comment on the nature and definition of strength, and the lengths to which one will go in order to protect oneself from harm. In the chapter “Masks,” Grealy discusses her elementary school
Within this memoir, Lucy Grealy is faced with distinguishing between the mental and physical pain that she is dealing with during her life. The mental pain that seems to immerse her includes the shame and guilt she feels when showing her negative reactions to the painful chemotherapy
choices or does culture play an important role here? It is a fact that the human being is always looking for an inclusion in society. For instance, there is a clear emphasis in both, “Masks”, by Lucy Grealy, and “Stranger in the Village”, by James Baldwin that identity can be shaped by culture. Grealy does a great job writing about the main issue that has made her life so difficult: her appearance. Cancer has placed her in a position where people,
definition of the self.” (Grealy 43). In Lucy Grealy’s “Mirrors”, Grealy makes the vital point that people should not make judgements based on the physical appearance of others, and that there is more to someone’s essence than the way people view them. After reading an excerpt from graphic novel, “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” by Marjane Satrapi; you can interpret that Satrapi would agree with Grealy’s point, but also have difficulty relating to her mindset, and experiences. Grealy and Satrapi grew
Lucy is left with a deformed jaw and undergoes chemotherapy and radiation. Beginning at a young age, Lucy, is faced with people constantly questioning her self-worth and beauty. Through detailed chapters, the reader learns about the absent attention Grealy experienced within her family by the empty emotional relationships between her parents and siblings, which provides a clear reason why Lucy has a love for hospitals and the attention she receives. To Lucy, hospitals are a place where judgment does
someone’s life and seeing how it changes lives for better or for worst is very difficult. Perseverance through hardship is a theme that is seen in many works of literature, these include “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell and “Mirrors” by Lucy Grealy. Influences fulfill their objectives while affecting others in many different ways. Both authors show similarities and differences by explaining how life is taken advantage of by others. Society affects the choices an individual makes throughout
vulnerable made him feel weak and go to war to avoid humiliation, something he feels even more guilty about. In “Mirrorings” Grealy uses a metaphor for her love of Halloween masks: “I was a pauper walking for a short while in the clothes of the prince, and when the day ended I gave up my disguise with dismay” (Grealy 3). Hiding her deformed face under another freed Grealy until it had to be taken off, and she had to face her face, the source of her shame. In “Beauty” Walker brings up personification
that we receive from our peers, the idea that physical appearance shapes identity falls inward onto us. For example, in “Mirrorings” up until Lucy Grealy moves to London for reconstructive surgery, her entire identity is her illness (Grealy). While it is easy to do, she let other people’s nasty opinions of her change the way she felt about herself (Grealy). She outright believed that she
1) “Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks--already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly.” (Huxley 22) In the Conditioning Center, nurses train babies into liking and disliking certain things with the intention to develop specific traits to properly place them into a certain caste where they can associate themselves with people of similar interests whether it be Alpha
What does it mean to live? Living is expressed through the concept of shared humanity, which exhibits a moral understanding of what it means to be human. Shared humanity is portrayed within six categories, which include; relationship, emotion, choice, loss, morality and survival. Every characteristic that humans display is implied through these six categories. The poem numbers man, and the two novels How I Live Now and Autobiography of a face are three illustrations of shared humanity portrayed
...he needs of the disabled because it fails to adjust by removing those impediments. If society provides what the disabled people need, then they will be able to participate in normal activities, and people will not focus on their disability. Grealy mentions “Society is no help. It tells us again and again that we can most be ourselves by acting and looking like someone else, only to leave our original faces behinds to turn in ghosts that will inevitably resent and haunt us”, which Lucy views
surgery that removed her lower jaw. She went through life isolating herself from others. The narrator because of her appearance allowed sex to become her salvation. She felt if she could get men to have sex with her that she was loveable and not ugly (Grealy 28). It is unfortunate that one would allow people to use or take advantage of him or her to feel better about oneself. Appearance is a strong aspect in modern society. People spend a great amount of money
What is education? By definition, education means, “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life” (dictionary.com). In, “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch argues that education is not what it used to be. Education’s primary focus used to be about teaching the rights and responsibilities to the citizens. Currently, it is not like that at
Imagine a world where everybody gets food. This way, no single person starves wanting food. Every year, food is wasted by the people that are fortunate enough to have and afford food. If people did stop wasting as much food, the people that are not so fortunate can have the food they need. The articles “Ending world hunger by stopping food waste in the fields” and “U.S. throws away half of all food produce” show how food is wasted around the world and how food waste should be reduced around the world