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Evan Walker

Instructor Pinkerton

Eng 1510

20 Sept 2018

Literacy Narrative

“Beauty” by Alice Walker is an inspirational narrative told from the authors perspective.

The narrative begins with the author reading a poem at church. Alice describes how she is

perceived as “messy” with her messy hair and different outfit. Then the author performs a

flawless reading and the audience changes their view her. The narrative continues with

introducing the major obstacle. The author was shot in the eye by her brother with a bb gun. The

author was left disfigured with white scar tissue eclipsing her right eye. The scar was removed

when she got older, but her time with the scar changed her understanding of beauty. To

understand the author’s change of heart it is important for the reader to understand what the

narratives’ significant parts are, and why she elaborated on them.

In the essay “Beauty” by Alice Walker, there were several significant parts of the story a

reader can identify. These significant parts allow for a deeper understanding of the story through

textual analysis. When engaging in textual analysis you take a narratives significant parts break

them apart and analyze them. These significant parts inter-twine together to create an even

deeper understanding of the author or text.

The first significant part of the story was when Alice Walker was shot. Alice was nine

years old and playing with her brothers outside when the incident occurred. This creates the base
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of the story and allows readers to understand where the conflict begins. When Alice was first

shot by her brother she was convinced by her brothers to describe the gunshot wound as an

“accident” to her parents. The narrative continues, and the word “accident” starts appearing

periodically, thus bringing in repetition.

The power of repetition is subconscious. When the reader initially learns of the accident

the author describes the scenario as “I felt an incredible blow to my right eye. I look down just in

time to see my brother lower his gun”. This sentence is all the reader knows of the original

scenario, and it can be inferred that there was no accident. The word accident is repeated two

more times within the next two paragraphs. Both sentences had accident marked in quotations.

Since it was marked in quotations the source of the word accident is not coming from her, but

from someone else. It can be inferred that there is still tension when trying to refer to the

“accident”

Initially the essay seems to be focused on the trials of an author with a facial

disfiguration; however, considering how the author changed her tone the narrative could be read

as a story, and an essay. The story version is straight forward. A woman gets shot in the eye and

must live with it. If the reader looked at the narrative as more of an essay they can find a deeper

meaning. The story does focus on the trials of her life, but it is trying to convey a message. The

underlying message is decrypted. The evidence being that there is more emphasis on resilience

from the author. For example, she can be found saying “can you imagine not being able to look

up.”; this was during the early stages of her eye’s development. She was unaccustomed and

adapting to the change with her eye. She is critically examining herself and determining she is no
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longer beautiful. She concludes that she is no longer beautiful only because of her previous

understanding of beauty. The narrative continues with the tone changing dramatically.

Another significant part of the story was when she got the new eye. This signifies a new

chapter in the story. The original depressed tone the author has at the start of the story begins to

change. The eye allows the author to re-invent herself as a “normal” person. Which leads into the

second significant part which is her graduating high school, accomplished. This signifies her

success, even through the struggle. Everyone knows how hard success can come through

struggle, and this shows that she has what it takes to do big things. Which also leads into the next

significant part which is when she got the interview with the magazine. This signifies her success

coming to full fruition, as she can tell her story and show who she is. Through all that she had

been through, she now found herself being interviewed by a magazine, that’s a story to tell.

The last significant part of the story was when a child called her eye “wonderful”. This

may be the most significant part because it shows contrast compared to all the horrible things

she’s said about her eye.

It is necessary to understand why the Author included the dialogue between the author

and the child. The entire narrative the author described the trials she endured through her life,

and most of those trials involved her eye. The eye was an insecurity that the author addressed.

When the author’s daughter made her first comment about the eye the author was worried. The

author automatically thought it was something negative, but once she called the eye wonderful

the author realized. She realized that she’s been to critical of her eye. Alice Walker even said,

“And I saw that it was possible to love it: that in fact, for all it had taught me of shame and anger
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and inner vision, I did love it”. The significance of this statement is immeasurable. It contradicts

the entire tone of the essay. The author was questioning her original understanding of beauty.

The essay’s closing raises the most questions. Alice walker ended the essay describing a

dream she had. In that dream she was holding a child and dancing. Closing the paragraph by

looking at the child and saying “she is beautiful, whole and free. She is also me”. This ending

signifies a transformation in the author. She is no longer the same author who looked in disgust

at herself. She is beautiful, and she is whole.

The story concludes leaving some questions, but after some textual analysis we have

established a greater understanding of the authors purpose in writing the story. some significant

parts were stated through repetition, and other significant points were elaborated. We also

determined that the authors change of tone had direct correlation to her understanding of beauty.
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Work Cited

Walker, Alice. “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self.” In Search of Our Mothers Gardens,

Harcourt, 1944, pp. 42-48.