Describing Beauty in Novels
Beauty, an essential component of (the social) life and often a criteria by which people are judged and labeled, has many aspects and it is very difficult to point out the exact feature which makes a person or an object beautiful. Regrettably, in most cases, beauty is understood as regarding physical appearance exclusively. At first, Alice Walker, the main character of "Beauty: when the Other Dancer is the Self", had the same conception about beauty; as a little girl, she considered herself to be the best looking member of her family: "Take me, Daddy," I say with assurance: "I'm the prettiest!" (Walker,1983). The fact that she was beautiful, and that she considered herself so, gave her confidence and self respect. She clearly remembers how she could give impeccable speeches: "Naturally I say my speech without stammer or pause, unlike those who stutter, stammer, or, worst of all, forget. This is before the word "beautiful" exists in people's vocabulary, but "Oh, isn't she the cutest thing!" frequently floats my way." (Walker, 1983), this also being proof of the enormous self-confidence she had. "It was great fun being cute. But then, one day, it ended." (Walker, 1983). This is the line which announces the terrible things to co
This is the moment when she appears to have finally made peace with herself, her new self actually, and with the entire situation. As Samuelsson points out, the bullet that had destroyed her right eye had also shattered her self esteem; she was now blinded by her blindness (Samuelsson, 2002). " (Literature, Arts and Medicine Database, 2006). The main difference between the two was the fact that Alice was craving and praying for beauty, while Mohammed lacked his father's love and affection. She stopped looking at herself through her own eyes and began to do so through the eyes of the society, not being able to go beyond the shallowness of the "social label" she believed she had been attributed. Mohammed, an eight year old blind boy, is the main character of the movie. Blindness is tackled from a totally different point of view in Majid Majidi's "The color of Paradise", an impressive motion picture describing the drama of a young Iranian boy. From that moment on, Alice Walker was unable to see herself as she was; all that she could see was the image she believed that the others had of her. If before the accident she used to enjoy staring at people, after that dramatic moment the situation changed radically; she was now ashamed to look at people and walked with her head down (Walker, 1983). She was unable to adapt to the "new her".
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