Comparison of Articles



Introduction

Walker's essay is a masterpiece. Like a symphony, she carries us through the rise and fall of the concerto by using her detailed observations and the contrasts of her former life with the glory of her new one. Her happy ending, the rise, is her falling in love with herself, the “bright faced dancer, beautiful, whole, and free.” And in lucid, forthright essay, Nancy Mairs examines acute anxiety, suicidal depression, and the physical realities of coping with multiple sclerosis. She also writes about what she loves and what she has learned: "I am wounded easily, but I am just as easily delighted." Since the rigors of MS and agoraphobia make many of life's usual "adventures" impossible for her, Nancy Mairs redefines adventure within her own parameters, not by what one does but by the passion or thoroughness with which one does it.

Discussion

In Walker's essay, as we all know, a myriad of issues on this green Earth (and even some in the final frontier, as well) are up for interpretation. That freedom of interpretation is twofold. On one hand, we as rational and reasoning beings are given a tremendous opportunity to understand the world at a much deeper level than our more bestial counterparts (Walker, 1983). We have the ability to make rational judgment calls and to react to events in a manner deemed fit by our interpretation. On the other hand, what one person deems as an interpretation and what other deems fit rarely coincide. This divide, one could seriously realistically claim, is responsible for a substantial portion of the world's problems. What would life be without the freedom to express one's individual perspective? Well, that is an unrealistic question, and one I do not want to focus on; of course, people will always put their two cents inside. That is just human nature - the need for contribution. There is a question that I will present that is somewhat more direct and slightly easier to grasp: How does one choose a positive interpretation of an event/issue/circumstance over a negative one? With literally an infinite number of possible issues, it follows that there are just as many perspectives on an issue. Having an optimistic outlook is a difficult stance to take, but people that can stick with it find more enjoyment in life, or so it seems. When presented with a difficult problem, an optimist interprets the situation as a challenge to overcome. They have the ability to laugh at themselves, and to accept the occasional failure as an occasional necessity. Walker's comprehending of attractiveness, altered from a personal issue of outlook to inward beauty.

Alice Walker's essay is about learning what it means to be an individual, with individual values, and even individual fears, through the exercise of self-exploring prose. In "Beauty: When the other Dancer is the Self," Walker reveals herself to be someone who has struggled mightily with her self-image, her physical self-image. Due to a childhood accident, her eye was scarred, and for many years ...