Comments On Alice Walker¡¯s
Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self
by Sharp (Huang Xin)

E-mail:huang_sharp@sohu.com huang_sharp@tom.com

I. Main idea of the article:
This essay written by Alice Walker may be called recollection or reminiscence, which recorded the life experience, happened to her in her childhood. Her brother made her right eye blind with a copper pellet in a game and that suffering had affected her whole life, just like the study in the school, her personalities, etc, but at last, she became a famous person in that age.
II. Comments:
1. The description of her mental characteristics shows the theme that she is a specific black woman or a girl at that time, with struggling towards self-realization in a hostile environment. As we all know, Alice Walker is a feminist black writer, receiving good education and was born in 1944. She actively participated the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s, which experience influenced her subsequent writings. This article is a recollection, just as I¡¯ve mentioned above, we can get this point from this sentences in P.37 Para.34 ¡°It is now 30 years since the ¡®accident¡¯¡­¡±. Now let¡¯s look at other paragraphs or sentences to state the theme:
P.36 ¡° What do I mean? I am eight, for the first time¡­we have just moved to the place where the ¡®accident¡¯ occurred¡±----distressed and be full of complaint
P.37 The parallel structure in paragraph 33 ¡°Now that I¡¯ve raised my head¡­Now that I¡¯ve raise my head¡­Now that I¡¯ve raise my head¡­¡± and look back to the sentence ¡°Almost immediately I became a different person from the girl who does not raise her head.¡± In P.38 bottom of the page, ¡°Something inside me cringes, gets ready to try to protect myself.¡±----self-abasement, self-contempt
And the last sentence of the article ¡°She is beautiful, whole and free. And she is also me.¡±----recovering the confidence
All these sentences does not only reflect the changes in her personalities but also create the strong black woman characters with heroic achievement as the new image of African woman because she has already been a famous person.
2. Another aspect that I¡¯d like to say is that Alice Walker also portrayed admirably the black women¡¯s characters in their merits and wisdom in this article, but portrayed the black male in the same family as being brutal and irresponsible. Now see the examples:
1). P.34 Para2 ¡°I stood, hands on hips, before my father¡­ ¡®I¡¯m the prettiest¡¯¡± ----showing that she is clever and lively
2). And the fact that she decided to make a lie to her parents after the ¡®accident¡¯ and the description of her mental activities when she understood that her mother was ill in bed---- showing her kindness
3). In P.34 Her mother helping her to dress before Alice Walker leaving for the country fair, the beautiful dress made by her sister and in P.36 the narrative to her teacher¡­etc. all these proved that the black women¡¯s inherit merits.
Finally, let¡¯s see the sentences, which portrayed the male in the same family as being brutal and irresponsible.
4). P.34 Para1 ¡°My mother, of course, will not go.¡±
P.35 Her brother shot her right eye blind, but he asked her, Alice Walker to make a lie in order to escape from whipping.
P.35 Para12 ¡°I am in shock. First¡­my father tries to break using lily leaves bound around my head¡­ A week after the accident¡­ see the doctor¡±
P.36 In the last paragraph, her mother was ill in bed and was in too much pain to speak¡­ Finally, a doctor comes.¡±
III. Postscript:
Of course, this essay can be commented on in many aspects besides above two, such as the parallel structure ¡°I remember¡­¡±, ¡°You did not change.¡± And the italic words, what are the roles of these stylistic skills? Do these sentences or any more reflect the implicit racial oppression or exploitation fact? E.g. In the second paragraph narrated her father is a driver for the rich old white woman and the white woman wanted to pay 35 cents for asking her mother to do so many things.
March 09, 2004