Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self

“Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” is an interesting portrayal of one woman’s personal journey of discovery but also purposefully offers lessons for our own personal struggles. Engaging in a forceful manner with a clear intention in the structure of the time progression, she navigates the reader from her experiences as a youth to, in some ways, the successful conclusion of her path to true self-realization and awareness. The effective use of the present voice as she progresses through time further strengthens the relevancy of her message as we the audience are inspired on our own paths of enlightenment.

Her definitions of beauty, albeit immature, are earnest and at the very least well-defined and understood at an early age. The competitive nature of a seemingly simple desire of accompanying her father in his employer’s car results in her need to measure and reason out some of the outward attributes of being the “prettiest” (Walker, 362). An assumption that being pretty as an important factor of her father’s decision-making process is made, and then further confirmed as she takes her seat among the winners. Later when she turns six, during her performance on her school stage, there is a transformation in her definition of beauty as she realizes that beauty can also be something quite intangible, not necessarily seen, but felt.

The world she lives in, previously viewed with optimism and positivity, comes crashing down when she suffers an accident that is not only physically scarring, but also has far-reaching negative effects on her soul and spirit. For six years after her accident, she lives a hidden life, a life apart from her family, her schoolmates, and her troubles. Her grades suffer, her self-image at school is shattered, and her desire to succeed becomes non-existent. She is forced to return to her old school, effectively estranging her from her family and the ensuing illness of her mother further compounds and strengthens this negative self-perception as she attributes her appearance as one of the main reasons for her estrangement. Finally, a fortunate turn of events and a successful medical procedure which removes