Alice Walker

I felt that the piece by Alice Walker was very true to life. The style in which it is written is one that I have never seen before, but it actually made the reading more interesting. Breaking pieces down by age or a certain experience makes it easier to analyze and feel the actual emotions that someone of a specific age or situation would be feeling. In terms of the actual content, it is true that "all children are cruel about physical differences....and that they don't always mean to be is another matter" (Walker 309). As a child, as shown through this piece of writing, it was always important for Walker to look similar to the other children, as well as very cute. The accident that she goes through (since it destroys the way that she previously looked) was extremely traumatic to her, but I feel that worse things could have happened and she was very lucky that her other eye still functioned properly. This story was extremely effective for me personally because I know many people who have suffered through self-image issues and difficulties as I have grown up, whether it is one aspect of how they look or many things all at once. It really is upsetting how much pressure our culture places on outer beauty, and unfortunate for those people who may not be so pretty to some, but are gorgeous to those who get the chance to know them andtheir personalities. It is obvious that Walker cleary cared more about her beauty than actually being able to see, which is very vain of her. However, the best part of the story in my opinion was the ending, when Walker realized that her eye was not ugly and horrible, but fascinating. Because her daughter pointed this out and said that she had "a world in her eye", her life and the way she looked at herself in the mirror completely changed. This made me realize that if just one person believes in you in a positive and deep way and significantly helps to relieve your pain, that is truly all that matters.