Topic > Rhetorical Analysis of Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self

In the story, Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self, is written by Alice Walker and talks about how someone's perception of something is always influenced by experiences. Alice talks about her perception of beauty and how an eye injury changed her perception of beauty early in her life. Her aim is to show her perspective on inner beauty and demonstrate that it can be different from others. Throughout the story, she uses pathos, logos, and ethics to keep the reader hooked into her discussion of beauty while using her early life experiences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Early in her life, Alice described herself as a very smart, pretty, and confident girl and everything changed when she was shot out in the eye with a BB gun bullet. Throughout the story, you can see how her confidence has transformed from Alice to being a very confident person and changes into her barely having any self-confidence towards her childhood. At first she would describe herself as the prettiest and the reader could also see her confidence when she talks about having to give her Easter speech and getting compliments on how pretty she is. Then the author explains how everything changed when she was hit in the eye by a BB gun bullet. Alice talks about how her parents took her to the doctors just a week later and her doctor says, “The eyes are sympathetic,” she says. “If one is blind, the other will probably be blind too.” This quote shows logos because the doctor was referring to medical evidence that interpreted what might have happened if not for his luck. After the accident, she was hit with a lot of bullying and questions about her eye and this knocked her confidence down and even made her change schools a couple of times. When Alice was 12, she says she abused herself, saying, “I rant and rave in front of the mirror. Please clarify before morning. I tell him I hate and despise him. (Walker). This quote shows pathos because it shows how dissatisfied she was with herself and her appearance, which makes the audience sympathize with her. When she indirectly calls herself ugly by saying, “I don't pray for sight. I pray for beauty." (Walker) This is another use of pathos and makes the audience sympathize with her. When she was 14, she went to the hospital because they removed a "globe" from her injured eye and removed all the nasty white stuff. After that she thought she had become a completely new person and now she raises her head and says, "I have raised my head, the classwork comes out of my lips as flawlessly as the Easter speeches did, and I leave high school as a valedictorian." , the most popular, and queen, who hardly believes my luck” (Walker). This quote shows the ethics by discussing the author's brilliance, validity, and good qualities throughout the story a little older and has an interview with a journalist, and is still very aware of what he is doing eye and worries about not getting enough sleep and having a tired eye shows that he is still very uncomfortable about it to her appearance even years after the accident. When Alice is 27, she worries whether her daughter will be embarrassed because her mother's eyes are different from others. Alice talks about how “Since birth, I have been worried about her discovery that her mother's eyes are different from those of other people” (Walker). This quote shows ethics because Walker explains that he still has opinions about beauty standards but he still has.