Essay on "Comparison and Contrasting"

Essay 4 pages (1418 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

African-American Women Literature: Didion and Walker

One of the seminal themes in African-American Women's Literature surrounds the way that women are treated, not just by men and society, but by themselves. For numerous authors; Toni Morrison, Zora Neal Hurston, Bell Hooks, Maya Angelou, the recurrent theme of internal actualization and self-respect forms more than just an organizational role within their prose and poetry. A contemporary writer, for instance, Bell Hooks, Professor of African-American literature, tends to take the issue of self-actualization head on by vigorously shouting that African-American women need to heal themselves in the struggle against both institutionalized and patriarchal submission. Take the forces, she says, wrestle with them and synthesize them into something you can deal with, then affirm your power (Hooks).

While more covert and subtle within the text, the theme of self-actualization is nonetheless power and present in Joan Didion's "On Self-Respect," and Alice Walker's "Beauty, When the Other Dancer is the Self." Both voices are active, powerful and witty. Both seek to place responsibility for the way the world affects the self with individuals -- there are no victims in either piece, even though the reader suspects many try for that role. Indeed, the quality and movement towards the experience of self-actualization is likely more important to both writers than the normative place of the individual right now. It is not how evolved one is at the moment, it is a clear message that everyone must be evolving -- and actively!

Walker, best known for the Color Purple, does a masterful job in juxtaposing the point-of-view of a child and adult in "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self." The story is quite simple, on the surface. It is a bright summer day in 1947. Alice's father has a serious predicament: he must decide which of his eight children will accompany him to the county fair. He is a sly and witty man, and the very proud driver of Miss Mey, a wealthy older woman who owns their house and, it appears, believes she owns everyone in town as well. Surprisingly enough, it seems Daddy takes more than one, but only the lucky ones, and sure as can be for the mind of a two-year-old, Alice's mind is filled with wondrous things. Later, in 1950, Alice is dressed in a handmade dress for Easter, and very proud of how beautiful it is while she recites an Easter poem. All the optimism is crushed when, two years later Alice has a playtime accident and is blinded in one eye. Blinking back and forth in time, Alice deals with her injury and the effect it had on her, and what she thought, on her family.

As a child, Alice looks outward for her definition of beauty and actualization; she is beautiful when her Daddy takes her to the Fair (her "Sunday best," after all), she is beautiful in a glorious green dress, and she is beautiful when she knows other people are commenting about her. As an adolescent, Alice's focus is on what her peer group thinks is beautiful -- and more actualization comes her way when the tiny "glob of white" is removed from her injured eye. As an adult, Alice realizes, at least most of the time, that beauty comes from within -- that external factors matter not if the internal is at peace. In a simple, but gleaning manner, Alice's worries evaporate when her own child discovers that here Mommy's eyes is different; "Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?"

Forming a more brutal account of self-esteem, Joan Didion, in the essay, "Self-Respect," is earnest and direct that "innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself." The story, however, is also simple in nature -- the narrator has not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and, at the moment, finds this to be tragic. However, when she looks deep within herself, she realizes two important things: 1) "Self-deception remains the most difficult deception," and 2) "Self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others." The narrator knows intuitively that she did not work very hard in relation to the sorority membership, but was caught up in what Didion calls the Wuthering Heights drama… READ MORE

How to Reference "Comparison and Contrasting" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

English Literature Compare and Contrast Richard Connell Essay

English Literature

Compare and Contrast Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" with DH Thesis

Both Connell and Lawrence's stories involve masculine characters; although the two would appear on the surface… read more

Essay 3 pages (1096 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Philosophy / Logic / Reason

---

Lottery and Games Comparing and Contrasting Thesis

Lottery and Games

Comparing and Contrasting "The Lottery" with the Hunger Games

While both Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' the Hunger Games… read more

Thesis 4 pages (1334 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Comparing and Contrasting of Environmental Policies Term Paper

Environmental Policies

Comparing and Contrasting Waste Reduction and Recycling Policies at Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Company

Universal Studios

Universal Studios has worked closely with the California Solid Waste… read more

Term Paper 1 pages (375 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA Topic: Environment / Conservation / Ecology

---

Compare and Contrast the Baroque Period to the Classical Term Paper

Classical Baroque

Comparing and Contrasting Baroque and Classical Music

Do you like Classical music?" If you are asked this question, colloquially, usually the speaker means: do you like to listen… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1709 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Genesis Comparing and Contrasting Genesis 12 Essay

Genesis

Comparing and Contrasting Genesis 12 and Genesis 20

One of the most taboo topics, even in our own society, is the question of what constitutes incest. In Genesis, this… read more

Essay 5 pages (1818 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA Topic: Religion / God / Theology

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>