Alice Walker's Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self

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In a survey performed by Dove’s campaign for real beauty, “78 percent of women said they don’t feel completely confident in their own beauty” (Miller). Many women do not find beauty in their outward appearance and believe they must be outwardly beautiful to have confidence in themselves. Alice Walker addresses this issue of not accepting and embracing oneself because of one’s outward appearance. In her narrative, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self,” Walker tells the story of her journey from feeling beautiful and valued to ugly and worthless and then back to beautiful and valued. Her story teaches the importance of accepting one's beauty. Alice Walker teaches this through her use of narrative rhetorical pattern, pathos, opposing ideas, …show more content…
Rhetorical questions are open ended at first, but are later answered. Questions such as, “What did I mean?” (36) and “Did I imagine the anguish of never looking up?” (37). These questions allow her to continue telling her story in more introspective detail than she would have been able to if she had not asked these rhetorical questions. Adding this detail makes the end of her story more dramatic and shows her growth. Throughout the story, the reader may direct these rhetorical questions into their own lives. Does the reader ever have a moment when they do not look up? Or does the reader ever question what is meant when they talk about beauty as a desirable characteristic like kindness, or gratitude? These questions cause the audience to look deeper into their own lives, thus promoting Walker’s purpose of teaching the audience about beauty.
In “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self” Alice Walker utilizes several rhetorical devices such as a narrative rhetorical pattern, pathos, compare and contrast, opposing ideas, and rhetorical questions to write an effective story that is able to touch readers. The way Walker uses these techniques allows her to tell her story and teach the reader simultaneously. She is able to teach through her experiences. Walker effectively shows and teaches that beauty is about embracing and loving oneself exactly how he or she
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