Struggling with the Relationship between Truth and Beauty - Essay Example

Her physical deformity took a toll on her happiness. She lacked self-esteem because of her disfigured face.  Grealy blamed all her problems on her deformed face. She resorted to surgeries in her desire to be acceptable and normal. She believed that once her face was “fixed” she could live normally and eventually find true happiness. Later on, when she underwent a successful surgery that made her face acceptable, she still did not feel attractive and happy.

Grealy’s realization about truth and beauty can be seen in her statement, “As a child, I had expected my liberation to come from getting a new face to put on, but now I saw it came from shedding something, shedding my image”. At the end of the book Grealy realizes that true beauty is not the physical appearance that people see but rather, true beauty lies within. It is more of accepting oneself, despite one’s appearance. She recognized the fact that physical beauty will not bring happiness or love. She finally came to terms with her appearance. Grealy’s fear stems not from being ugly but from being alone and isolated without anybody loving her.