Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self by Alice Walker - Article Example

Audience Analysis The rhetoric analysis of Alice Walker’s Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self is meant for young women who might be facing or a likely to have similar experiences with the author. In particular, the analysis is targeted on women aged below 35 years, who are still in the process of developing personal identity and are likely to be affected by the perception of their physical beauty. Most young women who are above sixteen have an understanding of the fact that loving oneself and not base on physically looks, but should be based on consideration of many other aspects, including inner beauty. However, younger women may need further guidance in order to understand so. Also, some of the women who are above sixteen years may require support in the process of renegotiating the identity they developed during childhood. Although some young women may feel that the analysis does not concern them since they have not encountered the experiences described in the text, others are likely to find it quite useful since it points out and gives an elaboration to specific messages that the author intended to pass. I am not a young woman and have not encountered similar experiences as Walker. However, I have taken time to read the story and felt that I have a mandate to pass the messages in it in more simplified form to women who are likely to encounter similar experiences to those that were experienced by Walker. Rhetorical Analysis Walker uses various linguistic and rhetorical elements in her story that is titled Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self. As Fawcett (448) explains, linguistic and rhetorical devices are necessary since they act as a powerful force that makes a story more appealing to the targeted audience. Using the devices, an author of a story can stress on certain themes or particular subjects that are intended to be passed to the targeted audience. Thus, the use of linguistic and rhetorical devices enables Walker pass certain themes more effectively and makes her autobiography story appealing to the targeted audience. One of the key linguistic elements that make Walkers story appealing to the audience is language. From the language that Walker uses, it is apparent that she mainly addresses her story to young women who are developing self-identity (Fawcett 442). In the beginning, she describes how she perceived beauty and how she worked hard to use her beauty to impress people that she interacts. In most societies, young girls are taught that they are beautiful because they have impressive physical looks. Consequently, a girl who does not have normal physical looks feels as if she is not beautiful, which leaders to an adverse perception of self. Just as Walker experienced, a woman who believes that she has lost beauty by having an injury that affects her physical look is likely to lose her sense of self-worth. The situation becomes worse if she is stigmatized or tortured. Walker uses sympathetic language that expresses how young women who have lost sense of self-worth as a result of a losing ordinary physical look feel. For instance, she explains that she experienced anguish because of not looking up and how she frequently abused her eye (Fawcett 442). Lastly, Walker uses encouraging language to that enables the audience learn the importance of loving ‘self through focusing on the inner beauty and not only relying on physical looks to build self-identity. Further, Walker uses the first-person narrative language that makes her story appealing to the reader (Fawcett 442). Walker gives the story from her viewpoint through describing her experiences directly. She manages to attract the attention of the reader since she expresses her feelings, thoughts and opinions towards her experiences. In doing so, she lets the reader have a first-hand account of how injury can affect emotions of an individual and ultimately contribute to the formation of a persons identity (Fawcett 442). In addition, Walker manages to express to the reader how an individual can renegotiate his or her identity and to communicate the importance of loving ‘self, irrespective of having a physical injury. Further, the credibility of Walker as the author of the story is high. One of the factors that contribute to the high credibility is that she gives a background history of her life, which matches the story that she gives. In her background history, she explains that she lost one of her eyes at the age of eight years when one of his brothers shot her with a BB gun (Fawcett 441). Thus, her story reflects her real experience. The credibility of Walker as the author is also enhanced using narrative language. In addition, the credibility of Walker is enhanced by the fact that she is a college graduate, and she has written many other books and received awards. For instance, her writing works earned her Rosenthal Award and Lillian Smith Award (Fawcett 441). In addition, Walker makes use of hyperbole to express how she perceived and valued physical beauty when she was young. For instance, she reveals that she wore a dress that had "tiny hot-pink roses" (Fawcett 443). In addition, she expresses the beauty of the shoes she wore by stating that they were “biscuit-polished” (Fawcett 443). The sense of having physical beauty gave her confidence to give a speech to groups of people. When they appreciated, Walker believed that her physical beauty impressed them, rather than how well she gave the speech. She expresses how she people in the church stopped "rustling" and held their breath in admiration of her dress and “sassiness” (Fawcett 443). Using such expressions, Walker enables the reader understand the fun that she had because of feeling that she was physically beautiful. In doing so, she gives a reflection of how young girls can attach too much importance to physical beauty, yet they have a shallow perception of beauty. Walker uses repetition to express the fact that she did not lose her beauty despite getting an injury in one of her eyes that altered her regular physical look. She repeatedly says, ""You did not change," they say" (Fawcett 446). She makes the repetition to express how other people perceived her. Despite her feeling that she had lost her beauty after losing one of her eyes, other people did not see any change in her beauty. In using the repetition, therefore, Walker stresses that an individual’s beauty is not about how she or he looks physically. Rather, there is more to beauty than just simply focusing on physical looks. In addition, Walker uses metaphor in various ways in her story. When her daughter looked into her eyes, she stated that Walker had a ‘world’ inside to describe the bruise crater that she had (Fawcett 448). The expression of her daughter made Walker gain a different perception of the bruise crater; she started loving it. In the end, Walker uses a metaphor that reflects the meaning of the title of the story. She starts loving herself and starts dancing how she used to dance in the past before she lost her eye. She dances alone but imagines that she is she is dancing with herself in the past. In doing so, she manages to love herself fully. The metaphor makes the reader imagine how Walker managed to love herself through considering her overall beauty presently and in the past. In short, the use of linguistic and rhetoric elements enhance the ability of Walker to pass messages and to the targeted audience, especially young women who are likely to encounter similar experiences to her own. Works Cited Fawcett, Susan. Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings, Compact Edition. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print Read More