perspective of a hardship

It was a pleasure reading Alice Walkers short narrative. in reading it right after the reading by Lucy Grealy, i feel as if i gained more of an understanding of what life is like when living with a condition or physical ailment. Walkers, through the course of Beauty, learns to accept and even to love that which sets her apart from other people. She has the motivation and perspective to let her cataract propel her into new levels of comprehending the world. In my opinion, she and Grealy went through the same stages of progression in their disabilities: they both experienced everything from denial, isolation, and hopelessness, to a later acceptance. In Walkers writing the perspective seemed to be written in more of a hindsight, while Grealy wrote hers by actually reliving the trauma and hardships all over again. Either way, the fact that they could share their stories and the ways that they kept themselves alive and motivated through their (rather extreme) difficulties is an inspiration for me (as well as others, Im sure) to see life in a clearer manner.