Mirrors by Lucy Grealy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mirrors by Lucy Grealy - Essay Example While she was 9 years, Grealy suffered jaw cancer therefore forcing a part of her right side jaw to be removed. She underwent 30 surgeries as a way of reconstructing her face and so in her story mirror, she talks about the perceptions and obsessions people have of beauty which demonstrates how the society at large is. She had the belief that if the surgeries would eventually fully reconstruct her face, she could be happy as she would be a normal person just like the rest of the world. In an article written by Michelle Wittle inside the mind of a writer she talks about Grealy’s article. Wittle talks positively about the manner in which Grealy’s article is talking about the challenges people go though in their day to day life as a result of their self image. She puts emphasis on the way people define the lives they live in terms of what they see in the mirror. Wittle is proud of the way Grealy at last is able to face her worst fears and looks in the mirror seeing positive things. â€Å"I am a big victim of this theory† (Wittle, 2010). Wittle can relate to Grealy’s story as she herself has let other people define her according to her looks; or how she should live her life just because they say so. She therefore does not condemn Grealy because of the fears she faced with her self image. She compares herself to Grealy by saying that she herself has learnt of how to soul-search herself and live her life instead of living the way others want to â€Å"Like Grealy, I am learning to look at myself on the inside† (Wittle 2010).