Lucy Grealy
Steven Hubbard
Mrs. Lapp
English 12 DE
1 April 2014
Reflection Paper
The author of the book Autobiography of a Face was written by Lucy Grealy which also was the main character in the story. Lucy Grealy is a girl who was diagnosed with cancer at age nine. She had Ewing’s Sarcoma which is cancer in the jaw. Her jaw was deformed from all the surgeries. She always distanced herself from people because she thought she was ugly and ashamed of her face. She had to go through school with people looking at her, and jobs where she had to deal with kids who always would ask their mothers what’s wrong with her face. Lucy’s characteristics are shown by her words she says in the story; she was a very self-conscious person, always thinking about what people thought of her. Lucy was a strong going through chemo because of how tough it was, she was also a very lonely person because she had no friends and got picked on. The first trait the author helps describes is how Lucy is self-conscious and struggles with how she thinks the world looks at her, and she feels the need to hide her face. “Half my jaw was missing, which gave my face a strange triangular shape, accentuated by the fact that I was unable to keep my mouth completely closed. When I first started doing pony parties, my hair was still short and wispy, still growing in from the chemo. But as it grew I made things worse by continuously bowing my head and hiding behind the curtain of hair, furtively peering out at the world like some nervous actor” This just shows that she was concerned on how she looked. Also one other example is “I was my face, I was ugliness – though sometimes unbearable, also offered a possible point of escape. It became the launching pad from which to lift off; the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life” (7). The Author immediately makes the reader know that she feels ugly and that is why her life is messed up. Lucy’s character was
Mrs. Lapp
English 12 DE
1 April 2014
Reflection Paper
The author of the book Autobiography of a Face was written by Lucy Grealy which also was the main character in the story. Lucy Grealy is a girl who was diagnosed with cancer at age nine. She had Ewing’s Sarcoma which is cancer in the jaw. Her jaw was deformed from all the surgeries. She always distanced herself from people because she thought she was ugly and ashamed of her face. She had to go through school with people looking at her, and jobs where she had to deal with kids who always would ask their mothers what’s wrong with her face. Lucy’s characteristics are shown by her words she says in the story; she was a very self-conscious person, always thinking about what people thought of her. Lucy was a strong going through chemo because of how tough it was, she was also a very lonely person because she had no friends and got picked on. The first trait the author helps describes is how Lucy is self-conscious and struggles with how she thinks the world looks at her, and she feels the need to hide her face. “Half my jaw was missing, which gave my face a strange triangular shape, accentuated by the fact that I was unable to keep my mouth completely closed. When I first started doing pony parties, my hair was still short and wispy, still growing in from the chemo. But as it grew I made things worse by continuously bowing my head and hiding behind the curtain of hair, furtively peering out at the world like some nervous actor” This just shows that she was concerned on how she looked. Also one other example is “I was my face, I was ugliness – though sometimes unbearable, also offered a possible point of escape. It became the launching pad from which to lift off; the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life” (7). The Author immediately makes the reader know that she feels ugly and that is why her life is messed up. Lucy’s character was