Reference no: EM133390113

Beauty and Gender

In Grealy's world of thought, what is "beauty"? What is "ugly"? Why are these concepts so key to her survival as an adult? How might standards of beauty differ for others? Men, queer women, transgender people, agender people, non-binary people, etc.? People of color? People from other cultures? People with bodies that are not typical, etc. Do you think beauty as a category is necessarily oppressive? Why or why not?

Grealy's Death

In 2002, Grealy died of a drug overdose. Does her death and how she died change how you think of her or how you think of the end of the book? Why or why not? Are there any passages or events in Autobiography of a Face that in hindsight seem to foreshadow future problems with addiction? Cite a passage from the text to support your response.

Grealy and Her Father and "My Papa's Waltz"

"My Papa's Waltz"
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

--Theodore Roethke

This is the poem that Grealy describes at the beginning of chapter nine, "World of Unknowing." In the poem, she sees "something beautiful and important, something that vaguely had to do with my own family" (160). What do you think she recognizes in this poem? What might this poem tell us about Grealy's relationship with her father?