Examples Of Ugliness In Lucy Grealy's Autobiography Of A Face

What is ugliness? Lucy Grealy, author of The Autobiography of a Face, has her own idea of what it is. Throughout the memoir, she has been through several incidents, where she felt alienated from society, simply because she is“ugly”. However, this “ugliness” she repeatedly speaks about is not a person’s physical features. Instead, she believes that being physically ugly may not necessarily make a person feel “ugly” -- what makes a person feel truly “ugly” is when he is not accepted by others, or in some cases, alienated from society. Lucy Grealy is a victim of social alienation. Whenever she goes to school, she is often bullied. Her classmates, particularly the boys, always taunt her and make fun of her deformed face, repeating countless times …show more content…
It is for this reason that during graduate school, she sees sex as her salvation -- she has several sexual affairs, each time with the hope of proving she is not unwanted. Deeply affected by the alienation from the society, she is led to believe that she is unloved and unlovable. She cannot interact properly and bring herself to trust others completely, let alone live a content, fulfilled life. This is mostly because of her fear of being rejected or isolated, which she later finds out to be what feeling “ugly” felt like. “When I tried to imagine being beautiful, I could only imagine living without the perpetual fear of being alone, without the great burden of isolation, which is what feeling ugly felt like. (p.177)” From her point of view, feeling “ugly” is, in fact, leading a life where she is alienated from society. She considers this as the tragedy of her life, rather than the actual cancer itself, and is much more worried of being alone than being physically ugly. This suggests that victims of social alienation may not necessarily be physically ugly, but they do feel “ugly” since they are not