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Autobiography of a Face

In Autobiography of a Face, we are provided with the story of Lucy GrealyÆs first-hand recollection of her childhood and adult experiences with a facially disfiguring cancer called ôEwingÆs sarcoma.ö Grealy learns she has cancer at the age of nine. She will spend the next twenty years being treated for cancer, including surgical removal of nearly half her jaw, intensive chemotherapy treatments, and more than two dozen cosmetic surgeries. GrealyÆs account of her ordeal takes us through her home, school, and hospital experiences as she tries to recuperate from a form of cancer with a 5% survival rate. Ironically, even though the hospital represents numerous, painful operations and procedures, it becomes LucyÆs greatest refuge against a superficial worldÆs judgment of her disfigured appearance.

GrealyÆs home life becomes unstable as her ordeal in dealing with her serious illness plays a part in disrupting family dynamics. Lucy not only blames herself for her illnessÆ impact on her family, but when her sisters begin treating her differently she knows her illness distances her from her normal siblings. When she realizes they are treating her politely, she explains, ôSuddenly I understood the term visiting. I was in one place, they were in another, and they were only pausingö (Grealy 1995). LucyÆs father feels uncomfortable when he visits the hospital and does so seldom.

GrealyÆs life at school is intolerable as well. Her cancer does not represent the most painful aspect of her existence. It is the disfiguring mandibulectomy and more than two years chemotherapy that cause her the greatest pain in social environments like school. She is called a ômonsterö by her classmates and often suffers greater pain from the cruelties of others than that caused by her considerable illness. As Grealy writes, ôIt was the pain from that, from feeling ugly that I viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact I had cance...

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Autobiography of a Face. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 16:58, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1711242.html