The Beauty in Succeeding: A Review of Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy and The Art of War by Sun Tzu

         A reticent girl, who has noticeably beautiful eyes (and an even more noticeably deformed jaw), you’ve never seen before comes and sits beside you and your friends at lunch, trying to look nonchalant, even though she is shaking with trepidation. You are wondering why she came to sit with you, when you see them: a pack of recalcitrant teenage boys. “I bet David wants to go kiss her, don’t you David?” “Yeah, right, then I’ll go kiss your mother’s crusty feet.” “How’ll you know which is which?” They laugh and walk away, not caring about the damage done. The little girl is sitting there silently, like she never heard, but you can see the tears welling up in her eyes. You sit there shell-shocked. Autobiography of a Face is the story of Lucy Grealy, a woman living with a disfigured face caused by Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The story describes her journey in overcoming her struggles with society and herself. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy teaches readers that in order to be successful you must acknowledge your problem and get the most out of it. The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a book about war strategies. However, they can really be applied to everyday problems. There are cases in Autobiography of a Face where Lucy could have used some of Sun Tzu’s tactics to overcome her obstacles.

            My definition of success is what you experience after you overcome an obstacle. I have many goals in life; I want to graduate high school and college with honors. I want to then become a teacher and have a family. However, there are obstacles in achieving these goals. Graduating college is going to require a lot of money and dedication. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu concludes that, “many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat” (Tzu 1). This makes me want to make an intricate plan that will get me to accomplish my goals. The book Autobiography of a Face tells us to make the best out of a situation. Since I cannot change the cost of school, I will just have to find a way to pay for it.

            Lucy Grealy writes Autobiography of a Face in chronological order. The prologue is set in her teen years. It shows us how she is being treated because of her face; it also gives us insight on what the book is going to be like. However, once you hit the first chapter, the real story begins, starting with the first incident with her jaw.  All of the chapters have names that seem like they have no significance. Nevertheless, at the end of each chapter, you can see why Lucy picked the names for each chapter. The writing is very powerful. It really makes you think. Lucy Grealy asks a lot of questions in her writing to get a point across. An example of this is shown after Lucy received a bone graph to fix her jaw. She was really looking forward to seeing herself in a mirror. However, she wasn’t quite satisfied saying, “Wasn’t my fear just supposed to fall away, wasn’t life supposed to work now? Where was all that relief and freedom that I thought came with beauty?” (Grealy 204). At points in the text, it got pretty repetitive. However, I really appreciated her points of understanding in the book. I also loved the way she incorporated her heartbreaking anecdotes related to how people treated her because of her face. They really opened my eyes to how myopic and cruel some people can be. Throughout the book, Lucy keeps a very formal yet personal language. She uses mother and father when she talks about her parents; never mommy or daddy. She does a great job of recreating scenes from her childhood. You can feel the pain through the pages. The Art of War is completely different. It is built like a guide. There is no kind of order, just facts. It is very straight forward and has no emotional connotation at all.

            Reading Autobiography introduced me to Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare and very serious form of cancer. Lucy Grealy was lucky; there is only a 5 percent survival rate for this disease. In reading The Art of War, I learned many different ways to overcome a problem.

            I would not recommend The Art of War to others. It is pretty complex and you have to be the kind to see obstacles as mini-battles to appreciate Sun Tzu’s work. On the other hand, I would definitely recommend Autobiography of a Face to anybody. It is a great text that is the paragon of human nature on both the victim’s side and the offender’s. Reading this book leaves you with either a new outlook or more cautious outlook on life and how to treat others. That way, the next time a girl is teased at your lunch table, you will be able to stand up for her; you will be able to show her that somebody cares.