John Covington Covington 1
7/9/12
English 112
General Public Response to Lucy Grealy’s “Masks”

“What on earth is that? That is the ugliest girl I have ever seen.” Proclaimed the boisterous bully from across the junior high lunch table in what would be just another attack on the appearance of Lucy Grealy. Lucy Grealy was diagnosed at a young age with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The disease took most of her jaw and after many chemotherapy treatments and reconstructive operations she was left with a disfigured appearance. Lucy’s identity was molded by the way she was treated in society. From the time she began grade school she was teased and tormented for being different. Her story is a prime example of how “normal” people alienate anything that doesn’t fit into their materialistic expectations causing a sense of shameful separation and negative emotions to be ascribed toward ones identity. What does it mean to be “normal” in today’s society? Does it mean giving up your ideals or birth rights to stake a claim or hold a position that you deem fitting? Does it mean having to live up to all of the physical and mental qualities that we as Americans value? Society can be a cruel and tempestuous force sometimes, causing us to do things we wouldn’t normally consider just to fit in. This was certainly the case for Firoozeh Dumas when she wrote “After three months of rejections, I added “Julie” to my resume. Call it coincidence, but the job offers started coming in” (Latterell 86). Having to change her name to be considered for a job is just another example of the conformities brought down by society. For Lucy Grealy being “normal” was something that she could never achieve. “Normal” Covington 2 would mean looking like everyone else around her, being able to enjoy her childhood the same as everyone around her. Not having to feel the shame and guilt that went along with bearing the effects of such a terrible disease, which she called, “The great tragedy of my life” (Latterell 66). Her “normal” was chemotherapy treatments followed by ridicule from classmates, leading her toward a life of macabre, a lonely atmosphere painted with an overly critical view of everything around her.
When I think of identity, I think of birth, ascription, and personal choice as being the three main influences. Each one definitely relates to the other in some sense, but they can also be independently significant. In Lucy’s case, ascription was definitely the main factor. Meaning her identity was ultimately decided by how others around her acted toward her. Of course she was born with cancer and it was her personal choice to let the people around her make her feel that way, but wouldn’t we all? If we were constantly treated like a monster, unfit for society, judged immediately by how we appeared, it would definitely make us feel that way. Even Lucy’s mother recognized the pain when she bought her turtlenecks in the summer, she said “If you wear something that comes up around your neck, it makes the scar less visible” (Latterell 68). Imagine the impact that would have on you, especially when you were a child.
Ascription can be the most impactful force when forming ones identity or it can be the least influential. But, whatever the impact it seems to be up to how much the individual lets the opinion of others affect them that ultimately means the most. For Queen Latifah, it seems no one can ascribe to her anything that she doesn’t see fit. She handles harsh words exactly the opposite of Lucy Grealy and Firoozeh Dumas saying “I learned at an early age that nobody has the right to call me out of my name” (Latterell 35). Some people, however, don’t have a tough mentality the way Latifah does. Most people subject themselves to the conformities they receive from others and in today’s society, especially in Covington 3 childhood; the people that surround us are generally not that nice. I can remember myself growing up, it was tough. I was the victim and the culprit in many insolent confrontations; and when I think back, they were really about nothing, simply stubborn adolescence possibly rooted with some unresolved psychological mishap. However, that is the kind of behavior that unfortunately leads to the shaping and molding of the identity of those around us.
On the other hand, some people would say that personal choice has more to do with deciding ones identity than ascription. Arguing that no matter what people label you as, you as the individual always have the choice to let it affect you or not. This, I think, is only true to a certain degree. For instance, in Lucy Grealy’s case, the only choices she really had were to embrace the fact that she was going to be disfigured or to act like she didn’t realize she was. The world around her certainly made it clear everywhere she went that they knew it was, and they weren’t going to accept it. She wrote, “I thought I simply had to except the fact that I was ugly. And that to feel despair about it as simply wrong” (Latterel 70). So her personal choice was to embrace the horrible results of the dreadful disease, coming to terms with it in her own way, not the way everyone around her did.
The traits we are born with also have a role in who we are, some would even argue that they are the main role in shaping identity. In Lucy’s case, she was definitely born with the disease that changed her, but was that more definitive to her personality than how people ascribed her with ugliness and to how she associated herself with ugliness? What we are born with can only affect us as much as we let it. For instance, if we are born blind, we can overcome it like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder did. If we are born poor, we can overcome it like Jim Carrey and Oprah Winfrey. What we are born with is regulated by our personal choices of how we handle it and the decisions we make to change it. For Gloria Anzaldua , birth definitely had an impact on her personality, but overall personal choice was dominant. Covington 4
She chose to acknowledge every influence of her language, she wrote “I will have my voice, Indian, Spanish, white” (Latterel 82). For her to choose to keep the heritage of all the linguistic backgrounds she was brought up with demonstrates her choice to have those ethnicities as a part of her identity.
For the most part, Identity is shaped by birth, ascription, and choice, but to say which one influences us the most depends on the person we are talking about. Everyone is different. For Lucy Grealy, I think ascription was the most influential because the idea that she was ugly and not “normal” was instilled into her mind by almost everyone around her. Having that kind of psychological conditioning into our minds at a young age can yield unfavorable results. In her case, it taught her to view herself just as everyone else did, ugly and unfit for a “normal” existence. Thus, her personal choice was almost taken away in a sense, because it was basically predetermined before she really had a chance to think about it. In contrast, people like Queen Latifah and Gloria Anzaldua never let the world around them have that much of an impact on who they were. Of course they didn’t suffer from a horrible, deadly, cancerous disease, but they did have their own oppressions to battle. For them, personal choice seemed to make up the better part of their identity. So, who are we? What determines our identity? What is “normal” and who, if any of us are “normal”? Although Lucy Grealy may have never thought she was ”normal”, she would be surprised to find out that neither do a lot of other people.

Covington 5

Works Cited Latterell, Catherine G. et. al. ReMix: Reading + Composing Culture. Boston, MA 2010.