similarities to others. As children we chant, “copy cat, copy cat!” or “He’s copying me!” at the

first guy attempting to be like the others. We begin our search for the “Inner Ring” that C.S.

Lewis wrote about. Unknowingly as small children we learn that we must fit in with the crowd

and we bring this desire with us to adulthood. The only exception to this is the few courageous

people who choose to follow their own moralities and to love themselves as they are. These

people are somehow blessed with knowledge that it takes the rest of the world a good portion of

In “Beauty” by Alice Walker we meet a young girl who is like most young girls and she

loves the attention that she gets from being “just the cutest little thing.” This young girl is very

much just a normal girl with a normal life ahead of her until one day her world changes.

had changed and none of them could say so. It takes her most of her life to learn that she never

really changed and she was always herself. Her thoughts on being like the others as “normal”

that I got in or tried to get in. Now I don’t pretend to be ahead of the game or to have excluded

that we say with no true joy because these things are just that “things.” Should we buy something

second in time that she changed? This girl is cast out from any “ring” in society that she once

had given her an insecurity about herself that she overcame.

Some topics in this essay:
Alice Walker, CS Lewis, Yes America, Choice I’m, I’m America, Annie Dillard, distinctly remember, girl normal,