Grealy "Mirrorings"

The story “Mirrorings” chronicles the journey of Lucy Grealy as a young person with a facial disfigure. The story is at once fascinating and heart wrenching to read, specifically of the methods that a young girl, then a young woman, employed to cope with the situation she was in. Throughout the piece, Grealy hints at the misconceived notions she clung to during different parts of her journey which probably contributed to her suffering.

“Mirrorings” is presented in nine sections. Most of these are about three paragraphs long. Although the story is not told in a strict chronological pattern, there is a sense of continuity throughout. Each of the sections develops a particular idea that is important to the story.

In the third chunk of the story, Grealy discusses her life when the chemotherapy ended and she first experienced a question of identity. She relates how Halloween was a favorite time of year for her because she could hide behind a mask without anyone's questioning it. Although Grealy does not state it directly, this anecdote of her childhood brings up the idea that of how her appearances related to her identity.  This concept is built on throughout the story. Grealy implicitly asks the readers how much they think their face represents their self. The person that Grealy became, when she based it off of her features and what others thought of those, was dark and empty and hopeless.

The author further expands on this idea in the eighth section, when the last of her operations was finally completed. The image she saw in the mirror didn’t seem to match up with the person she thought that she was. In the end of this section Grealy considers how she relates the deeper concept of self to the external appearance, and how they cannot be completely severed, no matter how “deep” the person. In the conclusion of the story, we find that she develops a healthier sense of self when she chooses to define herself in her own way, with or without the mirror. 

Grealy’s story impacts its readers with the details of her life and the horror that she endured for so long. The piece, however, communicates to its readers on a deeper level than just through the surface story.  She uses her own life to give insight to a topic that exists independent of it. The reader can reflect on the idea of their own self-identity by looking through the eyes of Lucy Grealy.