The Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy is the autobiography of a young girl who transforms her misfortune into an encouraging, engaging and captivating story. At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced cruel taunts from her classmates. She spent the next twenty years being treated differently because she “looked different” from the rest of the world. Yet, despite all the difficulties in his life, Grealy overcame childhood cancer, permanent disfigurement and, ultimately, that deep, bottomless sorrow called ugliness; she learned to embrace her inner self and her true beauty. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayLucy Grealy was born in Ireland. Her family consisted of her parents, her two older brothers, an older sister, a twin sister, and Lucy herself. Grealy's family had immigrated to America and Lucy's twin sister Sarah and Lucy were four years old. Lucy's life was perfectly normal until a simple accident in fourth grade, when the right side of her jaw collided with Joni Friedman's head in physical education. Because of this pure accident, Lucy Grealy's life completely changed. At the age of nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma, for which the reasonable chance of survival was five per cent. Thanks to radical surgery involving the removal of a third of his jaw and years of radiotherapy. and chemotherapy, Lucy Grealy recovered from her illness, despite her slim chances of survival. However, the physical pain she endured proved much easier to bear than her feelings of disfigurement and isolation from other children. At high school, Lucy's worst fears came true. Every day, a group of boys teased her about her appearance. Often, after her daily encounter with them, she ended up hating herself. Lucy became convinced that only facial reconstruction and a restored appearance would make life bearable. When Lucy looked in the mirror after the first reconstructive surgery, a large strip of foreign skin pushed her back. She looked forward to the next operation, the one she thought would fix this one. Still, she knew better than to expect perfection. After repeated reabsorptions of skin and bone grafts, Lucy Grealy reflected: “How could I pass up the possibility that this could work, that I could finally fix my face, fix my life, my soul? And many times she promised herself: “When my face is repaired, then I will begin to live.” During her senior year of high school, Lucy applied and was accepted to Sarah Lawrence College with a generous scholarship. After enrolling in a poetry class, reading and writing poetry brought together everything that had ever been important to Lucy. She believed that language itself, words and images, could be transformed into containers for the truths and beauty she had long dreamed of. Finally, after 18 years and almost 30 operations, Lucy succeeded. When she was congratulated on her new face, Lucy hesitated to examine it in the mirror. "Without another operation to pin all my hopes on," she said, "I was completely alone. And now something in me started to fail me." Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayFor Lucy,..