Literary appreciation of "the last judgement"
...isplaced priority as his immediate concern should have been that he was on trial to determine whether he goes to heaven or hell. Alice on the other hand drifted from what appears to be one extreme to the other before eventually settling into something of a neutral zone. “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” shows Alice to be shattered at the thought of not being this beautiful girl that she has always been, and being unable to have her own way using her looks. Her confidence is shattered with the injury to her eye and this is best depicted by her statement: “ Now when I stare at people a favorite pastime, up to now they will stare back. Not at the”cute” little girl, but at her scar.” For six years I do not stare at anyone because I do not raise my head.”(Walker 454). This is indirect contrast to her earliest statement where she says:” take me daddy, I’m the prettiest” (Walker452). In the “Last Judgment” Kuglers only conflict appears to be coming to terms with the realization that his judgment after death did not fit the format that he expected it to. Internally he battle with a dysfunctional family and rough upbringing, but even as an adult seemed to believe that his action was justified because of the life that he lived. In his head, he was doing what he had to do and his statement upon death:” but you forgot about that good-for-nothing Teddy I shot in Chicago” (Capek160), indicated that he truly saw some of his crimes as necessities or services to society. He actually seemed to suggest that Teddy’s murder should be viewed as a positive action on his part and thus not count against him- the mind set of a man whose thinking and rationale is incomparable to what we perceive as that of a normal person. His internal conflicts are never resolved because he is already dead and the time for making amends is gone. The only resolution made here is that of wanted to send him to heaven or hell. Alice on the other hand shows some clearer cut internal and external conflicts. She struggles to come to terms with the fact that life as she knows it is no more and she has gone from being the toast of her environment to the girl with the “one eye” (Walker 455). Her battle is to overcome her own demons primarily and secondarily to overcome the new attitude that people have shown towards her since the loss of her eye. She chooses to deal with her physical change by apportioning blame and proclaiming hate. This is evident in her statement as she looks in the mirror where she says:” That night, as I do almost every night, I abuse my eye. I rant and rave at it in front of the mirror. I plead with it to clear up before morning. I tell it I hate and despise it. I do not pray for sight, I pray for beauty” (Walker 455). Alice does not resolve her internal conflict completely because the situation changes. That which has caused her to feel the way she does is removed and she partially goes back to the way she was. However, she has experienced being beautiful and being ugly along with all the admiration and rejection that comes with both states respectively. This has allowed her to grow mentally and psychologically as well as realizing what is important in life. Her eye told a story to both herself and to the world. She unifies the pleasure she feels as a complete young girl with the pleasure she has learneed to feel coming to terms with the loss of an eye. The following excerpt shows this:” That night I dream I am dancing to Stevie Wonder’s ...