This Study Guide consists of approximately 29 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Autobiography of a Face. While her mother praises her “for being so good,” Lucy’s repeated efforts to deny her need to engage with her emotions, and release her pain and fear through crying, leave her feeling “absolutely nothing” and “only a void” (137). Autobiography of a Face - Chapters 3 and 4, The Tao of Laugh-In and Fear Itself Summary & Analysis. Time after time, she fails to stop herself from crying before, near the end of her two and half years of treatment, she finally stops weeping during chemotherapy. At nine years of age, Lucy loses half her jaw to Ewing's sarcoma. It describes the psychological, social, and cultural implications of an ailment. It is a story of courage and resilience in the face of adversity. One must never, under any circumstances, show fear and, prime directive above all, one must never, ever cry” (29-30). Written by Ratna Bajpai Grealy's memoir is a sensitive account of the relationship between physical appearance and self-esteem. She develops this into the most important component of her adopted code of conduct, that “ne had to be good.
Symbolically, this is highlighted by her attempts to not cry, with her again focusing on the time when she was “courageous and didn’t cry and thus was good” (21). Lucy accepts this and makes every effort to suppress her emotions when she is around her mother, remembering her “first visit to the emergency room” where she had “been praised as good for being brave” which she took as “a formula for gaining acceptance” (30). Unable to truly help her daughter, Lucy’s mother attempts to do so by telling her to be brave and encouraging her not to show pain or fear about her illness and medical treatment.
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