Beauty's totality, therefore, is much more than qualities that one can see or perceive with the senses. Yet perhaps the most enduring aspect of beauty and its true value to the world and beyond lies in its capacity to foster love. Quite simply, beauty is loved, and love, at the same time, is certainly beautiful. Walker comes to this conclusion at the end of her essay, in which her low esteem for herself regarding her personal appearance due to her eye accident is instantaneously overcome by a single statement from her daughter. That statement in and of itself is not as important as the reaction it provoked within the author, who was able to come to terms with her own beauty and the love it inspired as a result, which the following quotation proves.

Crying and laughing I ran to the bathroom, while Rebecca mumbled and sang herself to sleep. Yes indeed, I realized, looking into the mirror. There was a world in my eye. And I saw that it was possible to love it: that in fact, for all it had taught me of shame and anger and inner vision, I did love it (Walker).

This quotation is important because it demonstrates so many different characteristics of beauty, one of which is its mutability. Beauty comes in all different forms and shapes and colors, even those that dot the eye. Yet the primary significance of this quotation is that the statement from the author's daughter enables her to fully love herself. Moreover, it enables her to do so after years of trauma, doubt, trepidation, and low self-esteem regarding her physical appearance. The ability to transform all of that negativity with a single statement demonstrates the potency of beauty rearing its full, unbridled form. The fact that Walker is able to overcome years of misfortune is certainly beautiful. That she is able to do so through the understanding, kindness and love of her daughter, which in turn inspired her own love for herself and the unique form of beauty she was bestowed with,...

Each of these authors wrote about that wholeness in the context of the dichotomy between external and internal beauty. Yet a comprehensive analysis of these essays shows that there is so much more to beauty than its inner and outer manifestations within people. Walker's example of the beauty of a desert indicates that the totality of beauty is passionately expressed through nature, which can inspire people and other things due to its sheer delight. The author also alludes to the fact that part of this delight is inspired by the aspect of love that is part of beauty, which allows people to love things beautiful. Additionally, Sontag provided a definition of beauty by describing what it is not that revealed that there is an element of truth to beauty. All of these different facets of beauty make it something that is both discernible to the human senses and discernible beyond the human senses. Walker's love for the desert is inexplicable via the human senses -- it does not look nor smell appealing. Yet the sheer awe inspiring quality of it, which is true, and which she loves and which is undeniably beautiful, transcends sensory perception. Ultimately, the link between truth, love and beauty allude to one of beauty's most important qualities. Beauty is ultimately an idea, a constant, that individuals and collectives can become a part of in order to actualize love and truth and to last, forever.
Works Cited

Sontag, Susan. "Woman's Beauty: Put-down or Power Source." Occasions

For Writing: Evidence, Idea. Ed. Robert Diyanni. Page: 245-246. Print.

Walker, Alice. "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self." Occasions

For Writing: Evidence, Idea. Ed. Robert Diyanni. Page: 251-255. Print.