Structure

Smile: The Story of a Face is told in a series of chapters in which the author, Sarah, is looking back on her life with Bell's palsy and how she overcame the challenges it created. It is divided into a series of 32 chapters. Each one has a unique title that relates directly to what the chapter is about. For example, Chapter One is called "Twins" and Sarah immediately discusses how she found out she was having twins but worried that she would not be able to sustain them. A later title for Chapter 16 is "Three Children Under the Age of Five and Three Kinds of Vomit" (95) and addresses the challenges of raising three young children while also trying to maintain a career and sense of self. There is also a somewhat consistent timeline, as Chapter One starts before the birth of the twins, and Chapter 32 discusses how...