Throughout the novel, Shannon’s physical appearance directly correlates to her sense of self and symbolizes the self-destruction Shannon believes in necessary to reinventing her identity. Shannon’s livelihood stems from her facial beauty: She is successful in modeling only because she is beautiful. Her beauty is such a focus in her life that Shannon often notices very little else but how good she looks on a given day. However, Shannon begins to believe that her beauty is holding her back. She feels as though when people look at her, all they see is her beauty. This is illustrated when she learns that Brandy is undergoing plastic surgeries with the intention to eventually look exactly like her.

Shannon decides to alter her face in order to live a different sort of life, as she no longer wants to be defined by her beauty. Shannon’s gunshot wounds result in the loss of a large portion of her lower jaw, leaving her with a hole in the side of her face. The doctors want to perform plastic surgery to repair the damage, but Shannon refuses. Not only would the surgeries be painful, but there is a possibility they would restore a measure of her appearance, which she does not want.