Christa Kurkjian explains in her paper, Is “Fat” the New “F” Word?, that Carver transforms the social norm of being fat—and ugly—to something of a “saving grace” (Kurkjian 3). However, I have to disagree with Kurkjian on her thesis. I truly do not feel Carver’s intent for Fat is to transform the word “fat,” but to elaborate on how people perceive fat. In the beginning of her paper, Kurkjian states that being fat is being unattractive and that Carver intends to portray that as the fat man is ridiculed in the restaurant. This is something I agree with. When Carver mentions the rude comments of Rudy and even the narrator’s description of him to Rita, the audience learns that fat is being perceived as a bad characteristic. This can refer …show more content…
However, with this transition, some questions come up: What is the difference between being ridiculed and being pitied for? Is it really that much better to be pitied for? Answers to these questions would have made the transformation process of the term “fat” clearer. Though there is no doubt that Carver is making a statement here with the waitress’s pity, it is more than just pity for the fat man and more than just the presence of “the grotesque” (Kurkjian 2). It is seeing the fat man beyond his fat, someone who is mannerly and also shameful of his weight. When the waitress interacts with him, he thanks her for the food, forgives her for spilling his water, and frequently says that “they” (himself) do not eat so much all the time (Carver 67). The waitress realizes the kind-hearted and self-critical man he truly is and stands up for him when her fellow employees mock him. Carver does not change the term “fat.” In reality, he emphasizes the perception of what is beyond being fat, that there is more under the surface of what he or she looks like. Here, Carver is, in fact, using the Freudian idea of superego, which “concentrates on the mind of morals and ethics” (Abrams …show more content…
However, is that really what Carver intended? Kurkjian uses the quote by the narrator: “When he gets on me, I suddenly feel I am fat. I feel I am terrifically fat, so fat that Rudy is a tiny thing and hardly there at all” (Carver 69). However, after this quote, the narrator says, “I feel depressed” (Carver 69). The narrator truly feels fat and is ashamed of her appearance. She is not liberated from Rudy at all, but rather saddened that she is, in fact, overweight (just like how the fat man felt about
In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
In the novel, Butter, by Erin Jade Lange, a 423-pound junior miserable with his current lifestyle creates a website, declaring a suicide by overeating live on New Year’s Eve. In this analysis the novel, Butter, the literary device of characterization is identified throughout Lange’s novel in addition to connecting to the theme of tolerance.
Geissler goes as far to say “[what you] put in your body is your own business…” (Geissler) which is actually quite a dangerous way of viewing things. Without outside reinforcement many would not strive to be healthy, nor have the wakeup call they need to focus on being healthier. The vantage point the author uses in pushing the argument of ‘Fat Acceptance’ is one of poor
The author brings in the mental health aspect and talks about the ridicule that is a part of a heavy person’s life regularly. She notes that people will make rude comments, or comment about what they have in their grocery cart at the store. She states that people are not that into getting medical help by reason of a doctor almost always attributing health issues to the fact a person is fat. She talks about how she has tried so many times to lose weight, but she realized that she needed to just make peace with her body. Spake and Worley disagree on how people should handle their addiction.
“Don’t Blame the Eater” is an article by David Zinczenko that explains to Americans, specifically overweight young Americans, about the risks eating at fast food restaurants and its cause of affecting one’s health. In his article, he tries to address the issue about America’s food industries by using literal devices such as tone, logos, ethos, diction, and organization in order to spread his message. He begins his article by addressing the topic and as he continues writing, he supports his topic by writing about personal experience and moves onto the reasons why his topic in a serious issue. Although he shows an overall clear progress, he does tend to have a few problems with his writing that could be improved.
This poem, like most good poems, does not blatantly and clearly state its intended thesis. In no line or stanza of this poem will the reader read “prejudice toward the obese is bad.” The message of this work is enwrapped in an accurate representation of reality and an appeal to the reader’s emotion. By employing literary techniques of profanity, alternating pronouns, and stanza arrangement, the writer is able to reach a receptive audience and open a discussion that is beneficial and currently lacking from Berry’s
What comes to your mind when you hear someone is overweight. In most american’s eyes, it is someone who anyone who is not a model. This creates a huge predicadment counting that America is known to be fat. In the past few decades, lifestyle has changed our habits, but we did not think about the consequences. If we eat more then we must be doing some kind of exercise to counteract what we put inside of us. In the article “America’s War on the Overnight” by Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin, they successfully persuade the reader to tackle obesity, we need to focus more on the subject of obesity and not attack the obese using the rhetorical triangle.
However, one day Tony Robbins, understanding Hal’s situation, hypnotizes him into seeing people’s inner beauty and not their external selves. And after that incident, he fell in love with Rosemary, woman who appears to him to look beautiful due to her kind, generous nature, but is, in actuality, morbidly obese. This proved people should not be judged by their looks because every person is unique and everyone possesses special qualities. Furthermore, obese people aren’t always happy and they remain melancholic to feel normal and this can also be related to what Jennifer A. Coleman said in her article Discrimination at Large “Fat people aren’t jolly. Sometimes we act that way so you will leave us alone.” Everyone can be changed through consistency so there is no point in mocking a fat person. A strict regimen of exercise can change the shape of a person and he can become the next model. However, Americans think fat people will always remain fat despite their hard work. Neil Steinberg stated in the article O.K., So I’m Fat “Others assume that thinness is forever beyond my grasp.” Maybe, it will be hard for the obese people to get into the right shape but with time he/she can get the body he
I do believe that the media really depicts what beauty is “supposed to look like,” which is being thin or muscular, but to some people being “fat,” as Smith would put it, is just as beautiful. Personally, I really do not like the word "fat," I prefer the term overweight or the politically correct term “people of size.” Throughout Smith’s article, she refers to “people of size” as “big,” “heavy,” or “fat” people (86-88). She uses all of these snarl words to bring a negative connotation and generalize that people view overweight people this way.
For instance, one night Vaca looked for Martin’s home to return a gun, assuming they were the richer homes from his preconceived belief he was wealthy because of his belly. “I walked into the night and crept by the wooden houses examining each one trying to figure which one contained Martin and his enormous belly.” Vaca’s naive belief that someone can be wealthy based on the size of a person’s belly was shown when Vaca discovered that Martin actually lived in an old, run down, rusty trailer at the far end of the road. Although he discovered that Martin lived in a trailer, he still assumed he had lots of food due to his enormous belly. Furthermore, Vaca entered the trailer anxious to see the food that made Martin so fat. “There lay the food that had made Martin so enviable in our eyes — a small stack of corn tortillas and a glass of water.” This explains how ignorant Vaca was, realizing he had more than Martin did. He came to the conclusion that you can’t make assumptions about people based off their appearance, and he immediately regretted the hatred directed towards
I think that the morbidly obese man is supposed an example of one of the seven deadly sins – Gluttony. He starts out with an order of: a Caesar salad, a bowl of soup, bread and butter, lamb chops, a baked potato with sour cream, and a glass of water. The narrator, who is his waitress, commented, “You know the size of those Caesar salads?” I’m assuming this means it’s a pretty large salad, especially after all the dressing, cheese, and croutons - the typical variation of this salad – could be considered a large meal by itself. The fact that the waitress also keeps bringing the man bread and butter, at least 3 times, possibly a reference to the idiom “one’s bread and butter”, meaning his source of income, or a job. This leads me to believe this ‘fat man’ has the hardest job of all, eating for himself and his enormous gut. Carver also mentions that the ‘fat man’ is “well dressed enough”, so he probably has a job of some sort, or at least some sort of steady income. However, he may not be as rich as Hemingway’s ‘old man.
Orbach, Susie. “Fat as a Feminist Issue.” They Say I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York. W.W. Norton, 2009. 200-205. Print.
A good author is always conscious of being too sarcastic. In the short story “That Lean and Hungry Look” written by Suzanne Britt; the author point of views are drowned out by sarcasm. Suzanne Britt probably wrote this comical literary story while sitting in a coffee shop, drinking a fat-free cappuccino as she watched “thin and fat” people walk by. She may have wondered to herself what her life would have been like if she was thin. At some point, envy caused her point of views to be too sarcastic. Also, the sarcasm had inadvertently affected the mechanics of her story. The story was well written and has some unique pointers. However, the author message is muddled by her usage literary allusions, exaggerated usage of figurative language, and over usage of alliterations.
Physical beauty is constructed by the society that we live in. We are socialized from a very young age to aspire to become what our culture deems ideal. Living in the United States, as in many other Western cultures, we are expected to be well-educated, maintain middle-class or upper-class status, be employed as well as maintain a physical standard of beauty. Although beauty is relative to each culture, it is obvious that we as Americans, especially women, are expected to be maintain a youthful appearance, wear cosmetics and fashionable clothes, but most importantly: not to be overweight. Our society is socially constructed to expect certain physical features to be the norm, anything outside this is considered deviant. Obesity is defined as outside the norms of our culture's aesthetic norms (Gros). “People who do not match idealized or normative expectations of the body are subjected to stigmatization” (Heckert 32). Obesity is a physical deviance; it is one that is an overwhelming problem in our society as we are always judged daily, by our appearance. Those who do not conform to the standards of beauty, especially when it comes to weight, are stigmatized and suffer at the hands of a society that labels them as deviants.
In the article, Fat and Happy?, author Hillel Schwartz states that "fatness is fine" (Schwartz 179). Schwartz puts the blame on kindergarten teachers, the coaches, the friends, and physicians. He also says that doctors and physicians play on their fears to try to get obese people to lose weight. She explains that the victims are the obese people who are ridiculed for being obese. She also explains how it would be like in a fat society. She also points out how dieting is cannibalism. He uses emotional appeal to draw in his audience; however, He misses out on the medical and factual side of the situation.