Analysis Of Willowdean In Julie Murphy's Dumplin

Sherman Alexie, an American novelist once said, “Don’t leave up to your stereotype.” This quote, although it is quite simple, captures the true essence of the main character Willowdean in Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’. In a town in Texas where the annual pageant is basically a holiday, Willowdean is not the classic beauty queen. Willowdean is fat and knows it. She doesn't try to hide it, instead she embraces it, but when she enters the beauty pageant everything begins to change. She loses her best friend, questions her relationship with Bo, and becomes more self-conscious than she has ever been. Immediately upon Willowdean entering the beauty pageant, she begins to change the way people define beauty. Beauty pageants always raise the

People always say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but what if the beholder is three judges who have seen the same type of beauty throughout their entire career. When Willowdean walks across the stage she is not the type of beauty queen that the judges are used to. Instead of going to pageant boot camp just to fit into her swimsuit, she fills every inch of her red with white polka dotted one piece. Although she might abhor her thunder thighs, she realizes that when she is on stage “no one boos. The world doesn’t end. The audience doesn’t go blind” (359). This type of mentality can be compared to that of twelve year-old Alana Thompson from the reality TV show, Toddlers and Tiaras. Alana started beauty pageants when she was six-years old and just like Willow was not the typical beauty queen. She is overweight for her age, but when she walks across the stage she exudes confidence. Though she had been told that she should not do pageants because of her weight, she did not listen and continued doing what she loved. Willowdean also experienced being told that

Julie Murphy did an excellent job giving each character a voice even though the book was written through the eyes of Willowdean. The word choice that Murphy used to express the way each character felt during a certain situation helped strengthen their voice. Murphy’s diction also helped keep me engaged for the entire book. She knew exactly where to create suspense, so that you were locked in eager to see what would happen next. Even though Murphy kept me eager to continue reading, she could have expanded more in certain areas of the plot line. One of the major areas where I would like to see further explanation is the relationship between Bo and Willow. Throughout the entire novel their relationship develop more and more, but when it seems like their relationship was about to be official the book ends. If I were Murphy I would have added an epilogue just to provide closure for how Bo and Willow’s relationship turned out. Another area I would expand upon would be the winner of the pageant. At the end of the pageant only the second runner up is revealed to the reader because it was one of Willow’s friends, but the winner of the entire pageant is never revealed. Throughout the novel each character prepares for the pageant, and you follow them on their journey to pageant day, but when it time to crown the winner she is not revealed. Revealing the winner would have been effective in