Analysis Of The Fat Girl By Andre Dubus

This story “The Fat Girl” by author Andre Dubus, is a heart wrenching story about the all too familiar subjects of obesity, eating disorders, self-consciousness, and the negative impact in which society and even family and friends can have on people suffering from these issues. It seems the young girl at the center of the story, Louise, was doomed to live a tortured existence from nine years old and forward. Her own mother fortified this fate by stating “In five years you’ll be in high school and if you’re fat the boys won’t like you; they won’t ask you out.”(pg. 158.) This is one of several times when her mother, while she thought she was trying to help, was actually slowly submerging Louise into a horrifying existence.

In my opinion, it would damage the relationship of any parent and their child. A more loving stance could have been applied here. Louise’s mom could have said something much more positive like, “Louise, I love you very much, you are my daughter and I want you to be healthy and happy in the future, so I will do everything in my power to help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight, and whatever the outcome I will always love you.” This is what I would say to my child. Instead, degradation was the method her mom used. Her father took a different approach on Louise’s situation, but none the less did not help the matter. When he said to Louise’s mom “She’s a growing girl”, and that she should have both a potato and dessert. (Pg. 159) This was in reference to the way her mom dictated how she should eat. Her father also had good intentions, with less harmful words used, but of course his method would be completely ineffective in helping his

America is fatter now more than ever before. In an article written by Olga Khazan dated September 30, 2015, titled “Why it was easier to be skinny in the 80’s”, she speaks of how Americans of the same age and lifestyle of exercise and eating habits are 10% fatter now than they were in the 80’s.This information was published by the journal, “Obesity Research and Clinical Practice”. If this is true, millions of Americans are suffering the same or very similar battles, as Louise did in this story. I also believe technology of today has made the situation even worse in some ways, since anyone with a smart phone can see hundreds if not thousands of photos of themselves and friends as they’ve changed over the years. Having your life’s journey in the palm of your hands can be awesome, but it can also be psychologically destructive for people with eating disorders and weight problems as they can quickly see the sometimes frightening changes to their body over the decades, years, and even months. The good news is that technology can also be very beneficial to people with these problems as there is a vast amount of information available literally at our fingertips to get help and treatment for these disorders. People do not have to battle their demons alone, as Louise seemed to do in this story. Family and friends are not