The short story Weight begins off with the main character making a statement that she is being held back and is feeling heaviness take over her energy and body. She recounts that some days she feels as though she will not make it through the day. These thoughts she has reoccur as she sits across the table from a man by the name of Charles. She describes him as being rich and remarks that if he hadn’t had money neither of them would be sitting across from one another at this restaurant (179). The main character is trying to raise money for a shelter named Molly’s Place. It is named after a lawyer who was murdered by her own husband. The main character knows nothing about this man, she only knows he is wealthy and that she wants him to donate to the good cause. The evening progresses and they …show more content…
After a comment from the main character Charles says he will give her a chance to convince him over dinner on Wednesday evening. She responds saying that is not fair and they can go for dinner after he donates. Charles then decides that he is not going to look cheaper than Bill Henry, so he reaches for his chequebook (190). The main character then recalls a memory of Molly planning to spend the night at her house if she felt the need to because of Curtis’ behaviour. Molly decided she would talk him into getting some help, thinking how the situation would affect their own two kids (191). The main character then vividly remembers the word “victim” as they said in the paper. She knew Molly was not helpless nor hopeless, in fact she believed it was hope that killed her. The end of the dinner with Charles nears and as they walk to the door, the main character sees some familiar faces, those of which she had affairs with. As they leave the restaurant she realizes that she has choices, and if she did not want to go to dinner Wednesday evening she would not have
Seven Pounds is a film about a man named Tim Thomas who is searching for a way to redeem himself after a car accident, which he caused by texting and driving, that killed seven people including his fiancé. Tim exhibits signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD throughout the movie which influences the choices he makes and the actions he takes during his life.
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.
They are already in a compromising situation in celebrating her eighteenth birthday at a gas station having coffee which was already established as being not the norm earlier with Marie recounting her own large party where her “mother made a large party” (154). There reality is broken when the teenagers arrive and “One of the girls went to the juke box and put money in” and they are forced to leave because of Carol condition which causes her to have a breakdown from the noise (157). The arrival of the kids forced them to come into contact with their own reality which can never coincide with the one they have fabricated. This small reminder of what the norm is supposed to be is often brought to their attention through others such as when they “could see, in the light shaft of light, a boy, two girls and a dog” (155). In this instance, they are walking on the way to their weekly picnic, which is in itself repetitive, when they are shown the norm of other having fun “the boy splashing in the water with the dog” while they are forced to go through the motions without much emotion. This depiction of the norm unsettles their reality and, even though they don’t stop trying to alter reality to shelter Carol, shows how dysfunctional their own situation is as it can be seen as a potential version of themselves without Carol’s
Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is most vocal about his sorrow for losing his daughter. However, his initial reaction was much different. Upon hearing that Susie’s ski hat had been found, he immediately retreats upstairs because “he [is] too devastated to reach out to [Abigail] sitting on the carpet…he could not let [her] see him” (Sebold 32). Jack retreats initially because he did not know what to do or say to console his family and he did not want them to see him upset. This first reaction, although it is small, is the first indicator of the marital problems to come. After recovering from the initial shock, Jack decides that he must bring justice for his daughter’s sake and allows this goal to completely engulf his life. He is both an intuitive and instrumental griever, experiencing outbursts of uncontrolled emotions then channeling that emotion into capturing the killer. He focuses his efforts in such an e...
She has a secret dream of writing romance novels that no one, except her teacher, Mr. P, had known about. The book explains, "People just don 't live and hide in basements if they 're happy" (Alexie 39). Mary was not happy where she was at, she would not let anyone read her pieces of writing. Skip downing states in his article, “ Victims are people who do not feel they are in control of the outcomes in their lives” (Downing 42). The way she acted made it seem like she was not confident in what she had been doing. Victims, like Mary, feel they are stuck and that they have to support which makes their ability to reach their goals fall short. Mr. P explains, "She always thought people would make fun of her" (Alexie 37). All this has shown that being in the basement and not pursuing her dreams had taken a toll on her. Mary never acted different than
Weight opens with the narrator’s gloomy thoughts as she sits down for dinner with a rich man named Charles. “Some days, I think I’m not going to make it...This is what I’m thinking of as I look at the man” (Atwood 197). The narrator is meeting with Charles over dinner to discuss future funding on behalf of the company for a women’s shelter named Molly’s Place. Over the course of dinner the narrator reflects on Molly’s life along with her own life. “Molly and I had big ideas, then. We were going to change things…We wanted justice and fair play” (Atwood 182). As a lawyer Molly fought hard for battered women in the community. However, the narrator was financially motivated and sold herself out instead of following their dream to represent women legally. Ultimately, Molly lost her life to the cause she passionately and professionally stood for as she was gruesomely dismembered by her husband (Atwood 192). The development of the plot is consistent with a Freytag Pyramid. Rising action in the short story entails meeting Charles for dinner and the flashbacks experienc...
...en he had a purpose. The waitress in Carver’s story picks up on the polite nature of the ‘fat man’ and wishes her significant other would be more like the ‘fat man’, instead of making fun of someone who treats her well. She realizes she had lost self respect and confidence that the ‘fat man’ exemplifies.
When Charlie was younger, his Aunt Helen molested him. That had a negative impact on Charlie’s life, considering he kept it a secret from everyone. He always found himself blaming for everything, which caused him to get depressed. Charlie’s depressive actions indicated that the event in which he was molested by his aunt show that child abuse has such a negative affect on the child that will last a lifetime. An online critic, Barbara Nicolosi, believes that child abuse has an affect by stating, “it is revealed that Charlie’s social dysfunction is actually rooted in his experience of child sexual abuse at the hands of a beloved aunt”. Because of Charlie’s difficult past having dealt with child abuse, he is not pleased to see his sister’s boyfriend slap her in the face. He tries to do something about it, but his sister defends her boyfriend telling Charlie not to tell anyone. Because of this event, Charlie is reminded of his Aunt Helen and his depression is triggered and begins having suicidal thoughts. Charlie then thinks of his aunt who abused him, causing him to get even more depressed. Child abuse is something that nobody should have to go through. Unfortunately, Charlie was victimized by his Aunt Helen and the thoughts haunt him to the point where he gets
In “The Fat Girl” Louise struggled with her weight for all her life even after she became slender. Even when she was a girl her mother
Rose Mary is a selfish woman and decides not to go to school some mornings because she does not feel up to it. Jeannette takes the initiative in making sure that her mother is prepared for school each morning because she knows how much her family needs money. Even though Rose Mary starts to go to school every day, she does not do her job properly and thus the family suffers financially again. When Maureen’s birthday approaches, Jeannette takes it upon herself to find a gift for her because she does not think their parents will be able to provide her with one. Jeannette says, “at times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her - the promise I’d made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she’d been born. I couldn’t get her what she needed most- hot
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word "weight" as "a mass or quantity of something taken up and carried, conveyed, or transported." Tim O'Brien's war story The Things They Carried, published in 1990, explores the theme of weight and its importance to men at war in considerable depth. The opening chapter of this book, which was originally written as a short story, is comprised of a collection of lists. O'Brien details for his reader both the physical objects, such as cigarettes, C rations, and packets of Kool-Aid, and the more intangible things, such as fear and silent awe, that weigh these soldiers down. With the amount of space that the author gives to enumerating the weight of these objects, one might assume that these objects are what are really important to these soldiers, but in reality it is the incalculable weight of their spiritual burdens that truly weigh them down.
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
Methods commonly used to calculate body weight goals involve ideal body weight (IBW) and being in the “normal” range for BMI. If IBW was used to calculate a weight goal for Mr. McKinley, then his weight goal would be 166 lbs. If BMI was used, this would require Mr. McKinley to lose over 230 lbs. However, both of these methods are highly unreasonable, given Mr. McKinley’s current body weight, BMI, UBW, and considering that he has weighed over 250 lbs. for over 20 years now. Therefore, both of these methods are unacceptable for determining an appropriate weight goal for Mr. McKinley. A 5-10% loss in body weight in obese persons is likely to improve blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.1 Since Mr. McKinley has already lost a little
The irony comes into play when the truth starts to unravel and Jack finds out what really happened to him as a child and why he does not know his parents. After some coincidental events, all the main characters end up in the same room. When Lady Bracknell hears Ms. Prism’s (the woman Jack hired as his nieces governess) name she immediately asks to see her. She continues to say that Ms. Prism had wandered off with a baby years ago and asks what came about of that. Ms. Prism continues the dialog to explain how she misplaced a baby that was in her bag at a train station. Jack, thinking he might have been that very baby, retrieves the bag he was found in as an infant in which Ms. Prism identifies by some distinguishing marks to have been her own. Jack realized the woman that had been teaching his niece was his mother. But then Lady Bracknell explained that she was not but Lady Bracknell’s poor sister Mrs. Moncrieff was.