What The Mind Can Do and Actions that Cause

By -

Bullying and Eating Disorders

Being able to read the novel Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, had given me a huge insight into the eating-disorder community. To know that the main viewpoint of the book is told through a young teenager's eyes is saddening because not only is the reader able to explore Lia mentally but physically because of her appearance and thought process is talked about in extreme detail.  The topic of eating disorders isn't really talked about so to learn what I have learned in the book just from the main character Lia, she opened my eyes to understanding the topic of eating disorders. 

The main character, Lia, is of course diagnosed with an eating disorder, and it was shocking to be able to see how her thought process was with the entire novel and how her everyday actions were affected by the choices she had made because of how she was trying to maintain her food intake because of her disorder. As a psychology major, I was more interested in her thought process on how she maintained her body weight and how she had thought of herself as a person. An interesting phrase that Lia would make is when she would make the statement "When I was a real girl....." which had indicated that she had felt unreal. I had paid attention to this detail because she would make the statement "strong/empty/strong"(Lia 64) to what I believe she feels that since she isn't real, there is no need to eat, because things that are not real, don't eat. There is also a quote in the book when she hung out with Elijah when she says "I am almost a real girl the entire drive home." (Lia 97) This had stood out to me because while she was hanging out with Elijah, she was eating, laughing, etc, and that's what real things and people do compare to being unreal like a doll and not eating, smiling, or really living. 

Comments

  1. Samantha DouglasNovember 10, 2021 at 7:52 PM

    Great takeaway Mikah! I also noticed when she would reminiscence on the past and refer to herself as a real girl. I believe that she says that because she was not fully aware of her body and could go about her business without it constantly being on her mind. Due to her being half dead to her illness and seeing Cassie's ghost, also made her feel unreal as well. Loved your insight into this novel!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erin RutherfordNovember 14, 2021 at 4:48 PM

    Mikah - I also found it very interesting how she referred to herself as a "real girl" when speaking about the past. I wondered if told herself that so it would be easier to not eat. Like she used to be a real girl who did normal adolescent things, and now she is just a shell of that person, only obsessed with being skinny.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more