The Fat Girl By Andre Dubus Summary

In American culture, the obese body is largely unaccepted and one factor that contributes to this annulling representation is the abundance of opposing reactions that people display towards overweight people. It is a stigma that often taints and belittles the person, leading others to judge the targeted individual in a cynical matter, rejecting, hating, or ridiculing him or her. That can often lead the person to develop severe psychological and emotional problems. The short story “The Fat Girl” by Andre Dubus follows a girl named Louise from age nine up until the time she becomes a mother. The usage of a compressed story on Dubus’ part provides the reader insight and brings attention to the damage that can be done when family members force negative body images on young children. Her mother ruins her self confidence by

“In all her life she had never been afflicted by ill temper and she looked upon it now as a demon which, along with hunger, was taking possession over her soul.” (Dubus 919) With this quote the author wants to show us that Louise is being pressed into losing weight for strictly superficial reasons, and so she can get accepted into society and fit today’s standards. To Louise, her obesity was a part of who she was and even though her friends and relatives praise her on her weight lost, she feels like she is not herself. “She felt that somehow she had lost more than pounds of fat; that some time during her dieting she had lost herself too” (Dubus ). Andre Dubus uses this line to show how Louise could not be happy since she felt dropping weight was changing who she was. It becomes evident that as Louise loses weight she is not content and stresses constantly, worrying that the next few pounds will be even harder to lose. It is a sad thing to witness how her new body actually makes her self-loathing more prevalent instead of bringing some joy to her