To The Bone: Character Analysis of Ellen Tasha Valdez Department of Psychology & Sociology: Texas A&M University-Kingsville Abnormal Psychology: PSYC 4325 Professor Melissa Diaz-Hinojosa May 3, 2024 2 Understanding Ellen: Analyzing the Character's Struggle with Anorexia in: To the Bone In the movie To the Bone, the main character is Ellen Liberato. Ellen is a young and beautiful woman who is 20 years old. Ellen suffers from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder. Ellen is a very slender and petite woman who usually wears very baggy clothing. She has sharp cheekbones and is very frail looking and this is a reflection of the toll that her eating disorder has taken on her body. Ellen’s appearance represents her battle with anorexia. As the …show more content…
By strictly managing her food intake, she finds a way to control at least one aspect of her existence. Ellen is very smart and despite that, she still has self-loathing feelings for herself. She is constantly angry with herself and the faults that she perceives to have, so she takes out her frustrations on herself and those around her. The negative destructive behavior that she puts herself through she feels is justified in holding her accountable for her disorder. Ellen's Struggle: A Diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa in: To the Bone. Diagnosing a mental disorder means understanding someone’s symptoms. Knowing what underlying issues a person has is of utmost importance. Ellen, in the movie To the Bone, exhibits many symptoms that are consistent with anorexia nervosa. This is a very serious eating disorder that is characterized by restricting what one eats, exercising excessively, extreme weight loss, and having a distorted view of their body image (Anorexia Nervosa Diagnosis and Treatment-Mayo Clinic, n.d.). Ellen shows signs of severe restrictions on her food intake. She eats minimal calories and knows how many calories each piece of food has. There is a scene in the movie where she is sitting at the bar with her sister