Life in the Fat Lane Notes Essay

People cannot hide from what makes them unique, even when someone dies, their personality is what will be remembered by their loved ones. Isabel Quinteros’ book “Gabi A Girl In Pieces”describes how the main character, Gabi, is a senior in highschool living with her mother, father, and teenage brother Beto. Quintero contends how Gabi is trying to find herself meanwhile having to juggle between being body shamed from those who are close to her such as her mother and aunt. In addition, Gabi’s best friends who she shares, and speaks about her and Cindy’s boy crazy moments with have something to tell her; Her Best friends revealed that Sebastian is gay and Cindy (her best friends) is pregnant, but soon Gabi finds out Cindy isn’t the only one pregnant Gabi’s mom is pregnant as well. Moreover, Gabi is trying to find her soulmate who will accept her for who she is inside and out. When Gabi began dating Martin, from her poetry class, she

Lead character, Bianca, is the main character and the lead protagonist of the movie, “The Duff.” Bianca is short, about 5’4’’, and is a little bit on the heavier side. She dresses for comfort and cares less about her looks and more about her friends and school work. The most worn shirt in her closet is her “party shirt”, a black cotton tee-shirt that has the word “party” printed on the front. If only one article of clothing was used to summarize her whole wardrobe, it would be this shirt. Bianca is often shown as very kind to the people that she cares about, going the full mile for anyone who needs it. In the beginning of the movies she was always at her friends sides making sure they were havening fun and feeling confident. She is an odd mix of secure and shy. Although she comes across and a secure girl, who does not worry about the opinions of others, she become very shy when she is around a boy that she has a crush on. When Bianca tries to talk to her crush, at the start of the movie, the most she could muster was a “Hey.” She is rather unpopular at school and is only know through her two friends that are considered very good looking. She only has two close friends, Jess and Casey, but is valued deeply by them, despite not seeing this at first.

In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he informs Americans about the western diet and believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 434). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn he

“Losing weight is hard enough: you faint, you vomit, you stop menstruating but it’s even harder when you do not have the support of the people around you,” she said. “Even when I did lose twenty five pounds, my friends were so jealous, telling me I looked terrible. My mom is the worst of all. She’s just afraid that if I am thin and beautiful, it will make her look bad.” Fernandez is sick of her mom, therapist, the paramedics, and doctors trying to control her. “They do not have to live in this horrible body, I do.”

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a story that was written by Chris Crutcher. This book was narrated in first person, by the protagonist Eric “Moby” Calhoune. His best friend is Sarah Byrnes, and they have been close since they were younger, due to their flaws. Eric is overweight and Sarah has burn scars covering her entire face. As the two grew older, Eric lost his weight when he joined the school competitive swim team. Meanwhile, Sarah Byrnes still remained as what her classmates called “ugly”. The two were each other’s best friends, and Eric even stayed fat for a whole year for her. Sarah Byrnes believed that if Eric became skinny, then he would have more friends, and eventually forget about her. With the help of others, it is found that Sarah Byrnes was abused by her father, Virgil Byrnes, when she was three, causing the burns on her face. She has been kept in the hospital for thinking about committing suicide for the entirety of the story. Sarah is not talking to anybody, even her best friend, and Eric knows he has to find a way to make her speak.

It seems like every young girl dreams of becoming a model these days. Every young girl has the desire to get thinner than other girls in order to look like models on T.V, magazines and so on. The New York Times publishes articles for the majority of the audience to read, which is mostly adults. Mim Udovitch’s article, “A Secret Society of the Starving” talks about two major eating disorders that are anorexia and bulimia within many girls. Udovitch reports stories about three girls that are going through these disorders or have gone through them. The three girls Udovitch includes are Claire, Chaos, and Futurebird. Ken Jackson’s interpretation of

How do you choose between the love of your best friend, and their safety? In Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, Eric Calhoune, a high school student, must decide how to help his best friend Sarah Byrnes, who was badly burned by her father when she was a toddler. When Sarah Byrnes stops talking to get away from her dad who was never caught for hurting her, Eric decides that he must find a way to keep Sarah’s dad permanently away from her. Eric makes hard decisions in order to help Sarah and himself such as telling his coach about her burns, telling Sarah’s father where Sarah went, and also keeping Sarah from running away to a special school in Colorado.

Recently, Jennifer Siebel Newson had found out that she was pregnant and was having a baby girl, but despite the happiness of the joyful news, she was worried on how her daughter could grow up to be emotionally healthy in the culture, which consisted of the misrepresentation of women in the media, that we have in the world today. She also worried about how she would make sure that her daughter didn’t fall into the trap that she had fallen into as a girl. When Newson was 7 years old, her older sister died causing her to blame herself for her sister’s death. This resulted in Newson trying to fill in as 2 daughters for her parents, leading her to vulnerably accept peer pressure. She then went through an eating disorder as a teenager because

Back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, because of the vast amounts of overpopulation, migration to

There are many things wrong with our food system but one of the principal problems is us and our decisions. Wendell Berry who is a farmer and environmental activist wrote in the article The Pleasures of Eating about his theory of eating responsibly which included his opinion on food and the influence others have on what type of food we consume. In his article he addresses the problem with the industries’ influence on the quality of what we eat and the role the consumer has in this process. He states that we cannot be free if our decisions are influenced by others and all we do is agree to what they tell us we should.

Life for the people in the 1840s-1860s was changing and it was changing dramatically. Western movement increased due to manifest destiny that many believed it was God's will for the american people to move coast to coast. There was some technological advancements also going on people could now send messages through morse code which was good for sending Political messages commercial messages and also emergency messages. Railroads even became a huge hit amongst the people of that time this turned Chicago into the number one commercial hub because of all these advancements city growth and wages also increased. Homes were also starting to change homes made of wood were now being replaced with brick row houses. The upper/middle class had beautiful homes and also beautiful furniture. (Article continued on

Rayona is in a way lost and can’t seem to find her place in the world. She thinks about herself in the way that she thinks others think of her. She is fifteen years old at the time and does not have a lot of sense of her self. Rayona is half African American and Native American, which makes her think she’s different from others and makes her have a low self esteem. She struggles with her identity and physical appearance. Another thing that makes it difficult for her to find her true self is that she lacks information about her heritage. Her dream is to have a “normal” life, meaning to have a functional happy family and to be able to fit in. Rayona feels like a real family is the opposite of what she has. She goes through a series of events and learns a little about her self in each of them. Rayona is

Because of her love of facts, Harriet has been label as geek by her arch nemesis Alexa, the popular girls in school. However, Harriet’s live changes when she was picked out from a coward of people to be the next big model. While being a model, Harriet keeps that side of her secret from her schoolmates and starts to develop a life different side to her that her schoolmates

The short story “The Fat Girl” by Andre Dubus teaches readers about a real life struggle that is commonly faced by others. The main character of the story is Louise, a young teenage girl who deals with the issues of being overweight. Her mother worries about her weight and tries to control it by feeding her on a diet. While Louise is around others she tries to eat salads and healthy food so it does not appear as if she has a problem. When no one is watching, Louise binge eats and sneaks sandwiches, candy, and other unhealthy snacks that her mother would not approve of. One of the main struggles she faces from being overweight is the fact that no boys are interested in her. She starts going to an all-girl college and befriends her roommate, Carrie. Louise and Carrie help get Louise on the right

“The Girl I Hate” by Mona Awad tackles the daily problems of a girl who struggles with her body image. From counting calories to enjoying food, as if it is a sin, Awad creates a realistic story that many can relate to. Awad wrote a successful short story due to her ability to appeal to young females emotions, also known as pathos. Awad makes the audience feel a wide array of emotions from guilt to joy. It is easy to both love and hate the nameless main character. The author is successful because she has a purpose for creating the emotions the reader feels. Not only is Awad’s story incredibly relatable, but it is an important story for this day and age when more people are struggling with body confidence than ever.