The Fat Girl Andre Dubus Analysis

In modern America, women are commonly expected and encouraged to explore career paths that were virtually unthinkable for women in relatively recent history. Much progress has been made in the past 40-50 years toward gender equality, and at the time of this writing, it appears that the first female presidential candidate will run in the 2016 primary election. However, these are relatively recent changes in American culture and sadly, vestiges of old social norms still have a toehold in some parts of the country and the unilluminated parts of many people's psyches. In this story, Dubus reminds us of what it might have been like for a young female in what is likely the 1950's to 1960's era (not that long ago), where the high standards of female
In "The Fat Girl," Andre Dubus presents the struggles of Louise, a girl who at age nine begins eating secretly in reaction to her mother closely controlling her food intake to manage her weight gain. In high school, this behavior grows into "…a ritual of deceit and pleasure…" (321) In a passive-aggressive rebellion against her mother's control, and even though Louise is aware that the behavior is "…insular and destructive" (322), she continues with it and hides the behavior from everyone, including her friends Joan and Majorie. Towards the end of college, Louise's closest college friend, Carrie, convinces Louise to go on a diet, which results in Louise losing approximately 70 pounds, then meeting and marrying a man, Richard, who works with her father, shortly after graduating. Then, she gets pregnant a few years later, which leads her back to her previous eating habits and weight gain. After her son's birth, Louise does not regain control of her eating habits (or seemingly even attempt to do so) and increasingly reverts to her previous physical and mental state, which frustrates and angers her husband, as illustrated by his comments: "I don't want to touch you. Why should I? Have you looked at yourself?"(328) Also, pleadings such as "I'll help you … I'll eat what you eat"(329). In the end, Louise is reconciled with her body and desires, knowing it will just be a matter of time before her resignation drives her husband
This expectation is introduced by her mother when Louise is nine years old and begins to gain weight with comments such as, "You must start watching what you eat.…" and "In five years, you'll be in high school, and if you're fat, the boys won't like you; they won't ask you out" (320). This social expectation is reinforced throughout the story. When Louise returns home from college, those greeting her would "in the first moments of greeting, their eyes would tell her she was still fat Louise, and then their eyes dismissed her…" (323). As Louise and Carrie look forward to leaving college, Carrie is concerned for Louise's future by saying, "I was thinking about when we graduate. What you're going to do. What's to become of you. I want you to be loved the way I love you. Louise, if I help you, really help you, will you go on a diet?" (324). Carrie's pleading, while obviously well-intentioned, only reinforces the atmospheric social pressures under which both girls live. After Louise loses weight and returns home, "for days her relatives and acquaintances congratulated her, and the applause in their eyes lasted the entire summer…" (326). Later on, when she gains weight after her son is born, her husband's anger reinforces this expectation: "Look at you…Lasagna, for God's sake. When are you going to start