Halle Carpenter
English 111
Comparative Analysis
May 16th, 2013
Comparative Analysis
Obesity is a horrible disease that has begun to consume people throughout the United States. The percentage of obese people in the United States is well on its way to being over 75 percent (Wikipedia). There are several reasons why an individual may become obese; eating behavior, smoking, medicines, trauma, and other personal reasons. They are all uncovered throughout the following movie and articles. Obesity has many health risks and also causes a lot of emotional damage to an individual. Hillel Schwartz wrote the article "Fat and Happy." The emotional thoughts are negative throughout this article and put a negative face on obese people. Schwarz describes how "fat" people are made fun of and how "bad" it is to be "fat" through the eyes of a "skinny" person. In the article "Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance", Mary Ray Worley has a complete opposite opinion compared to Schwartz's article. In Worley's she explains how "fat people" are treated very differently compared to "skinny people". Worley is attending a "fat convention" where all "fat people" are accepted and weight is disregarded. "Fat" people have the chance to dress how they want, show their talents, and eat what they want without anyone caring or judging them. Confidence is put into the minds and hearts at this "fat convention". In the Movie "What's eating Gilbert Grape", Peter Hedges demonstrates how Momma is overly obese and how people make fun of her. At the beginning of the movie Gilbert took Momma as a joke just like everyone else in the town. But, by the end of the movie Gilbert's entire attitude of Momma changed when she died and was no longer a joke to Gilbert. The articles and movie are all involving obese individuals and how they are treated in society. Throughout the articles and movie the people surrounding the morbidly obese people make stereotypical comments. The stereotypical comments and the emotional instabilities are all major problems within "Fat and Happy", "Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance", and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".
Ostracism is the state of being banished or ignored. Worley the author of "Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance", says, "the social ostracism and body hate are a regular part of most people's lives," meaning every person goes through a state of wanting to be in the "background" instead of the "front and center" (Worley, pg. 293). Every person has some kind of hatred for their body image and this hatred poisons their self-esteem. Even the people that seem to have confidence in their body have been unhappy with something about their body at some point during their lives. Worley explains how low her self-esteem...
