Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

890 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: body image and its affects

“It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder - seven million women, and one million men.” (“South Carolina Department of Mental Health”). Skinny by Ibi Kaslik is about two sisters, Holly and Giselle, whose lives and relationship are impacted by the others’ state of condition. Giselle is a medical student who wanted to see what would happen if she stopped eating, and because of this she developed anorexia. Holly is an eighth grader who was born deaf in her left ear. The story jumps back and forth, changing every chapter, from Giselle’s point of view to Holly’s. This helps show the reader how one sister affects the others life. Skinny by Ibi Kaslik shows how family problems can have a great effect on the lives of the people within the family.

Kaslik first introduces Giselle while she is in an institution for people with eating disorders. Giselle’s mother and Holly are visiting her and are told that Giselle is being released early, (she had only been in treatment for six weeks) and was ready to go back home. After a little time of being home, Holly starts to realise how Giselle is eating and acting:

I hate watching her sit around all day on the couch, too tired from her sugar high to do anything except stare at the TV. She talks about going back to school, but it’s hard to imagine her pulling herself together to even leave the house. How is she going to be a normal person and go back to school while she still like like a scarecrow and eats crap? So I decided to do something about it: I got a garbage bag from under the sink and started throwing all her junk food into it. Then I walked over to her and snatched the tub of ice cream from her hand.(Kaslik 20)

Holly’s action, which in the public’s eyes seems l...

... middle of paper ...

...l anyone. Holly feels like she can not tell anyone but her sister because she will be put into hospital.

Therefore, family problems can have a great effect on the lives of the people within the family. Kaslik shows this by making Giselle and Holly’s verbal and physical fights, and their creation of imaginary friends. But in the end no matter how you deal with stress, whether by loss of appetite or jumping off a bridge, family is family, and they are always there for each other even if they feel like the family is separated.

Works Cited

Kaslik, Ibi. Skinny. New York: Walker & Company, 2004. Print.

Parenting and Child Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
South Carolina Department of Mental Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, we learn the story of a abused girl trying to survive the world that she was placed in. She never had any friends until she was in the sixth grade, when she met Eric. Eric was also an outcast because of his weight. The other kids call him Moby because he's on the swim team and that's their clever way of saying that he is like a whale. Sarah and Eric have been friends for six years and when she stops talking and is placed in a psych ward, he questions the situation right away. Eric visits her frequently to try and get her to talk. Sarah finds a way to tell Eric part of the reason why she hasn't been talking. She is trying her best to stay away from her abusive father. In this story, Eric is fighting his hardest for someone that doesn't want his help which makes the situation more difficult, but not impossible. As you follow the story of Sarah and her struggles, the theme will scream at you what real friendship is.

    Read More

  • Louise: An Emotional Binge Eater

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Andre Dubus’ The Fat Girl, Louise is a young adolescent with detrimental eating habits and broken self-esteem. Her lack of self-confidence stems from her atrocious emotional habitat. Louise receives constant criticism from her mother regarding her weight. Her mother states “If you are fat the boys won’t like you.” That kind of ridicule being said by a mother to her 9 year old daughter creates an atmosphere of self-hatred and self-loathing. It is not only her familial environment that contributes so greatly to Louise’s destructive behavior. She has few friends and the one’s she does have agree she needs to change. The society in which she lives also is a contributing factor; the society is laden with stigmas positioned on appearance. That manner of daily ridicule only introverts Louise even more, causing her secretive, binge eating to deteriorate. In research conducted by Ursula Polli-Potts PhD, Links between Psychological Symptoms and Disordered Eating behaviors in Obese Youths, she explains the correlation between psychological, emotional factors and eating disorders in overweight adolescents. Potts states, “The association between binge eating symptoms and eating in response to feelings of distress and sadness with depression/anxiety symptoms corresponds with the results of other studies.” Potts and her colleagues took overweight adolescents and placed them into control and variable groups to ensure correct data. The outcome of their research was that there is a direct correlation with emotional binge eating and psychological factors. Although more extensive research needs to be implemented, Potts and associates were pleased with the results of the case studies.

    Read More

  • Brandy Case Study

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Described within the vignette is a nineteen year old teenager named Brandy. Similar to girls her age, Brandy has difficulties dealing with her body image and self-esteem. For instance, she experiences hopelessness, isolation, sadness, and anxiety that all contribute to Brandy’s acknowledgement of her physical appearance. She completely overestimates her body size to the point of taking dieting pills then defaulting to purging. During the typical day, the meals are scarce but healthy compared to a bad day full of unhealthy snacking. Lastly, her family predicament is not a supportive one at that. Her mother was obese so she constantly dieted while Brandy’s father illustrated signs of sexual interest although he never physically touched her.

    Read More

  • Brice Family Case Study

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to smith and Hamon (2012), Families are considered as a whole in society. However, they believed that couples have many components in which makes up the family, if one component is missing, the family as a whole can get unbalance (Smith & Hamon, 2012). In the Brice’s family, communication was the component that was missing. The couple was not able to communicate their differences, which was what caused Carolyn and David to verbally insult each other. Smith and Hamon (2012), also explain that a person who expresses his or her feeling is considered as someone who is breaking the functions of their family system; especially if the person is focusing on the individual who is causing the problem, rather than the problem itself. In the Brice family, Carolyn could be considered the one that cause the dysfunction in the family structure because she was focusing on David as the problem of their marriage, rather than focusing of the elements that are causing their problems. Smith and Hamon (2012) explain that individuals should focus on how to solve a problem, rather than trying to find who is causing the

    Read More

  • Bulimia Nervosa Case Study

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sara is a thirty three year old lesbian black female. She reports that she was 5’9” in eighth grade and has always been larger than everyone. She also reports that her grandmother was present in her life and would control her diet with slim fast starting around eighth grade, and her brother lived with her as well. Sara has stated that growing up, she did not feel safe, and that there has been trauma causing her life struggles. Her close friend, Julie, reports that she is aware of Sara’s condition but only because she has brought it up when something apparent relates, but declines to discuss in any further detail. Julie states that it is hard to believe Sara is struggling with such a condition and for so long because

    Read More

  • The Broken Circle Breakdown Movie Analysis

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two of them go through the anger stage at a similar time. When they start to blame each other for Maybelle’s illness, the two of them are angry over more than what they are yelling about. They really don’t blame each other. It isn’t anyone’s fault that their daughter died. They just need a place to channel their ...

    Read More

  • Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wintergirls is a book related to eating disorders. The author’s purpose of writing this book is to inform readers what a person with an eating disorder. It depicts the inner and outer conflicts that characters like Lia and Cassie face with disorder. It all began with a competition between two characters of who can be the skinniest. Cassie dies in the attempt of winning the game. Lia, the main character in this novel, always keeps track of her food consumption. For example, one breakfast morning, Lia said she didn’t want “a muffin (410),…orange (75),…toast (87),…waffles (180)” (Anderson 5). Lia constantly keeps track of the calories she eats. Unlike Cassie who follows the path of bulimia, Lia inhibits herself from eating, therefore not getting the proper nutrients. This allows the readers to know how a person with a disorder like Lia can restrain herself from eating foods that we’re used to eating in our regular lives. Her ultimate goal frequently change, getting lower and lower each time. Lia strives for a “five hundred calories a day” (Anderson 189). Her constant change of goals allows the readers to know the struggles a girl with such a mindset may feel.

    Read More

  • Defining Moments in Life in Margaret Atwood’s Short Story, Weight

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout a person’s lifetime there are a few defining moments that determine the kind of person they become. In Margaret Atwood’s Weight marriage, careers, and children play significant roles in the lives of Molly and her friend the narrator. The narrator’s flashbacks provide insight into the highs and lows of her own life along with Molly’s. Weight is an enjoyable short story because the struggles and triumphs of the characters may resonate with the reader’s own life. Atwood’s Weight is an effective and thought provoking short story. A complex plot, point of view, setting, theme, and characterization deliver mechanisms to stimulate thoughts and feelings in the reader.

    Read More

  • In Eudora Welty's Why I Live At The P. O.

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sister and Stella-Rondo both contribute to the escalating problems that their family has because of them. The power structure of the two individuals leads to a variety of conflicts and arguments. The rest of the family and their relationships are then centered around the way that Sister and Stella-Rondo interact. We see through them that having good relationships with our family brings far more happiness than strife with them

    Read More

  • The Obsession with Anorexia

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Terry Yarber, a single overweight mother of a sixteen year old and two adolescents, wipes away the salty tears from her pale face so that her daughter does not see the fear inside her. Weighing only ninety one pounds, strapped to a hospital bed with a tube down her throat is a girl named Sherie. Sherie thinks the thought of food is repulsive. For instance, she doesn't bother to count calories, carbohydrates, or watch out for bad fat or good fat. Sherie does not bother to eat at all. The most she has had to eat in the last three days are two baby carrots, one slice of low carbohydrate bread, and one leaf of lettuce. While Ms. Yarber sits next to her daughter, she try's to look in to her deep blue crystal eyes but all she sees is a hallow glaze staring back at her. She tells Sherie the news that was just given to her by the doctor. "Unfortunately, she is isn't letting her body get the kind of nutrients it needs. If she does not start eating she will die a painful death. In fact, she is starving herself" said Dr. Roth. Teenage anorexia is a simple diet that has become an obsession. That person concentrates extraordinary energy on the diet, which can become more important, then anyone or anything else in the world. (Sacker 10)

    Read More

  • Anorexia In Jonathan Tang's Letting Ana Go

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Letting Ana Go, written by an anonymous teen tackles the ongoing problem of anorexia in this true story. Ana is an athlete with a tremendous future ahead of her but, when losing a few pounds turns into an uncontrollable disease her world is turned upside down. With her best friend by her side they both spiral down this path, nearly dying several times she decides to try and get better. This plan doesn’t follow through when a girl has too much to say Ana and her friend both decide to lose weight again. Back to their old habits, it’s worse than ever. One day Ana goes on a jog to her best friend’s house but half way there she collapses. Her body gave up the disease won she was gone.

    Read More

  • Ordinary People Movie Analysis

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many factors that contribute to solid relationships. In the film “Ordinary People,” after the sudden accidental death of the oldest son, Buck, the younger brother Conrad, survives, yet he’s deeply disturbed and attempts suicide. Communication can hold a relationship together, whereas the absence of communication can tear it apart. When a traumatic affair occurs, some families strengthen and battle the despair and misery together, while others become emotionally hidden and detached from one another. The latter is the case for the Jarrett family. There are several relationships displayed in the flim which illustrate either a positive or negative appearance. Strategies of conflict management could have helped their relationship. Conrad, Beth, and Calvin Jarrett engage in acts of “silence” and “violence” multiple times

    Read More

  • Eating Disorders

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Yancey, Diane. Eating Disorders. Brookfield, Connecticut: Twenty-First Century Books A Division of The Millbrook Press, Inc., 1999.

    Read More

  • Hunger, by Knut Hamsun

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel “Hunger” by Knut Hamsun, the novel’s narrator is unfortunate enough to go through delusions and pains that are caused by what many people cannot experience in the modern days; state of being hungry. As the novel progresses narrator becomes more intoxicated into state of delusion as the hunger deepens. In many scenes of the novel, narrator relates to God many times. Narrator blames, thanks, and even to talk one-sided dialogues with his imaginary God. While many can think that God doesn’t take key parts in novel and let it slip as just another symptom of narrator’s delusion, the scenes with God being a part reveals that God plays both scapegoat and a person of gratitude for narrator’s outcome for every action he takes. From the passages it can be deducted that both narrator and Hamsun have attitude that God is ominous and act as catalyst in everyday life.

    Read More

  • The Obsession With The Perfect Body: Anorexia

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today is Jane’s fifth time looking in her bathroom mirror. Scattered across the bathroom counter lays fashion magazines covered with thin women Jane hopes to resemble. Every day Jane stares into her mirror and examines her body. She proceeds to squeeze and tug at her thin stomach. She then turns and twists the fragile skin on the surface of her body with her tiny hands for hours. Even though Jane is now twenty pounds underweight, she still continues to lose more weight. Jane is obsessed with losing weight; Jane is anorexic. Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted

    Read More

More about Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

Open Document