Negative Body Image In A Bridge To Wisemans Cove

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A Bridge to Wisemans Cove is a bildungsroman text about a teen called Carl Matt who is a large and lumpy boy of fifteen. He has an older sister Sarah, and a younger brother Harley. Their fathers all deserted them when they were young, leaving them with their mother, Kerry, who is unable to cope. One day, she walks out for good it seems, and nineteen year old Sarah can’t handle the responsibility of raising two boys. She sends them to their Aunt Beryl’s who lives in Wattle Beach, a small holiday destination for tourists. However, Beryl is far from the motherly figure they were hoping for, and she only keeps them for the social service payments. Worse still, the name Matt is immediately frowned upon in the town. When Carl turns sixteen and the payments for him stop, Beryl forces him to leave school and find a job. He finds work …show more content…

It also explores ideas about prejudice of someone’s appearance and how friendship, peer pressure and family support contribute to complicating or resolving the problem. Through these core themes, Carl has doubt and worry, but also learns confidence and acceptance.
The book says, “He wore a t-shirt as a paltry ruse against public humiliation.” Carl is paranoid about his body, and also worried about others harsh prejudice. Carl is a character that bottles up his feelings instead of dealing with them. Instead of facing his fear, he hides from it. These feelings just add on to his self-doubt and worry, and it is bound to come out sometime or another. Also, being brought up in an unsupportive environment, he can’t find a way of accepting himself. He has been made to feel like a worthless burden all his life so now that he is been put into the real world, he is too self-conscious to experiment and learn new things about people and life. Self-worth can be established by others opinions, and is generally influenced by peers and

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