The Making of Dolores Price
There is a lot of speculation as to who can write what. Of course people can write just about anything, but storytelling is all about experience. To be able to transfer words to a piece of paper, you first need to know the words and how they fit together. It can be challenging if you're writing about a topic you don’t know about nor have the experience of what you're writing about. Just guessing doesn’t get you anywhere. Someone writing a story in a different person's perspective is controversial and challenged in society. Without someone first hand experiencing a situation or asking someone who has, it raises some red flags. An example would be a straight person writing a story with a queer character, or a man writing
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a woman's voice in a story. In Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, he created the main character named Dolores Price.
At the beginning of the novel she is just a young girl living with her mother and grandmother. Ever since the beginning, what has concerned me is how often the author describes Dolores by describing her body. Even before we knew what she was like as a person we knew she was overweight, and she was just a teenager. Describing women by their bodies is popular amongst men. When asked about a woman, men typically first describe their body types. Because that's the first thing they notice about a woman. And men then judge a woman by her body type what kind of person she is. Wally Lamb seems to be famous for constantly mentioning women's bodies like they're the only thing that matters about a woman. In Wally Lamb’s introduction to the novel he talks about being a student teacher and says “, I decided I would save Sheila’s life by engaging her in class discussion. But each time I called on her, she shook her head and remained silent. Her fat fortress that no rookie teacher was going to penetrate.” He said Dolores was inspired by Sheila. But it's gross that he just described a high school girl simply as fat. And that she’s quiet because she’s fat. And the reality is is that he doesn’t know her. He just made assumptions about a girl based on her body type. But the only thing combating against this notion is that one of the focal points of the novel has to do with Dolores’s weight and how she’s ‘coming
undone’. The question is whether Wally Lamb was able to accurately portray a female character. The fact that Wally Lamb is male and has no experience being female should make it more difficult for him to accurately portray a female character. Wally Lamb had many female influences while writing this book. His wife, editors, and agents were all important for the production of this novel and were all female. We could assume that they had a key role in the authenticity of the female characters in the novel. But at the end of the day, it’s still Wally Lamb’s writing. His portrayal of Dolores in the novel in my opinion, is somewhat authentic. His skills as a writer and his editors and agents all played a role in the writing and production of this book and without these women, this book wouldn’t be what it is today.
The Punishment Given to Esther Price I think that as soon as you read the information that is above the source which explains who written about it. The writer, John Doherty, was an active trade unionist which would mean making the mills sound bad was in his advantage. This clearly gives you the impression before you even read it that it's going to be biased against the Greg's and their punishment of Esther Price. In the first sentence it mentions that the mill had apprentices but in this account it is "apprenticed".
In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
“Fat Acceptance”: An Argument Lacking Validity Cynara Geisslers’ essay “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer,” was published in Geez Magazine in 2010. The focus of the essay is to refute the pressure of society to be thin and promote self-acceptance regardless of size. While this essay touches on many agreeable points, it tends to blow many ideas out of context in an attempt to create a stronger argument. The article takes on a one-sided argument without any appropriate acknowledgement of the opposition, overlooks the risks of ignoring personal health, and has a strong feminist ideology associated towards the essay which tends to make the validity of her argument questionable.
In the article, “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” Roberta Seid goes in depth on the emotionally straining and life altering trials women take on to try to portray society’s “ideal” body over time. She delves far into the past, exposing our culture’s ideal body image and the changes it has gone through over time. The article brings to light the struggles of striving to be the perfect woman with the model body. On the other hand, in the article “Rethinking Weight”, author Amanda Spake, details the many differing views of obesity. Spake voices her opinion on the idea that being overweight, and not losing weight, is caused by laziness. “Too Close to the Bone” and “Rethinking Weight” both deliberate about weight issues that are
She writes of the clothes that were sold there that were made for fat people and she thought they even looked stylish. She tells of a talent show where people get to try the lead role they did not get in high school as a result of the fact that they were not as beautiful as the skinny people. She writes that even though some researchers conclude that body size is genetically determined, they still say large individuals should try to lose weight, but it may be futile. She calls them out and says they cannot align their findings with what they believe personally.
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.
In this day and age, writing is being portrayed through various mediums, such as film and television. Some of those portrayals depict writing as both good and bad depending on the situation that is present. Authors such as, by E. Shelley Reid, Kevin Roozen, and Anne Lamott all write about important writing concepts that are being depicted in films, like Freedom Writers. The film Freedom Writers shows a positive and accurate portrayal of writing in the sense that the writers should have a connection to what they are writing about, writing is a form of communication, and that writing does not have to be perfect the first time.
Julie Carter, was born in Salud, Virginia in 1943. After discovering her new identity as a lesbian in 1973, Julie Carter renamed herself as Julie Blackwomon. Her work ranges from fictional stories to poems in which “Revolutionary Blues” was the most notable. Julie Blackwomon is an African American author who themes her work after herself, the tension of being African American and lesbian. She depicts her life as being difficult and unacceptable by her own people. Her work characterizes the struggle and fear of “coming out of the closet.”
Rachel recalls that whenever she would see a picture of herself she would fell repulse and sick to her stomach. She said she hated her nose and the whole right side of her face. Her lips where too flat, her lips where uneven, and her neck was too long that she looked like a duck. As time went on she developed obsessive compulsive disorder and used to wash her face at least 30 times a day. Rachel wouldn’t leave her house for 7 years because she was too ashamed of what people might think of her appearance. Rachel even tried to cut off the fat from her leg with a regular kitchen
All humans have different views on certain topics. It is one of the blessings of being individuals. The view one person has may not agree with the view the rest of society has. These are typically the people that lead revolutions, the people that start new ideas. Authors write individuals into their works to show a complexity of views on many variations of topics.
The two stories I am going to study were written by women. I think it is virtually imposible to tell, without previous knowledge, that these stories were written by female authors. Virginia Woolf says that “ the first words in which either a man or a woman is described are generally enough to determine the sex of the writer” . I don´t agree with this point, that is very difficult, and it must be also very difficult for specialists. But I must say that there are always something inherently different.
Beth by all accounts was raised in a normal home and is a typical teenager. She became to experience an obsession with gaining weight and becoming fat. Although, Beth weight is normal for her height and age she is dieting and losing weight. She has a poor self-image and as a result has become dangerously thin. Beth refuses to admit she has a problem and as a result is suffering side effects including the loss of her menstrual cycle. Beth’s parents are concerned for their daughter’s health but have no idea how to help her. It is clear that Beth suffers from anorexia. Beth has an abnormal fear of gaining weight. This fear has led her to an unhealthy view of what she should weigh. The media and culture surrounding Beth are used as her justification for her fear of weight. Beth’s ability to ignore both the set point and setting point theory could be linked to the positive-incentive she had developed. Beth sees losing weight as a positive or desired outcome. These views as lead her from seeing any positive-incentive from eating. The fact that Beth has been obsessed with her weight for a while and that she is dangerously slim, would suggest that she has been limiting her food intake for a while. The fact that Beth has limited her intake of food for so long means that eating would only make her feel nauseated. This feeling only justifies her view of not e...
As a woman of color who has always been a big girl, I started struggling with my body image when I reached my adolescence years. Growing up, I did not realize that my body was abnormal and unacceptable. I saw myself just like other peers and age group. My experience of body dissatisfaction first started within my own family. I got teased about my size by family members. My parents, especially my mother, reminded me constantly about how obese I was. Reaching a certain age, she started controlling my food intake and she made sure I ate no more than three times a day. With all those disciplinary actions from my mother and the pressure I felt from family, I started noticing of external standards of beauty and body image. In this lens, one can see that body image is influenced by many factors and my mother became a structure that carried out directives. This example demonstrates that feminine body is socially constructed and taught to us. When this ideal body image or feminine body gets inculcated in us at a young age, it becomes internalized discipline that enables one to distinguish herself from other
Physical beauty is constructed by the society that we live in. We are socialized from a very young age to aspire to become what our culture deems ideal. Living in the United States, as in many other Western cultures, we are expected to be well-educated, maintain middle-class or upper-class status, be employed as well as maintain a physical standard of beauty. Although beauty is relative to each culture, it is obvious that we as Americans, especially women, are expected to be maintain a youthful appearance, wear cosmetics and fashionable clothes, but most importantly: not to be overweight. Our society is socially constructed to expect certain physical features to be the norm, anything outside this is considered deviant. Obesity is defined as outside the norms of our culture's aesthetic norms (Gros). “People who do not match idealized or normative expectations of the body are subjected to stigmatization” (Heckert 32). Obesity is a physical deviance; it is one that is an overwhelming problem in our society as we are always judged daily, by our appearance. Those who do not conform to the standards of beauty, especially when it comes to weight, are stigmatized and suffer at the hands of a society that labels them as deviants.
There are a lot of things that people do to relieve pain, stress and emotions, one of them being writing. Simply writing down their thoughts can be relieving to them and a healthy way to let out anything that they might not want to tell others. Things that influence a person’s writing varies from emotions and their personal experiences. However, these experiences can be hard for some people, which can result in a huge conflict in their writing. Although, sometimes it has a negative connotation, many times it does not necessarily mean that it changes a person 's perspective. Often people learn good things from bad experiences, to prevent others from happening to them as said by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her story “The Yellow Wallpaper” or