Compare Jenny in Lawns to Louise in The Fat Girl - Essay Example

Self identity is the basic theme of both the stories. Louise is a fat girl who is constantly nagged by her mother to lose weight; otherwise she will never be able to attract any guy. This creates a complex in her personality and she starts pretending to go on a diet. She doesn’t eat in public or in front of her mother. She wants to please her mother and improve her image in the eyes of her friends that she doesn’t eat- yet she is fat. She eats when she is alone and derives pleasure from her secret for many years.

This habit develops into a complex that gets deeper and deeper until she reaches college and remains fat as ever. She notices the disapproving expressions of her mother, old friends and relatives but she doesn’t want to change herself. She believes that she is much more than just a fat girl. This is a very important characteristic which is comparable to Jenny in ‘Lawns’ who is aware of the fact that she is sexually abused by her father. She learns to keep this secret from her mother and everyone else.

She is an intelligent student and enjoys sexual relationships with other guys unlike Louise- but she doesn’t fall in love with any of them until she meets Glenn. Jenny also develops a psychological disorder of stealing things: mails, cookies, money. So, both girls develop a habit of stealing or hiding something from the rest of the world. Both are also lucky in friendship. Carrie, Louise’s friend helps her lose weight by being very supportive and as a result, Louise finds Richard who marries her and they apparently start living a happy life.

Strangely, Louise feels that she had lost her soul along with her weight. She doesn’t feel like herself anymore and once she gets pregnant she finds the true meaning of her life and accepts herself the way she is. She decides that she doesn’t want to change herself for anyone and happily seeks comfort in motherhood. She starts eating secretly and despite Richard’s reaction to her gaining weight, she indulges in her secret habit of eating. One decisive evening, when the two are quarreling over her weight issue, she decides it is time to stand for her.

She realizes that she made the wrong choice of going against her will and losing weight for the sake of finding a nice guy and for the approval of others- like her mother. “She thought of Carrie telling her of smelling chocolate in the dark and, after that, watching her eat it night after night. She smiled at Richard, teasing his anger.” (Dubus 139) She accepts her identity the way she is and faces Richard in the final scene with a candy bar in her hand. This shows that she asserts her choice and refuses to bow down to social pressure.

This is an indication of the freedom of choice that she exercises and decides for herself, regardless of what her husband might think of her. Jenny is a victim of sex abuse by her father since she was nine. She accepted it as her fate and let him do it for many years. In fact she enjoyed it or perhaps she found it a way of getting her wishes fulfilled. Her parent is responsible for creating a psychological problem of stealing things- just like Louise, whose mother’s obsession with her weight develops her secret eating habits.

She steals mails and the gifts that are meant for other people. The reason why she reads letters of other people is perhaps to know about their secret lives. She might want to know if there are others