Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2003.Chubby, blond and unremarkable, 15-year-old Manhattanite Virginia feels completely separate from her family of dark-haired, beautiful successes. Making matter worse is the fact that her best friend has just moved clear across the country to Walla Walla, Washington, so she is alone to face her sophomore year at her very exclusive private school. Virginia has a burgeoning romance with fellow classmate Froggy, but the “Fat Girl Code of Conduct” she has written for herself prevents her from speaking with him in public. She adores and idolizes her older brother, Bryon, who is making a name for himself on his college campus. Everything is relatively normal (her mother, a prominent child psychologist, constantly brings up her weight, Virginia decides to go on a diet and her father attempts to remain blissfully ignorant), until Bryon is accused of date rape and has to move home. Virginia struggles to come to terms with the implications of what Bryon has done and the confusion that it has caused. Once bullied and overlooked by her parents, Virginia begins to make her own decisions and break out of the mold that she has developed over time, slowly becoming her own person.
Feeling as if you don’t belong, neither in school or at home, is a prominent theme in The Earth. Covered in a number of ways, you get the feeling that Virginia feels nearly invisible to her family and the other kids at school. Her brother, a former golden boy at Virginia’s school, was extremely popular and well-liked, while Virginia prefers to spend her time huddled in the restroom or helping a kind teacher in her classroom. At home she is left to her own devices, is reminded of her shortcomings by her parents and feels jealous when her best friend becomes friendly with other kids in her new town, because she is by herself. All of these elements bring together a characterization of someone who feels left out and alone, something that nearly every teen has felt at one time or another. Ilene Cooper agrees with this in Booklist , observing that readers “will immediately identify with Virginia’s longings as well as her fear and loathing.” The stylized writing, sections of the book appear in emails, instant messages and diary entries, and modern language will no doubt appeal to the young adult audience, as will the self-deprecating humor and straight-forward observations of the protagonist.
What feels a bit unlevel about is work are the number of issues that are covered and remain unaddressed in the text. Virginia engages in some self-harm, she burns her finger with a candle commenting that, “…at least the pain is concentrated in one spot rather than dominating [her] entire body” and also pinches herself so fiercely that she bruises. A kind doctor, whom her mother initially brought her to for diet advice, subtly and vaguely investigates, but no resolution is given. Additionally, Virginia’s issues with food and overeating are left mostly untouched, with the exception of her mother’s desire for her to lose weight. Bree, another seemingly perfect student, also deals with an eating disorder, but it is almost completely glossed over and is added in what appears to be an effort to give the extraneous character depth. Introducing characters and not providing them motivation, complexity or backstory causes some of them to become caricatures rather than full, rounded, active elements of Virginia’s life. Making marginal references to significant issues and neglecting to expound on their detrimental aspects will do no favors to the reader, especially to the reader who is suffering from any one of these problems.
Book jacket found on: http://www.candlewick.com/bookxtras.asp?isbn=0763619582&id=&browse=&view=jacket&jacket=./images/cwp_bookjackets/648/0763619582.jpg&bktitle=The+Earth%2C+My+Butt%2C+and+Other+Big+Round+Things
No comments:
Post a Comment