Stick Figure

Leila Henry 805

In the book “Stick Figure”, the main character, Lori develops and eating disorder called anorexia. The disease spirals from not eating breakfast one day, to not eating at all in just a couple of months. Lori’s reasoning for not eating any more is flawed because she is blinded by the stereotypical skinny women and wanting to be exactly like them. Lori could have gotten better faster if her family and friends were more understanding, this caused Lori to feel very alone.

If Lori’s mother understood Lori more as a child from the beginning, Lori might have never begun dieting in the first place or at least had a speedier recovery.  Lori’s mother was constantly on a diet and never ate that much at all. She did this in front of Lori so it was obvious that Lori might pick up on a few of her mother’s habits. Though her mother probably didn’t even need to start dieting, it was different for her because it was less dangerous. Her mother was clearly a grown adult and it is safer to diet when your body has fully grown because when you are a kid you need more food. However, her mom still hardly ever eats, it is possible that she also has an eating disorder because she is constantly thinking about what she eats and eats the bare minimum. In addition, from the very beginning she was commenting on everything that Lori ate, or didn’t eat. Lori never seemed to trust her mother’s judgement thought because her mother was old and didn’t understand the new trends.

In addition, though Lori’s dad and brother aren’t in a lot of the book, they still don’t say a lot to help Lori. They are like little robots that only do what Lori’s mom wants. Everyone in their family is actually a little scared of Lori’s mom which is why they only do what they know she will like. Both Lori’s dad and brother didn’t communicate with Lori that well at all which only made Lori feel a little more sad and alone.

At school Lori almost had no friends because she was a “nerd”. It was almost as if Lori started to eat less because she wanted attention from the girls at her school. The girls at her school only reinforced the stereotype of being a really skinny women even more. Those girls make Lori believe that she can always be a little skinner.  Lori is never skinny enough for herself, until the very end she tries on a pair of her friend’s pants (who she thought was very skinny) and they are way too big for her. She then realizes that it’s disgusting how skinny she is. Her friends really could help her but just don’t.

Throughout the book, all of Lori’s actions just show that she is so sad and lonely and she just needs to impress her friends and family to be accepted. Though her body shape is changing on the outside, her mind is not. She believes that as long as she is weighing something, she can always lose something and it is not healthy.