One Fat Summer - analysis of important theme
Uploaded by bigshaggy on Sep 17, 2001
One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte, is a very good book for teenagers that feel insecure about themselves and have low self-esteem. In the book they will read about a young boy name, Bobby who overcomes his fears of being fat and being bullied by Willie, one that is much stronger then him physically, but not emotionally. The basic theme of this story is to stand up for yourself no matter the situation.
Willie, the antagonist of the story accidentally makes Bobby overcome his fears and stand up to him. In a way Willie could be a protagonist because he helps Bobby overcome his fears. Willie is a crazy person that doesn't know what he is doing.
It all started in the summer when Bobby, an overweight fifteen year old is embarrassed to take his clothes off and swim in the beach because he is embarrassed that people would make fun of his wobbly legs and stomach, yet that isn't the his worst fear. He had taken swimming lessons the last summer, but quit because he started to gain a lot of weight. He tries to ignore the nasty remarks people say about him, but they stay in his mind. He can sort of ignore it because his best friend, Joanie has the ugliest nose on the face of the earth, but she doesn't care a bit about what other people think, which makes her Bobby's mentor, kind of.
Bobby finds himself a hard low paying job. It doesn't matter to him how much it pays, but he wants to feel secure about himself that he can do something in his life except eat. The job is to mow a lawn for eight hours a day. The lawn mower becomes a symbol in the story because it helps him lose weight and feel more secure about himself. He conquers that fear pretty easily, but another fear awaits him.
He finds himself inside of a box because he wants to do the job because he feels more confident, but Willie, the man that didn't get the job as Dr. Kahn's lawn mower is mad at Bobby for stealing the job. He is always making fun of Bobby, but one day he didn't ignore it, he went up to Willie and told him to stop. Willie did stop, but one night when Bobby was walking back home from the lake, Willie rams out...