Walking down a street can result in negative words from complete strangers, which she resents because she does not feel it is for others to have an opinion about her obesity.Īs well as talking about the reaction of others to her size, Gay also tells the reader of her own reaction to how big she has allowed herself to become. People are sometimes angry with her for letting herself get to be this size. Gay's feelings about other people who judge her weight are not positive sometimes people just stare, and don't say anything, but sometimes they are more vocal, and comment about her size.
until this becomes another emotional issue that she uses food to hide from. Her relationship with her parents, for example, becomes difficult, and she finds that it is increasingly difficult for her to deal with their perception of her.
Having a dysfunctional relationship with food also leads to a dysfunction in every other relationship as well, and if not dysfunctional, each relationship is governed by the way in which others view excessive weight. Eventually, she became obese, and then morbidly obese, finally receiving a diagnosis of super-morbidly obese as she strove to become physically repulsive to men and to keep them away from her all together. Gay gained most of her weight shortly after her abuse at the time she realized that she was comforting and emotionally medicating herself with food, and she later came to realize that she was subconsciously insulating herself from the outside world as well, and protecting herself from unwanted attention. This is something that the book's author, Roxanne Gay, also experienced and speaks to very early on in her narrative. Watch any episode of My 600lb Life and you will see that there is a direct, and oft-repeated, correlation between childhood sexual abuse and obesity. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twentiesincluding the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young lifeand brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined," Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe."
I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. "I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.