The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

    One of the central obsessions of the book is sex and sexuality.  What do we make of the first chapter – making out with Froggy?  Does this make us like her more or less?  What does it suggest about her as a character?  Is she seeking a relationship?  Simply to lose her virginity?  What?  Chapter two continues sex talk as she recalls Anaïs’s advice about sex – also foreshadowing of her parents’ approach to her issues (9).  Note the distinction between “knowing about sex” and “knowing about guys” (10).
      But if their relationship begins as pure carnal desire, it matures because they discover common interests – sitcom theme songs, Froggy’s graphic design competition (58).  She is confused by the evidence that Froggy genuinely likes her – as in his suggestion they should visit Walla Walla together (because it’s for lovers) (87-88).  Note that the book which begins with furtive sexual exploration in private ends with a very public kiss, in violation of her “Fat Girl” rules.

    Virginia’s anxiety over her weight emerges first in the context of sex – p. 7, she resists letting Froggy lift her shirt because she doesn’t want him to see her fat rolls.  It also appears

• In her family, because she sees herself as a misfit (17-18).  Her brother seems embarrassed by her visit (55).  Her dad compliments her, but immediately follows with a comment about her weight (67).

• In her relationship with her mother (“Phyllis Nutford, Fat Girl from Ozark, Arkansas” 33). She wishes her mother would accept her as she is (35).  Mother, though, is probably responding to her own set of cues (“Dad joked about Mom plumping up for winter.  When he said that, Mom spit her mouthful of chips into a paper towel.  Now I guess she’s back to her usual regimen of lettuce and water.” (135)

• In school – “If I were that fat, I’d kill myself” (28).

• In her general self-esteem – she is incredulous that Byron’s college friend calls her a “lovely young woman” (52) and confused when her neighbor confuses her with her “gorgeous sister” (59).  She posts pictures of superthin models as “Food Police” to remind her to stay on her diet (72).  She looks at herself naked and is mortified, pinching herself enough to leave marks (78). Her frustration at the “prison” of her life causes her to injure herself, by burning her finger in the candle flame (136).  How often do we hear about such self-inflicted injuries? Later, this gives her a point of connection to Brie, who suffers from an eating disorder: “I know what it’s like to hate your body so much you want to hurt it.” (153-54)

Family issues.  Virginia inverts the family romance – she perceives herself as switched at birth (17), but instead of having been switched into a lower-class family when she is really a swan, she imagines that she was put in this perfect family.  She is an ugly duckling – what does that mean?
      Her parents think so little about her that they even went golfing in Connecticut instead of coming with her to the awards banquet at her school (112), and both father and mother regularly renege on promises they make to her.  Little wonder then that she feels herself to be trapped in the wrong family. 

    Byron’s date rape (stated on p. 100) brings the major issues together – sex and sexuality, the “perfect” Shreves family, his godlike status at Brewster school.  It is difficult for her to adjust to his fallen status – as she says: “For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked up to Byron more than anyone in the world.  If he’s the sun, I’m a planet revolving around him. Everything I’ve done in my life – from where I chose to go to high school to how I feel about myself – has been because of my big brother.” (120-21)
      Because of the nature of Byron’s offense, she finds any possibility of intimacy disgusting, causing her relationship with Froggy to be shelved, at least temporarily (124). The entire family is in denial, echoing her mother: “It’s all going to be just fine.”  But it governs everything they do.  When Virginia tries to write her sister, following her mother’s injunction not to mention Byron’s difficulties, she finds that the date rape continually erupts into her letter even though she tries to avoid it.
      Eventually, Byron’s transgression leads Virginia to re-examine every aspect of her relationship to him – and to question the “perfection” of her family. To get beyond the issues of self-esteem about herself and confusion about Byron’s act, and to deal with the lack of understanding she receives from her parents, Virginia needs to become an independent person, one whose self-image is not based on her parents’ perception of her, on her classmates, or on the reflected glory of her brother.  Steps in the process:

• For the first time in her life, Virginia leaves school (106-07).

• She contemplates her life to this point (“What if for one second I didn’t care what people thought of me?  What if I weren’t so eager to please Mom and Dad?  What if I didn’t always try to blend in, go with the flow, be the good, obedient girl? Who on earth would I be?” (143)

• This contemplation leads directly to her buying an airline ticket to Seattle, though she doesn’t believe she will ever get permission to go (144-45).

• Again in immediate response to her mother’s attempts to control her (after the TV interview), Virginia actually does go to Seattle (162).

• While there, she has her eyebrow pierced (177).

• She goes to visit Annie Mills, to apologize even if no one else in the family can do so (201).  Then she writes Anaïs on her own (205).

• She buys her own dress from the shop where she wants to go, rather than following her mother’s wishes to get clothes that are too old for her (211).

• She dies her hair purple (212).

• She begins kick boxing.

Other areas to note:

• Virginia's humorous view on things – her voice. Examples:

  • “I said that the soda was making my braces cold.  As I’ve read in myriad magazines, women should always call attention to their mouths, as in licking a lollipop or sliding on lip-gloss.” (6)

  • Dark humor after learning about Byron: “Diet Tip #6: Do not discover that your beloved brother has been found guilty of date rape.” (109)

• Virginia makes lists as a way of sorting out her feelings about things and making sense of the world:

  • The Fat Girl Code of Conduct (16-17)

  • The scale of “popular” to “dorky” and her lists of points (22-23)

  • “The More I Bare, the More I Scare” (56) – listing reasons she is unhappy about herself.

  • “The Earth, Myself, and Other Big Round Things” – “the first list ever that I’m going to show people” and it is an affirmation of herself as she is (238-39).

  • Make a list of the things you liked most about the book, and of the things you liked least.

• E-mail communication – her on-line alias (“citigurl13”) and correspondence with Shannon:

  • She writes Shannon about the sweatshirt (32); Shannon provides long-distance support – “sucky solidarity”

  • Shannon shares with her news of her new Walla Walla friends (90-91)

  • Shannon is the only one she can tell about Byron (100). In a follow-up phone conversation, Shannon gives her the saying from the tea box: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is hitched to everything else in the universe.”

  • Shannon and her parents offer Virginia some respite by inviting her to spend Thanksgiving with them (127) .  But her mother is unable to recognize Virginia’s needs, so refuses her permission.

  [NOTE] The murder of the royal family of Nepal by Crown Prince Dipendra, referred to in Virginia’s current events class (104), was a real event.  It took place on June 1, 2001 – so there is a shift in time as it is presented as a current event in her class in the fall. Why?  Are there any parallels between this news item and the events in Virginia’s family?

A. Waller Hastings
Professor of English
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD  57401

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