The Fat Girl

Quotation marks are typically used to indicate dialogue, and they do so throughout much of “The Fat Girl.” However, when Louise’s mother speaks, Dubus generally does not use quotation marks. The dialogue instead flows into the rest of the text: “It started when Louise was nine. You must start watching what you eat, her mother would say. I can see you have my metabolism. Louise also had her mother’s pale blond hair” (158). Omitting the quotation marks suggests the degree to which Louise internalizes her mother’s words; they seem more a part of Louise’s internal thoughts than other people’s words are.

Dubus uses imagery, or description using the five senses, to bring the text to life for the reader and to intimately describe what Louise is perceiving and feeling. When Louise is at college, the narrator describes parts of her body she likes and dislikes, saying, “Most of all she liked her long pale blond hair, she liked washing and drying it and lying naked on her bed, smelling of shampoo, and feeling the soft hair at her neck and shoulders and back” (161). This allows the reader to experience Louise’s world through her senses, but it also allows the author to create layers of meaning that harken back to earlier parts of the text. Louise inherited her blond hair from her mother, so when she takes pleasure in feeling her own hair, she may be lamenting the physical affection that she rarely received from her mother. Imagery allows Dubus to communicate this emotion without stating it outright.