The Fat Girl

The Fat Girl Summary | Detailed Summary

As this story begins, we meet Louise. We immediately learn that a boy kissed her at the age of sixteen, and that her father kisses her often as well.

We then learn that at the age of nine, Louise's mother began admonishing her to watch what she ate. Her mother is described as a slim, pretty woman who eats very little. Despite her mother's warnings that boys are not interested in fat girls, Louise sneaks extra food to supplement the sparse meals she was served. Louise's father, on the other hand, feels as though Louise should be able to eat whatever she pleases.

Louise often goes to the movies with her two friends, Joan and Marjorie, and wonders why the fat actresses are fat. She wonders if they failed at dieting or if they simply chose to be fat. In the end, she believes that the actresses choose to be fat, and that, unlike her, they do not eat secretly.

Louise's friends Joan and Marjorie are both described as thin. While Joan is also described as being pretty, there are other far prettier girls in their school and so, boys are not usually interested in her. Marjorie is intelligent, and she will go on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy. As a teenager, however, her intelligence seems to intimidate the boys and so she finds herself in the company of Joan and Louise. Despite this, all three girls will eventually marry.

Many years later, as Joan and Marjorie attempt to describe their friendship with Louise to their respective spouses, both will remark that even though Louise never seemed to eat during their teenaged years, she was not able to shed the excess weight that she carried. Marjorie even recalls one particular evening when she laments the difficulties she has in keeping the fact that she smokes from her parents. Obviously, she does not realize that Louise has the same difficulties in keeping her secret eating from her parents.

When Louise leaves for college, she believes that she will be able to overcome her eating problems. For the first two weeks, she finds that she does not have the urge to binge. Before long, however, she began to feel more comfortable in her new surroundings and returned to her old habits. This time, however, because her parents are not nearby, she does not feel the need to hide her food.

In attempt to fit in at the all girl college, Louise buys overalls - a popular clothing item - and wears them in place of the more conservative dresses she was accustomed to wearing.

Louise has one friend at college, a young girl named Carrie. We learn that Carrie comes from an unhappy home. Soon after they meet, Carrie and Louise become roommates. Shortly after Carrie moves in, she tells Louise that she smells chocolate at night and knows that Louise is eating in bed. She tells Louise that she wishes Louise could eat in front of her.

Louise and Carrie remain roommates throughout their entire four years of college. They both return home each summer; Louise to the disapproving looks of her mother and Carrie to her bickering parents. They write to each other during the summer and happily reunite each September.

During the summer before their senior year, Carrie writes that she has fallen in love. Although Louise is concerned that this development may have a negative effect on their friendship, she is relieved to find when they return to school that nothing has changed. Carries does, however, spend nearly every weekend in Boston with her boyfriend.

After returning from a weekend away, Carrie confides to Louise that she is concerned about what will become of Louise after they graduate from college. She asks Louise if she would consider going on a diet and promises to help.

Louise agrees to try dieting and under Carries guidance, she begins. When Louise begins the diet, she weights 184 lbs. Carries cooks Louise's meals in their dormitory room. After Louise has finished eating, Carrie goes to the dining room for her meal while Louise goes for a walk.

The diet makes Louise irritable and she complains of always being hungry. To help stave off the hunger, she begins smoking. Even so, she sticks with it and by Thanksgiving is down to 162 lbs. Afraid that Louise will return to her old habits over the Thanksgiving holiday, Carrie convinces her to spend the holiday with her family.

By the time Louise returns home for Christmas, she is down to 155 lbs. Her mother and father are pleased. However, her father notices that she is now smoking. Despite the approval and words of kindness she received while at home, as she returns to school, Louise begins to feel that she had somehow lost her spirit during the course of the diet.

Nonetheless, she presses on, even through an 8-day period when her weight does not budge. By Easter Sunday, she is down to 120 lbs and by the time she graduates in May, she weighs 113 lbs, three pounds less than the goal she and Carrie had set when the diet began.

Louise returns to her parents' home after graduation and finds herself falling into her mother's routine of daily weigh-ins and paltry meals. Her relationship with her mother seems to improve and the two spend many afternoons shopping for clothes.

Before long, Louise meets Richard, a young lawyer from her father's firm. The two date and by the following spring, are married. Carrie comes to be Louise's maid of honor.

Richard and Louise buy a house on a lake and spend the next five years traveling and entertaining friends. Richard is an active man with a big appetite, and so Louise cooks lavish meals for him while continuing to watch her diet carefully.

Despite the fact that things seem to be going well, Louise continues to be nagged by a feeling that she has somehow lost her true self. She shares her thoughts with Richard who has trouble imagining Louise as a fat person.

In their fifth year of marriage, Louise becomes pregnant. Although she is fearful of gaining weight, before long, she begins eating more than normal. Before long, all of the discipline she worked so hard to develop disappears. Richard begins to notice her weight gain, and rather than being supportive, admonishes her to eat less, telling her that summertime is coming and she will want to be able to wear her bathing suit.

Louise continues to eat, and even falls into her old habit of hiding food. This continues even after the baby is born. Richard becomes increasingly frustrated and angry and their relationship deteriorates.

One night, Louise steps on the scale and learns that her weight has climbed to 162 lbs. She stops spending time on the boat with Richard and his friends and opts instead to spend time with their baby.

Richard and Louise continue to fight; however, Louise is convinced that issues other than her weight bother Richard. After one particularly loud argument, Richard pleads with Louise to diet, claiming that he will help her and that he will even eat what she eats. Louise feels that Richard's offers of help are insincere and are based solely on his desire to have her return to her former, more acceptable self. She recalls that now long ago day in college when Carrie made the same offer and how sincere it was.

Louise leaves the room to put their child to bed. She is sure that Richard will leave her soon, a thought that does not seem to bother her. In fact, before returning to the living room, she gets a candy bar and decides to eat it in front of Richard. As she decides this, she is filled with thoughts of how much happier she will be when he is gone. Louise is so consumed with these thoughts that she is startled to find that Richard is still downstairs waiting for her.