Research Paper On Wintergirls
“‘I swear to be the skinniest girl in school, skinnier than you,’ Cassie’s eyes got big as the blood pooled in my hand. She grabbed the knife and slashed her palm, ‘I bet I’ll be skinnier than you.’
‘No, don’t make it a bet. Let’s be skinniest together.’
‘Okay, but I’ll be skinnier’”(179). At this moment, Cassie and Lia made a pact to be the thinnest, most beautiful girls in the entire school. This is when both girls started slowly dying. This is when they became known as the “wintergirls”. In literature, winter is a time when growth stops and there is no hope. Cassie and Lia, bulimic and anorexic, lost hope the minute they agreed on this pact. In the first half of the book, Lia expresses the grief of her friend by focusing on the
cleanse of her body. By this, she meant cleansing everything out of her body, including food. After her two trips to the New Seasons Rehabilitation Center, Lia swears she will never go back. She believes if she maintains the dangerously low weight goals set for herself without going back to “dangerland”, there is no need for going back to the New Seasons, or what Lia calls, prison. The negative influence coming from Cassie’s ghost empowered the positivity and encouragement to be healthy over Lia’s stepmom, Jennifer, and sister, Emma.
After the numerous conversations with Cassie’s ghost, it is now pointed out to the reader that Cassie is really a character made up by the subconscious of Lia. Cassie is there to tell Lia what she does not want to hear, which is that she is dying. Lia’s weight is getting perilously close to “dangerland” and decides she wants to give up after the persuasion of Cassie. Her suicide attempt was a failure, because not only was she still living, but her beloved step sister was there to witness the entire thing. Even after the attempt of doctors and her parents, Lia was still not able to love and value herself.
‘No, don’t make it a bet. Let’s be skinniest together.’
‘Okay, but I’ll be skinnier’”(179). At this moment, Cassie and Lia made a pact to be the thinnest, most beautiful girls in the entire school. This is when both girls started slowly dying. This is when they became known as the “wintergirls”. In literature, winter is a time when growth stops and there is no hope. Cassie and Lia, bulimic and anorexic, lost hope the minute they agreed on this pact. In the first half of the book, Lia expresses the grief of her friend by focusing on the
cleanse of her body. By this, she meant cleansing everything out of her body, including food. After her two trips to the New Seasons Rehabilitation Center, Lia swears she will never go back. She believes if she maintains the dangerously low weight goals set for herself without going back to “dangerland”, there is no need for going back to the New Seasons, or what Lia calls, prison. The negative influence coming from Cassie’s ghost empowered the positivity and encouragement to be healthy over Lia’s stepmom, Jennifer, and sister, Emma.
After the numerous conversations with Cassie’s ghost, it is now pointed out to the reader that Cassie is really a character made up by the subconscious of Lia. Cassie is there to tell Lia what she does not want to hear, which is that she is dying. Lia’s weight is getting perilously close to “dangerland” and decides she wants to give up after the persuasion of Cassie. Her suicide attempt was a failure, because not only was she still living, but her beloved step sister was there to witness the entire thing. Even after the attempt of doctors and her parents, Lia was still not able to love and value herself.