Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn Analysis
“I’ve was working out and practicing, trying to learn new stunts for cheer season.” My favorite excuse to use when I was asked about my weight and the marks on my body. I never thought a small goal like wanting to lose a few pounds for summer had the possibility of evolving into such an unhealthy obsession. June came, a month away from my 13th birthday, and within that month, another twenty pounds were gone. The first time my mom noticed the weight was when I hit 140 pounds, I had lost 40 pounds and cheer season was right around the corner, so I had an excuse. Weight continued to fall off my body until I hit 125 pounds. That still wasn’t good enough for me, but losing any more weight seemed almost impossible. After a week without seeing any
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change at all, I binged out of frustration. I finished my rampage of probably over 4,000 calories and purged for the first time. I laid on the bathroom floor that night filled with hatred towards myself and cried until I heard my mom’s alarm in the morning.
Cheer season and the beginning of the school year finally came, I stopped eating almost entirely. I restricted myself to an apple, or a bowl of oatmeal a day, which was usually followed by a purge. Very quickly, my weight started to drop again. My mom worked second shift, so she was gone by the time I got home, and I was in bed by the time she got home. I was always alone. Not having anyone around made my habits become much easier to hide. Over the next month and a half I lost 22 more pounds, and my coach had to remove me from the cheer team. At this point I was always tired, normal everyday tasks were hard for me to complete, and without the cheer team, I had nothing to look forward to. That same night I went home planning on talking to my mom about my restricting and purging over the last few months, but once again the house was empty. She was mandated that night, so she wouldn’t be home until morning. I was so alone and I hated everything, I had nobody to turn to and I felt as if I was detached from the rest of the world. This was the time that I felt isolated.
People are meant to be interdependent. We need other people to surround ourselves with happiness, and companionship. When these basic needs are not available, people start to feel lonely, and as if the world has abandoned them. This leads them to feelings of hatred and anger. Some authors, including Robert Hayden, talk about isolation. In his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden talks about a young boy feeling alone and disconnected from the world. The boy knows his dad loves him and takes care of him, but he believes he is still alone; the same way that I still felt alone when I knew my mom cared about me, she simply didn’t know. The longer a person feels like they are alone, the more they will become alone by secluding themselves from people. Robert Hayden's poem Those Winter Sundays talks about isolation.
“Disconnecting”
People tend to feel Disconnected towards the world when isolated.
In the book Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, she talks about an alcoholic newspaper writer. She grew up in a small town called Wind Gap, but left to get away from empty streets, and her self-harm prone mother to become a writer in a Big City newspaper. After two girls go missing back in her hometown her boss assigns her to go to Wind Gap to uncover the story. The first mile she drove into Wind Gap she is snapped back into reality. She went from living her life on autopilot, writing story after story with no emotional connection- to being thrown into the pit of her childhood hell with all of her memories surrounding her. The voices of the past quickly began drowning out her own, as if she had stepped right back into the cage of isolation she grew up in (Flynn 1-29). The girl ran on autopilot to avoid getting emotionally connected. Similarly, I used to restrict so I didn’t have to experience the emotional side effects that came to me from eating. After doing this for so long, the habit became something I did naturally. Instead of going home after school and eating like most people my age do, I went home and exercised. This ritual became something I had no control over as if I was compelled to exercise and restrict. I felt as though I was inside of a shell watching myself do these things and I had no way to stop them. I was disconnected from not only myself but the world around
me.
Robert Hayden also shows that being isolated made him feel disconnected. He mentions how his father would “get up early and put his clothes on” and do “labor in the weekday” until his hands “cracked” and “ached” (S1). He mentions how his father “made banked fires blaze” and “when the rooms were warm, he’d call” then Robert “would rise and dress” almost as if they are living in this constant repeating cycle (S1). Robert never mentions his mother, or siblings, showing he lives with only his father, and he mentions “love’s austere and lonely offices” (S1). He feels as though he is disconnected from people and the rest of the world. He is lonely, and living in isolation from nurturing interactions.
change at all, I binged out of frustration. I finished my rampage of probably over 4,000 calories and purged for the first time. I laid on the bathroom floor that night filled with hatred towards myself and cried until I heard my mom’s alarm in the morning.
Cheer season and the beginning of the school year finally came, I stopped eating almost entirely. I restricted myself to an apple, or a bowl of oatmeal a day, which was usually followed by a purge. Very quickly, my weight started to drop again. My mom worked second shift, so she was gone by the time I got home, and I was in bed by the time she got home. I was always alone. Not having anyone around made my habits become much easier to hide. Over the next month and a half I lost 22 more pounds, and my coach had to remove me from the cheer team. At this point I was always tired, normal everyday tasks were hard for me to complete, and without the cheer team, I had nothing to look forward to. That same night I went home planning on talking to my mom about my restricting and purging over the last few months, but once again the house was empty. She was mandated that night, so she wouldn’t be home until morning. I was so alone and I hated everything, I had nobody to turn to and I felt as if I was detached from the rest of the world. This was the time that I felt isolated.
People are meant to be interdependent. We need other people to surround ourselves with happiness, and companionship. When these basic needs are not available, people start to feel lonely, and as if the world has abandoned them. This leads them to feelings of hatred and anger. Some authors, including Robert Hayden, talk about isolation. In his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden talks about a young boy feeling alone and disconnected from the world. The boy knows his dad loves him and takes care of him, but he believes he is still alone; the same way that I still felt alone when I knew my mom cared about me, she simply didn’t know. The longer a person feels like they are alone, the more they will become alone by secluding themselves from people. Robert Hayden's poem Those Winter Sundays talks about isolation.
“Disconnecting”
People tend to feel Disconnected towards the world when isolated.
In the book Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, she talks about an alcoholic newspaper writer. She grew up in a small town called Wind Gap, but left to get away from empty streets, and her self-harm prone mother to become a writer in a Big City newspaper. After two girls go missing back in her hometown her boss assigns her to go to Wind Gap to uncover the story. The first mile she drove into Wind Gap she is snapped back into reality. She went from living her life on autopilot, writing story after story with no emotional connection- to being thrown into the pit of her childhood hell with all of her memories surrounding her. The voices of the past quickly began drowning out her own, as if she had stepped right back into the cage of isolation she grew up in (Flynn 1-29). The girl ran on autopilot to avoid getting emotionally connected. Similarly, I used to restrict so I didn’t have to experience the emotional side effects that came to me from eating. After doing this for so long, the habit became something I did naturally. Instead of going home after school and eating like most people my age do, I went home and exercised. This ritual became something I had no control over as if I was compelled to exercise and restrict. I felt as though I was inside of a shell watching myself do these things and I had no way to stop them. I was disconnected from not only myself but the world around
me.
Robert Hayden also shows that being isolated made him feel disconnected. He mentions how his father would “get up early and put his clothes on” and do “labor in the weekday” until his hands “cracked” and “ached” (S1). He mentions how his father “made banked fires blaze” and “when the rooms were warm, he’d call” then Robert “would rise and dress” almost as if they are living in this constant repeating cycle (S1). Robert never mentions his mother, or siblings, showing he lives with only his father, and he mentions “love’s austere and lonely offices” (S1). He feels as though he is disconnected from people and the rest of the world. He is lonely, and living in isolation from nurturing interactions.