I know I said the last post was the last post but I thought of something I wanted to include immediately after I posted so I am going to blog twice... in forty minutes...
Was I the only one who kind of liked Peter's sisters in Fruit? I know they are awful to him about 90% of the time and the scene in the mall with Christine is ridiculously heartbreaking. But... at the end I think they redeem themselves. As soon as he says he wants to lose the weight and he wants to go jogging or to aerobics class, they offer to help him. I thought it was interesting that they were all overweight (Christine isn't during the duration of the novel but he mentions that she used to be the fattest of them all). And then Christine and Nancy get skinny leaving Peter to become the "fat" one. So instead of hating the sisters (who I thought were just trying to break free of the fat and their family) the character I hated the most was the mom. Peter is unhealthy and the doctor is telling her this and she's not listening. And she just keeps feeding him. At the end of the novel, when Peter wants to lose weight and make a change his mom doesn't understand. Instead of being supportive, she bitches (pardon the language) about how all her kids are blaming her for their weight problems (page 251 and 252). I guess I just liked that in the end, when his mother is making everything about her, Peter and his sisters reach a mutual understanding and they support him when his mother doesn't.
Now I'm done. For real this time.
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I feel as if the mother was afraid of change and abandonment. If Peter were to lose the weight then she would be the only fat one left. Also, with losing weight one has to deal with the other problems that manifested within this addiction to food. But I do agree with you in the fact that she was annoying and intrusive throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteThe sisters on the other hand... Towards the end of the book (where Peter was attempting to shed the pounds, as you mentioned) I did being to open towards them. I did not hate them throughout the book I just took the behavior as normal sibling rivalry.
I did not have any problem with his sisters either - isn't that how all siblings get along? (If not, I suppose my brother and I will have to mend our relationship). I think Peter's sisters will help him out a lot in the future when he is dealing with problems. I am not so sure that their mother will be able to deal with anything major that comes her way.
ReplyDeleteI also had problems with Peter's mom. She was so caught up in avoiding anythign that did not fit into her perception of how the world should be was ignored. She thought Peter was an angel and therefore, he was perfect and had no serious weight problem. Uncle Ed was "the other thing" and wa snot to be named. She was completly cought on her perception of reality. As for the sisters, I had no problem with them either. If only freud could read this book...
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