Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is about an eighteen year old girl, Lia, who struggles with anorexia. When her estranged best friend, Cassie, dies alone in a hotel room, Lia must find out how she died and why Cassie called her thirty-three times that night. Soon Lia is visited by the ghost of Cassie, this triggers a major relapse into anorexia and cutting. Lia’s parents become worried and her mother asks her to move back into her house and out of her father and step-mother’s house. All this becomes too much for Lia and she enters into rehab for the third time, but this time with the intention of getting well.
Throughout the novel, Lia is constantly concerned with numbers: number of calories, number of time Cassie called her, and the number on the scale. The numbers become a symbol of her decline as well as her memory of Cassie. Whenever Cassie begins to disturb her, she counts. As the encounters with Cassie become more frequent, the number on the scales go down. Not only are numbers important, but also, food. Everyone smells like food, or looks like food. Lia’s unhealthy relationship with food and number dictate her life. Additionally, Lia’s unhealthy self speak is repeated throughout the novel. This includes healthy thoughts crossed out in the novel and an ongoing mantra of self-loathing. It becomes clear that all of these motifs are intertwined to create Lia’s unhealthy lifestyle.
Lia’s character is so focused on her body image that she cannot deal with any of the problems around her. She once excelled in school, but now barely gets by. She has no friends and it seems that her world is virtually about herself, alone. Because of the lack of peers in Wintergirls, Anderson focuses on the family’s influence over Lia. Additionally, Cassie’s supernatural presence and memories of her send Lia into a spiral of self-destruction. Lia feels that she cannot talk to any of her family member about Cassie without meeting resistance. Her mother pushes her to go to her therapist. Her father seems to have too much going on in his own life to help her. Her step-mother begins to resent Lia’s need for almost constant supervision. Lia feels as though she is on display and every move she makes is begin watched. In fact, this is in many ways true. In Sharon A. Stringer’s Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature, Sharon asserts, “when adolescents separate from their families, they no longer see their parents as infallible. Their subsequent search can involve detecting how they will differ from their parents or escape conformity” (21). Lia understands that her parents are “infallible,” but in her mind, they can do nothing right. It seems that Lia’s self-image spills over into all of her relationships, making everyone of them toxic. Unlike many adolescents who see themselves as extensions of their parents, Lia see herself as an outsider who can never conform, but only get by undetected.
Lia’s father and mother both seem, through adolescent glasses to be two extremes of parenting. Her father seems like a permissive parent. He lets her get by without eating as much as she should. He does not push her into eating and accepts her need to go to Cassie’s funeral. Her mother on the other hand, feels like an authoritarian, pushing Lia to eat more and take care of herself. However as the characters grow in complexity, it becomes clear that they both are dealing with the problem in different ways. They are both authoritative in that they truly care about her well-being and want her to get well. Her father tries to set up a home where Lia feels comfortable. Even when it seems that he is not paying attention, it becomes clear that he is. Her mother is firm, but tries to reach out and show Lia how much she does love her. The family relationship in this novel are imperative to the complexity of the text. It is vitally important that the parents are examined and discussed.
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Book List:
Catalyst
Chains
Fever 1793
Fight for Life #1
Forge
Homeless #2
New Beginnings
Prom
Say Good-Bye
Speak
Teacher’s Pet
Thank you, Sarah
Wintergirls
