A Work in Progress

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses anti-fat bias, bullying, body dysmorphia, and disordered eating.

The novel begins with an individual statement that uses the descriptor “fat” as an insult. This comment wakes Will up to the extent of anti-fat bias around him at both the individual and systemic levels.

Nick’s comment makes Will realize that his “size mattered” to those around him and that many people would have a bias against him because he is fat. He realizes that he is in a school “full of skinny kids / and thin teachers” (41). There are no fat people around him, so Will begins to think of being fat as being a personal flaw, internalizing anti-fat bias. He thinks about how, for him, an innocuous and forgettable moment for Nick was like

an atom bomb

going off

and wrecking everything

in its path (52).

Far from being a forgettable comment from an individual, the comment indicates more widely held societal beliefs stigmatizing fat people, which continue to affect Nick.

Will notices anti-fat designs all around him. He reflects that whoever made the school desks is thin. He recounts how he has to

suck in my stomach

and hunch my shoulders

and collapse my chest

just to fit […]

feeling squeezed

and pressed

and unable

to forget

for even

a second

how fat

and out of place

and unwelcome

I am (46).