The Earth, My Butt,
and Other Big Round Things
In the book The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things the main character is a 15 year old girl named Virginia Shreves who has blonde hair and blue eyes. According to the book, Virginia has a rounder shaped face and a larger than average body. She normally wears baggy jeans, oversized sweatshirts and extra large shirts.
In the book, Virginia says that her family would have been "picture- perfect" if they didn’t have her in it, and she often wonders if she was a mistake. Her mother is an exercise fanatic and a successful adolescent psychologist. Her father is a major sports fan and is very physically fit. Her sister Anais is in the Peace Corps and she and Virginia's brother Bryon are both thin and brilliant. Virginia feels as though her family ignores her because she is not nearly as put together or physically fit as everyone else in her family. Throughout most of the book, Virginia feels like they ignore her. However, later in the story when her family overcomes a difficult problem, Virginia and her brother, Bryon, start talking more and Virginia and her sister, Anais, reconnect. This creates a stronger bond between Virginia and all her family members.
Virginia had only one friend that she really ever talked to and her name was Sharon Iris Malloy-Newman. Virginia and Sharon could talk about the weirdest things, but they could only contact each other by e-mail. This was because Sharron lived in Walla Walla, Washington and Virginia lived in New York City, New York.
Throughout most of the book, Virginia would not interact with her fellow classmates because they would tease her about her size. For example, one day while in the bathroom she overheard the more popular girls say that they would rather die than be as big as Virginia Shreves. So, most of the time Virginia would spend her spare time in her language arts teacher's room. Her teacher's name was Ms. Crowley, but the students called her "Ms. Cowly because ,like Virginia, Ms. Crowley was a bigger than average person too. Later in the book however, a tragic incident takes place in Virginia's school and things begin to change. Everyone in her class starts talking to each other and getting to know one another better.
In my opinion, Virginia is a very self-conscious character who never seems to feel good about herself. In the story, she is always trying to hide her imperfections. She would even hideout in the bathroom. For a while Virginia was even on this crash dieting kick which did not help her with her self-esteem or her health. In fact, her mother was so concerned about her weight that she brought Virginia to a nutritionist to help her with her diet. It wasn't easy, but eventually Virginia came to realize that she couldn't just change her size overnight, she simply needed to change her eating habits.
The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things is entirely written in first person or from the point of view of the main character, Virginia Shreves. Her point of view throughout the whole story is about how she feels while she is struggling with being overweight. It is about her emotions and what is and isn't painful in her life. I thought that the " point of view" style of writing was easy to recognize because of how the story was written and because of what the book was about. I think it was important that it was from her point of view because it made the book more emotional and enticing to read. I was so into this book because Virginia did such a great job of describing what she was feeling. I wanted to keep reading this book because I wanted to know if her life would improve and to see if her self-esteem could change over time. Plus, I think this book would have been very different if the point of view was from a different character in the story. I don't think it would have been as emotional to read. I think the book was successful because it was written from Virginia's perspective. I think you really got to know what she was going through and how deeply she felt about the issues she was facing.
The part of the story that intrigued me the most was the title. The title words, " The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things" just really caught my attention. Honestly, I thought this story was going to be funny and carefree, but then after I started reading it, I quickly learned that that was not the case. I soon realized that Virginia was very worried and self-conscious about herself. I felt bad for her and I think that is why I became so interested in the story. Although it was kind of a sad thing, one part of the book that I thought was touching, was when Virginia was hiding in the bathroom one day and heard the popular girls talking about her and one girl said she would rather die than be Virginia's size. That part caught me off guard because I never realized how cruel some people can be. Another part of the story that I thought was touching was when Virginia’s mom and dad started to be involved in more of her life. Her mother started telling her they could go shopping together and her father gave her two Yankees tickets. Her family grew closer and closer and I thought that was neat.
