What role does the narrator’s family play in shaping her perception of her body?

In story eight, we are faced with the character and her struggles with her body. Despite this, she grows up with the idea of just eight bites. First, we start with her mother, and in the book, she states this idea that you only have to take eight bites of food. Her mother, according to her, looked skinny and was never overweight. This causes her to become more aware of what she eats and even causes her to feel anxiety after eating, which leads her to take more than eight bites due to the fact that she is hungry. She then experiences even more anxiety after picturing the food as delicious and in her mouth. Even if she remembers herself as having a normal weight and being a normal teenager, this is something that sticks with her every single day. When she remembers her mom, this constant phrase that her mother said sticks with her, and now that she is older, she could feel it more and ask questions like, “What would my mother think or say?” Her mother influenced her, I believe, to be skinny and eat less.

Another set of characters that could have influenced her perception of body image were her three sisters, after she claimed that they all got the surgery. I feel like she might have been influenced to also do it. After all, in the book, they talked positively about the surgery and even encouraged her to get it. There could’ve also been peer pressure from them since they got it. After all, it could be the same thing for her sisters due to their mother’s influence.

Third, I think her daughter plays a big part. After having her daughter, she felt different and felt like her body was not fine and did not fit the standards of society or her mother’s standards. After all, she is a woman, and her body after having a child could change completely, and I feel like she would have felt that. But in the end, her daughter has a positive outlook because she does not want her mother to go through with the surgery and feels like she does not need it, giving her the confidence that she needs. Overall, I feel like her daughter makes her reflect on her old self and question what she did. After all, she will not be the same. She feels like she did not deserve that body, and her old body did not deserve her.

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