Independant Reading Response *Final Revision*

        In Wintergirls Lia Overbrook and Cassie Parrish are best friends have been, as they get older they both develop self-deprecating diseases. Lia is a victim to anorexia, while Cassie deals with the demons of bulimia. They each drag each other further down afraid to face their problems on their own until Cassie breaks off their friendship, leaving Lia destroyed. Six months after the girls falling out Cassie leaves Lia thirty-three messages but Lia refuses to answer still upset. The next day Lia learns that Cassie has died from purging too much in a motel downtown Lia puts together that Cassie was calling for help and feels awful and guilty. Lia’s parents divorced and consumed in their own lives don’t notice their daughter start to slip away into her old habits.  Thesis Statement:  In Wintergirls there are many examples of symbolism some of these examples include the term “wintergirl,” the epigrams about Sleeping Beauty and Persephone, and the last is they symbolism of the crossed out words.

          In the book Wintergirls Lia and Cassie refer to themselves as “wintergirls” meaning cold and heartless but beautiful. This really struck me because I love to be myself and have confidence in my body unlike these girls, so it struck me that these girls could deprecate themselves like that. I think the symbolism of winter and the cold that is found throughout the entire book and the role it plays in building the main themes of this novel. I think the whole “wintergirl” meaning started when they made their New Year’s Resolutions to be the skinniest because they had made it into a competition which helped pull them deeper into their eating disorders.

             There were two epigrams in the beginning; one was an excerpt from the story of Sleeping Beauty and the other the myth of Persephone. The story of Sleeping Beauty starts by Sleeping Beauty falling into a deep slumber after pricking her finger on a rose as soon as she hits the age of fifteen, she then stays asleep for a hundred years waking to the kiss of a handsome prince. The second epigram was an excerpt from the myth of Persephone who is arranged to be with Hades by Zeus, but her mother Demeter. When learns of the arrangement by Zeus she sends Hermes to get her. Hades gives Persephone a pomegranate fruit and she eats seven seeds making he stay in the Underworld with him.  Hades and Hermes later create a compromise, Persephone may stay with Hade for four months of the year, and while she is gone Demeter will bring snow until her return in spring. They agree and go on their way. The symbolism relating to roses and pomegranates thrives in this book, and clearly Laurie Halse Anderson has taken the themes of both these stories as guides to Lia’s life and struggle with Anorexia and Self- Mutilation of her arms and legs.

             The last major example of symbolism is in Lia’s writing she crosses out certain words explains how she feels about the person or object and replaces them with words she should be saying. Ex: Lia crosses out the word Mom and replaced it with Dr. Marrigan. This example gave me a different perspective on why she crosses out words because in another section she crosses out the word prison and write clinic so it could possibly be things she doesn’t want but she also doesn’t want her mother. I later came up with a new theory what if she’s lying to herself by crossing out the improper words, to convince herself that she’s not slipping away/succumbing to anorexia and that she has everything under control.  

             In conclusion, in the book Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, there are many examples of symbolism three major examples were the term “wintergirl,” the two epigrams in the beginning of the book and the crossed out words which is shown throughout the whole book.