Summary, Analysis & Response to Suzanne Britt’s “That Lean and Hungry Look”

The author's thesis is found in the first paragraph, it reads, "All of them are dangerous" (p.82) because thin people say things like, "There aren't enough hours in the day," they aren't fun. Suzanne Britt's essay is about thin and fat people. Her argument is a compare and contrast stating that fat people are superior to thin people. Britt believes that they oppress, they have no ability to goof off and want to face the truth; because they have never learned the “value of a hot fudge sundae for easing tension."

Britt also states that thin people are downers. She gives plenty of examples of how thin people aren’t fun, they have long lists of logical things and think a 2,000 point plan leads to happiness; while thin people are prognosing, expounding and pricking at things because they have their skinny little acts together. Fat people are acquainted with the night, with luck and playing it by ear. Fat people will “like you even if you’re irregular and have acne….fat people will take you in.”

Analysis:

The purpose of this brief essay is to entertain and show Britt’s perspective on how thin people differ from fat people. Britt’s audience is fat people. I don’t really think she cares if thin people read her essay, she is writing to amuse fat people and maybe make them feel a little better about themselves. A few rhetoric strategies she used were pathos, humor, repetition, compare and contrasting, and cause and effect.

Britt uses cause and effect in her essay to explain why thin people are the way they are. One example of this is when she writes, “Thin people turn surly, mean and hard at a young age because they never learn the value of a hot fudge sundae for easing tension. (p.83)" Therefore, thin people become mean because they are not taught at a young age that comfort foods can help relieve their stress. I find the way she uses repetition to benefit her paper greatly, because reading the different ways to describe thin people, “briskly, dull, probe, bony, crunchy” and fat people, “guffaw, goodly, generous, jiggly” really help me get a visual to be able to relate to what she’s describing.

Response:

I found this reading to be very entertaining and amusing. I agree with Britt on most of her statements. When she said that thin people say things like, "There aren't enough hours in the day" and how fat people think the "day is too damn long already" I can understand that because my sister and I are exactly like this. She is always running errands and never takes a break for herself. She is continuously “eyeing new things to tackle.” Finding unnecessary things to do like clean an already clean house or jog off that Thanksgiving dinner. Then finally when she is able to sit and relax on the couch, she fidgets until she can find a problem that needs fixing. Thin people can be very exhausting.