“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” -Elie Wiesel This quote by author Elie Wiesel, reflects that throughout the novel Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, a prevalent social justice theme is “Justice, Justice shall you pursue,...” (Deuteronomy 16:20). Eric Calhoune is a high school senior whose best friend, Sarah Byrnes, has been put in a hospital because she refuses to speak. Sarah Byrnes, a troubled girl, disfigured by burns she received when she was three, has always been a friend to Eric. Even when being overweight made him an outcast at school. Now, Sarah needs a friend more than ever. Eric, determined to find out the cause of Sarah’s hospitalization, …show more content…
Many times Eric would visit Sarah in the hospital hoping that she will tell him why. Though, Sarah will not speak to Eric. “Sarah Byrnes sits across for me in what has become our nightly standoff. It occurs to me that if she actually is understanding every word I say and choosing not to respond, it pisses me off. Today I’m going to try to find out” (106). Eric, being the good friend he is, immensely wants to give Sarah help. He tries his best and will not stop at anything. In addition, when Virgil Byrnes, who is Sarah’s father, tries to harm her, Eric helps Sarah by trying to find protection for her. He tries to get her the justice she deserves. Sarah then takes up safety with one of her fellow teachers, Ms. Lemry. “For the past three days, Sarah Byrnes has been living in the apartment above Lemry’s garage” (200). She takes Sarah in and cares for her and worries for her as if she was her own child. Furthermore, Eric goes up against Virgil Byrnes in hopes of revenge for the injustice he has done to Sarah. Eric knows that Virgil is a big threat and a dangerous man. Without hesitation, Eric goes up against Virgil. Eric suffered many injuries, but they were all for the justice Sarah
On December 18, 1986, Elie Wiesel accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. He referred back to many people and brought up some memories of his life during the Holocaust. The first person he mentions in his speech is Andrei Sakharov. Andrei Sakharov was a Russian Nuclear physicist and won the Nobel Peace Prize himself, in 1975. Andrei Sakharov was awarded this prize because of his contribution towards human rights.
She was pregnant before married, and to save her family name, the family agreed to kill Sarah’s fetus by abortion. In this reading, Drayton used Sarah story to show the reader about what
In the novel Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes, Eric Calhoun and his best friend Steve Ellerby butt heads with their classmate Mark Brittain. They all take a controversial class, Contemporary American Thought, where they discuss topics like abortion, suicide, religion, body image and social justice. Interestingly, the sup-plot of this book lends itself to the subject of morality. It shows how religion shapes a person 's moral values. Mark Brittain is a devout Christian, who has strong, self-righteous ideas about religion and abortion.
Her dad burned her when she was three because of an argument between him and her mother. Recently he has started drinking again and Sarah is scared because of what he could do. Eric then tells Sarah’s situation to Ms. Lemry their teacher. Sarah is not very happy about the situation as she considers this “betrayal”. However, she learns to get along with Lemry and also realizes they share similar values.
When Nancy Seymour 's RAF pilot husband, Charles, is killed, her life falls apart. Not only has she lost the man she loved, but she also loses her home and must find a way to support herself and their little girl, Caro, on her own. With the danger of war
Sarah not only understands what her father did was entirely wrong, but she also pursues on with her heart and “is going to tell the whole world on what happened to Jerome” pg. 181. Without empathy present, none of this would have happened, and they would have continued to live the same dull lives. Nothing would change and nothing would
She keeps replaying the picture of William Sutch, the cereal killer kidnaper who police have been looking for half of a year. As she flips the bacon on the stove her bedroom door opens revealing the television screen with a picture of a man in his late forties, bald top head, and long gray hair flowing down over his shoulders, his eyes shaded by glasses that hang low on his nose. He is even creepier looking into his dark eyes then imagining then in her head. She jumps from her thought as she hears the family dog Chloe bark from outside. Walking over to the door she notices it is not locked and calls to her husband, "Mathew you have to remember to lock the doors at night, especially since that creep is on the loose."
In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel asserts the following: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented.” This quote means if we don’t speak up when people are being tormented we automatically take the side of the tormentor. “In Indonesia 57,000 People with perceived mental disabilities are shackled in confined spaces.” Like the Holocaust, the world should not remain silent when it comes to abuses against people with mental disabilities in Indonesia.
She is starting to appear more content with herself even though she still hasn’t been able to tell anyone happened yet. “I’m on a roll, I’m rocking… The time time has come to arm-wrestle some demons. Too much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren’t (Anderson 180).” She is able to talk to Rachel during their study hall, they pass notes so they won’t get in trouble with the librarian. Rachel tells Melinda she isn’t mad at her about calling the cops to the party anymore, since it was such a long time ago.
Afterwards she notices the time it takes for the interview. Sarah and Jim believe that Jay worked with the investigators to clean up his story. This seems to be evidence not taken into consideration during Adnan’s case, which is why Sarah looked into it. This use of evidence or logos by Sarah helps persuade the audience to believe Adnan isn’t
In the book "Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes", Sarah Byrnes herself has a false face. Since Sarah Byrne is a social outcast, she acts like the toughest person in her high school, but really she is just putting her defences up because of the physical abuse her father has done to her in the past. Also, it's hard for her to trust people with all the bad looks everyone gives her, because of her extreme facial, and hand scarring caused by severe burns received from her father when she was a child. In reality, nobody in her school knows how terrible her life has been. Sarah's true personality is found when Eric Calhoune reads the letter she wrote for him.
When Sarah decided to put her trust in Eric she was taking a huge step forward to getting away from her dad. She wrote to Eric, “I have never trusted anyone completely, not even you, and I don 't know if I do yet. I 'll find out by whether or not I give you this or just rip it up. Here goes. ”(Crutcher 174) When she wrote that letter she put so much trust in Eric, to not tell anyone about her dad and or that there is nothing wrong with her.
Even though it seemed like Sarah always got mad at Dale for not being careful with his words. For example when he calls her scarface or when he comments on how he didn't believe that Sarah got burnt by a pot of spaghetti. Even though Sarah got annoyed a lot by Dale she still talked to Dale about her problems and how she was being abused by her dad. This makes sense because later when Sarah was in the hospital and Eric was trying to find clues to get her to talk, he want to Dale a lot of the time and every time he had very good answers. This proves that he is helpful because in the end Dale helped find Sarah's mom and helped prove that she was abused and not burnt like she had said.
Another event occurred while she was shopping at Wal-Mart. McClain followed her around the store. Eventually she obtained a temporary ex parte order of protection against McClain. The death threats became so severe that Brandy and her family stopped living in their home. Even to this day her high school aged daughter is terrified to be in their home alone, concerned that “the doctor” is going to show up and cause her
Soon Sara is addicted to the pills and begins to have hallucinations. The hallucinations begin to make her think her refrigerator is attacking her; because of this, she becomes anorexic because she is afraid of food. Her hallucinations even go as far as making her think that she is on the TV show portraying herself as the perfect woman with a perfect family like she has always dreamed of. She even brags about her son and his wife and how successful he