Holding Up The Universe Analysis

Words: 625
Pages: 3

Jennifer Niven’s Holding Up The Universe tells a story about high school teens Libby Strout—a girl who was once known as the Fattest Teen in America—and Jack Masselin—one of the most popular guys in school who everyone thinks they know. The story begins with Libby’s first day of school as an eleventh grader after six years of being housebound. Libby does her best to fit in as a normal, regular teen by joining extracurricular activities and making new friends. When Seth Powell, one of Jack’s long-time friends, mentions the game Fat Girl Rodeo—where a person would hug onto a fat girl for as long as possible, Dave Kaminski, another one of Jack’s long-time friends, performs the game on a fat girl named Iris Engelbrecht for fifteen seconds, causing …show more content…
He writes a letter in advance to Libby about who he is as a person and reveals his secret: he has prosopagnosia, a neurological disorder that makes him unable to recognize faces. The next day in the cafeteria, Jack performs Fat Girl Rodeo on Libby, acquiring him a punch in the face by Libby and both Jack and Libby obtaining a punishment from the principal that includes community service hours for the school and attending group counseling. At home, Libby discovers the letter that Jack wrote her and ventures to understand how he perceives the world and his view on Libby. Out of curiosity to learn more, Libby writes a letter back to Jack and hands it to him the following day. At the Conversation Circle, the group counseling that the principal assigned Jack and Libby to attend, Libby explains her reasons for being present with the group that extended beyond getting in trouble with Jack: her previous years that contained bullying, her mother’s death, stress about being alone and worrying that all led her to food and gaining so much weight. After the group session, Libby confronts Jack about the letter he gave her previously, which makes Jack further explain his neurological