The narrator of Eight Bites got gastric bypass surgery because her sisters had them and the mom can be a factor to the decision. Her mom told her that “eight bites are all you need” and that would keep her mom in “normal” shape. I think the narrator’s mom created a sense of shame in the narrator towards weight and that in order to feel good about yourself, you need to look a certain way. But the narrator getting surgery to “fix” herself causes tension between her and her daughter, Cal. Cal had a similar body shape as the narrator, before the narrator got surgery, and now, Cal is insecure of whether her mom loves all parts of her. This meme is a comment on the narrator’s decision to change herself when her daughter is similar to her shape. The narrator indirectly gives the message to Cal that her body shape is wrong too but most likely didn’t give that a thought. The narrator should have learned to love her body so that Cal could too and not fall into the same mentality of self-hate and body shaming herself.

This meme relates to our very first writing assignment, the Literacy Narrative, and how doctors during the time of the painting didn’t know how to treat hysteria. They were misinformed and told each other that hysteria is exclusive for women and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. We also learned in Freud’s first lecture that doctors accused hysterical patients of lying and couldn’t understand the illness. Our course taught us the correct method of treatment and what goes on during hysteria, unlike the doctors who simply won’t treat patients the rightt way.