A lot changes for Marcy once her English teacher leaves school and is replaced by Ms. The dysfunctions of the Lewis family cause Marcy to have difficulty expressing her feelings to anyone. Lily, Marcy’s mother, does not defend him outright, but suggests that Marcy ignore him and change her behavior to avoid his wrath. Meanwhile at home, her depressed and narcissistic father, Martin, constantly puts the rest of the family down. At the beginning of the novel, she has an F in gym class because of her many creative excuses for not participating. While intelligent and kind, she is deeply insecure about being overweight, an issue that is compounded by her general anxiety about high school. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit begins by introducing Marcy. The book’s title refers to one of the explanations tried by Marcy to exempt herself from gym class. The book is a bildungsroman, showing how Marcy develops as an individual by learning to recover from her family-induced trauma, resisting their psychological abuse, and integrating into her society. As the book progresses, Marcy’s story reveals that her confidence problems have very real roots in her experiences with an abusive father and a nervous mother who minimizes and protects his actions. It follows Marcy Lewis, a girl in the ninth grade who has self-esteem issues which she tries to alleviate by opting out of school and social activities. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit is a 1974 children’s fiction novel by American author Paula Danziger.
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