“I wasn’t unpopular or anything like that, just a little on the plump side.”(Gilchrist) LeLe expresses a feeling most teenagers can relate to in her struggle with body image. In Gilchrist's Traveler, LeLe is a sterotypical teeenager who is a little plump and doesn’t make the cheer team because of her weight. She spends the summer in Clarksdale, Mississippi with her cousin Baby Gwen and during this time she tries on a new persona. This short story wouldn’t be as powerful if it was told from a different point of view. When the story is told from LeLe’s point of view, it also creates a sense of relatability because most teenagers struggle with body image along with introducing humor through watching her develop a new persona as the summer continues. Without Gilchrist using point of view and theme to create meaning out of LeLe’s summer, this short story wouldn’t have been so relatable. In Gilchrist’s Traveler, she uses point of view to her advantage to create relatability out of a humorous short story. By telling the story through the eyes of LeLe, it allows the readers to gain a greater sense of altered reality because LeLe doesn’t see everything for what it is. Her persona also helps her to brush off most of the harsh incidents that occur. For…show more content… Even though LeLe has to return home to Indiana at the end of summer, her altered perspective shows how the struggle of weight and body image can be quite humorous if handled properly. The theme of weight and body image also affects the changes that LeLe has to face whether it be sunbathing or swimming with Fielding. While Fielding does insult her self-esteem and body image with his comment on her weight, it was her reaction to the situation that showed how crude comments can be just as easily brushed off as they were given out. Without the LeLe’s humorous persona and the theme of weight, Gilchrist’s short story wouldn’t have been as
