Javiera Sepúlveda

Professor Carola Oyarzún

Drama LET1745

19 June 2014

Fat Pig

In Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, a noticeable aspect of the play is the idea of appearances.

Particularly, an element that reflects this topic is the relationship between Tom and his colleague

Carter, who, given by certain details in the play, may be seen as quite similar in personality:

people who are very concerned about how everyone looks or what they might think about

themselves,which sets up one of the possible reasons of Tom’s final decision of ending his

relationship with Helen.

Fat Pig deals with the relationship that surges between Tom, a rather plain man, and a

woman who is visibly obese to the eyes of the public, as well as how peer pressure and judgment

from others influence Tom, to the point of setting them apart. One aspect that the reader may

consider is Tom’s personality, taking into account that he really seems interested in Helen, but he

still is not able to stand up for their relationship and confront Carter, his apparent friend that

makes discriminatory remarks about his girlfriend, a person that is regarded as shallow and that

bases all his actions on physical appearance. In that sense, it could be argued that the reason why

Tom still remains friends with Carter is because they are rather similar, being the only difference

the actual acceptance of considering themselves as shallow and judgmental, as seen when Carter

tries to get all the details of Tom and Helen’s relationship. Tom refuses to do so and Carter says

CARTER. Everybody’s got dirt, my friend! We are dirty, us folks. Very dirty.TOM. Who’s “us folks”? CARTER. People. You and me-type people (17).

Sepúlveda 2

Under this evidence, it can be seen that Tom seems to not accept his personality. He believes that

he is different from Carter, not judging by how people look. However, Carter confronts him a

second time, telling Tom that they are alike in personality, saying “You laugh at the same jokes

and check out the same asses that I do, you date all these gals and act like you’re Mr. Sensitive,

but how does it always end up? The exact same way it does for me… you get bored . . .or feel a

touch nervous, and you drop’em like they were old produce” (52). Again, Tom denies it and

Carter continues to highlight their similarities, being sincere that even though their behavior is

not acceptable, it is nothing to be ashamed of, although Tom clearly does. He is afraid of

accepting his feelings about the way he is and clearly not wanting to be seen and regarded as

superficial, but in the end he succumbs to the pressure from his peers when he decides to break

up with Helen, telling her what he truly felt, as seen in the last pages of the play “I guess I do care

what my peers feel about me. Or how they view my choices, and yes, maybe that makes me not

very deep . . . It’s my Achilles flaw or something”. By doing this, he justifies and demonstrates

what Carter said about him, finally accepting his nature, and constituting one of the reasons why

he decides to leave Helen.

In the light of this evidence, it can be argued that Neil Labute deals with how people face

differences and how one can judge others by their appearance, exemplifying it with the character

of Tom, his friendship with Carter and the conflict that he struggles with: accepting that he

actually acts the same way that Carter does, caring about appearances and what his friends think,

which constitutes an explanation and powerful reason of his behavior and final decision, but not

an absolute one, considering that there are more elements influencing the actions of the

characters, such as the environment, the media, the culture in which they are inserted in, etc. and,

thus, by analyzing all these aspects altogether, it could be easier to understand the whole

development of the play.