56 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer NivenHolding Up The Universe
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 67-97Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 67-97 Summary
Libby visits the office of Heather Alpern, the coach of the Damsels, to ask for an application. She learns there are no spots available, and unless someone drops off the team, she will not be able to try out until January. Afterward, she runs into a boy named Sterling, who insults her weight. Bailey Bishop, a friendly girl whom Libby recognizes from her public school days five years ago, defends her. Bailey introduces Libby to another girl, Jayvee, and they become Libby’s first friends at Martin Van Buren High. Meanwhile, Jack attends his chemistry class, taught by Monica Chapman, the woman with whom his father had an affair. This creates obvious tension between the two, and after class, Jack goes to the school office to request a new teacher.
While Libby skips lunch to read her favorite book, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jack has lunch with his friends Kam Kaminski and Seth Powell. Seth tells Jack and Kam about “Fat Girl Rodeo,” a game he read about in which the objective is to throw oneself around “some fat girl” and hold on for as long as possible (80). Soon after, Kam notices an overweight girl in the lunch area, and he runs up to her and wraps himself around her as part of the game. Jack feels like saying something to stop Kam but remains silent.
After overhearing Caroline and Kendra gossiping about her to other girls in gym class, Libby locks herself in the school bathroom. She writes the things the girls said on the bathroom stall wall, including “Libby Strout is fat” and “no one will ever love her” (84-85). On her way out, she runs into Iris Engelbrecht, the girl Kam accosted as part of the “Fat Girl Rodeo.” Iris tells Libby what happened, and Libby rushes out to the football field to confront Kam. This marks the end of the book’s first section, “Eighteen Hours Earlier.” The next section, titled “Six Years Before,” comprises one short chapter narrated by Libby. In this flashback, ten-year-old Libby is being teased by Moses Hunt on the playground. He tells her that “no one will ever love” her because she is “fat” (92). Libby explains this is the first time she has experienced someone hating her because of her weight.
Pages 67-97 Analysis
These chapters provide readers’ first glimpse into how Jack interacts with his two closest—and perhaps only—friends at school, Kam and Seth. As Kam runs up to Iris to play “Fat Girl Rodeo,” Jack is torn. On the one hand, he wants to step in, thinking to himself, “Say something, douchebag” (83). On the other hand, he fears that standing up to them puts his identity at risk—it could compromise his status as the cool, funny, popular Jack Masselin. He relies on that identity to cover for his prosopagnosia as well. Over the course of the novel, Jack continues to struggle with the tension between his popularity and his sense of morality, at least until Libby becomes a more profound influence on his character.
Libby’s breakdown in the school restroom shows a rare moment of weakness in a character who otherwise presents herself as a strong, confident, resilient figure; this scene is Niven’s way of showing readers that Libby, like Jack, has her own inner conflicts about her identity. More specifically, she is torn between adhering to the just-do-it, “more weight” philosophy that she inherited from her mother and succumbing to the sheer pressure—the heaviness—of high school socialization. The social normativity of “thinness” weighs on her, and like anyone, insults and gossip leave their marks. Although Libby seems capable of carrying the pressure and perhaps even asking for more, she is, after all, only human. Over the course of the novel, she learns that sometimes the pressure of people’s cruelty becomes too much. However, Libby also learns that recognizing when the weight is too heavy is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of wisdom.
The flashback to six years earlier, when Libby was 10 years old, allows Niven to further acquaint readers with Libby’s past and further expose her motivations. Moses Hunt—one of Libby’s meaner classmates—seems to have planted the seed of self-doubt in her. In fact, when he taunts her, she appears to almost be in denial about her weight, thinking, “If I’m fat, it’s news to me” (93). As she looks into Moses’s eyes, she realizes, “For the first time in my life, I know what it’s like to have someone hate me” (94). Until Moses, Libby was completely sure of herself; it took one bully to instill in her the vicious feelings of self-doubt that she continues to struggle with. In addition to warning against the permanent effects of bullying in general, the playground scene allows Niven to illustrate its effects on Libby specifically: even a girl who typically remains outwardly strong and even sarcastic in the face of taunts struggles with deep-rooted feelings of self-doubt. It is Niven’s way of showing readers that Libby is multi-dimensional and complicated—she is a real person, which makes her more relatable to readers.
