Kiese Laymon addresses Heavy: An American Memoir to his mother. His relationship to her is the unifying thread in this otherwise lengthy and disparate account. Although she hoped a good education would spare her son the violent reality of life as a black man in the American south, she interposed her will onto Laymon through the self-same violence of which she desired to spare him. Additionally, she could not prepare her son for the cold snobbery and outright hatred which he experienced in college from his white peers. In response to the recognition of his childhood abuse -- not just by his mother but by many in his community -- Laymon rebels by centralizing his ethnic heritage in his identity. He begins to reclaim his life by embracing physical health, becoming more powerful in his own esteem and ability.
As Laymon writes, he paints a picture of how he feels betrayed by his mother. She gave him the impression when he was young that proper grammar and good grades could somehow spare him a fate which she herself feared. Her Ph.D, however, became a symbol not of excellence to Laymon but of delusion. Although she was intelligent and accomplished, she didn't use these achievements to combat the system which had attempted to eagerly to prevent them. Laymon takes an aggressive political stance in his writing because he views his purpose in life to be as advocate for the black community in the South, despite how much his mother hated belonging to that socio-ethnic group. Instead of rejecting his heritage, Laymon embraces it on a path to activism. He views himself as a representative of his childhood community, whether or not others do as well.
In the university, Laymon struggles with two things: over-eating and silence. He projects all the pressure which his mother had placed upon higher education onto the white faces around him. He feels his position as one of a very few black students on campus as one of obligation and expectation, whether or not these expectations have been expressly communicated. In response to the stress of his academic and social life, Laymon turns to food. Quickly, however, he realizes that his indulgent lifestyle is yet another manifestation of racism. He interprets his poor health during that stage of life as a compliance with the dominant message of racial prejudice in America. By taking charge of his health and his identity, Laymon ceases to base his own approval on other people's opinions or expectations of him. He finds wholeness in his own self-approval, demonstrated by the falling figures on his bathroom scale.
