The Adventures of Augie March Lesson Plan

What do you make of the way that Augie describes the Magnus family? He emphasizes their girth and seems to correlate their size and their personality. Is this fair? What do these descriptions reveal about Augie’s personality?

Students will likely be offended by the emphasis on the size of the family, rightly noting it as a type of fatphobia. However, the descriptions also identify a type of presence that the family has. They are strong and imperious in a way that Augie finds threatening, in part because they have more than him and in part because they are solid in a way that he is flighty.

We’ve already seen several characters take a liking toward Augie, but there’s...