Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

Why might healthy debate be beneficial to individuals and society? How might open-mindedness be beneficial when participating in a debate?

Teaching Suggestion: Contemporary American Thought class (CAT class) serves as one of the primary settings for the novel and becomes a source of conflict between the protagonist and his classmates. Eric, the protagonist, learns to question his beliefs by keeping an open mind in class while other classmates view CAT class as an attack. Consider asking students to speculate on the benefits of debate and keeping an open mind before reading the article and reflecting on the questions.  

• This 5-minute video argues the importance of debate, its purpose, and the correct approach to debate.
• This article, “How to Be Open-Minded and Why it Matters” defines open-mindedness and how it can be applied.

Short Activity

Eric is faced with a significant ethical dilemma in the book. Review the links on ethical dilemmas and consider the questions below to expand your understanding of them.

• If your best friend cheated on an important test, would you report them?
• If a person is starving, is it wrong for them to steal food?
• If you damage your neighbor’s property and no one knew, would you take responsibility for it? What if the damaged property is incredibly expensive?
• If you were shipwrecked on an island with a group, would you prioritize certain people or would you share the food equally?
• If a friend asked you to keep an important secret, but the secret is a matter of life or death for the friend, would you keep it?
• If the government fails to carry out justice, is it appropriate to carry out justice for yourself or another victim?

Teaching Suggestion: Crutcher’s Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes explores several ethical and moral dilemmas faced by the characters. Consider asking students to review the two short videos before applying their learning from the exploration of the importance of debate and discussing the above ethical dilemmas. It could be helpful to have students vote on each of these questions (an electronic form would work well for this and allow for anonymity), and then show the overall results to the entire class before or after discussing the question. Alternatively, students could respond independently before the discussion, so they are not so swayed by other’s opinions.

Students may find it useful to keep a record of ethical dilemmas they identify as they read through the text to be used in the Discussion/Analysis prompt.

• This 2-minute video describes the concept of ethics.
• This 4-minute video explores an ethical dilemma.  

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who require an additional challenge can share personal ethical dilemmas or create their own. These dilemmas can be posted in the room to reflect on periodically throughout the unit.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Consider a time when you were asked to keep a secret for a close friend. Under what circumstances would you break that promise? Are there other times when it is appropriate to break a promise?

Teaching Suggestion: Eric’s friend, Sarah, has been committed to a psychiatric facility and reveals that she refuses to speak because she does not want to return home to her abusive father. Eric must decide whether to reveal Sarah’s secret or keep his promise to her. Consider discussing the moral and ethical implications of keeping secrets for friends and analyze the potential responsibility someone has to break a promise in extreme circumstances.