Children and adolescents, of the present age, are much conscious about their body constructs. There arisesa dissatisfaction, denial and insecurity about their bodies, when they gauge themselves with societal paradigms. In order to confirm to ideal body standards set by society, they resort to self-taxing unhealthy practices, such as starving or binging and purging to achieve the externally-pressed goal. This pushes them to be victims of eating disorders. One of the most common eating disorders is Bulimia nervosa, where the individual frenzily ‘binges without control and then purges to relieve the excess calories.’ The individual goes on to traumatize himself/herself corporeally as well as cognitively, to the point of saturation and then, badly seeks a way of escape from the monstrous pain that he/she has put himself/herself into. Under such a juncture, one avenue that can serve as a ray of hope from the tunnel of illness is ‘expression through externalization of the gnawing suffering.’ This article, by taking into account Nadia Shivack’s Inside Out: Portrait of an Eating Disorder – a graphic novel on Bulimia nervosa, explores how externalisation ofphysiological and psychological agony can be achieved by giving the ‘aching experiences a visuality,’ through iconographically flexible narratives.
Research Scholar (UGC-JRF), Department of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
