When I read Megan’s assigned readings, I was definitely struck by the way in which the author of Elena Vanishing personified anorexia into this haunting voice in both the content and form of the novel. It is portrayed as a ghost with innumerable demands as to how Elena lives her life down to the smallest details, haunting also the page since this voice is emphasized and set apart by it being written in italics. If the reader only paid attention to the writing in italics, this novel would be spoken and directed by the anorexia ghost rather than Elena and her narration. What is more interesting is Elena’s strange self-awareness. Anorexia is something with a voice and form to Elena, and she can recognize and identify when it speaks. It is not like typical ghosts which are shrouded in mystery or are unknowable and invisible to the people who they are haunting. Anorexia makes itself known; it is an overwhelming presence that Elena is aware of and is in a pact with. Anorexia makes a demand and Elena listens and obeys with a relative degree of willingness and awareness. She believes in Anorexia’s plan and attitudes for Elena’s life, and so Elena follows along, almost in a hypnotic state. This, in some sense, makes this haunting more like a possession, a takeover of Elena’s body.
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