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Contemporary American Women Writers Claire Davis's story, "Labors of the Heart", takes a closer look at the life of an obese man and the tensions he deals with being overweight and living in a society that does not accept obesity. Firstly, Davis uses language to confront societal assumptions of obesity. In the beginning of the story, the reader is shocked to find a lengthy sentence explaining how Pinky is "…fat. Enormous…"(78). Instead of using subtler language, Davis confronts the words used to describe obese people behind their backs. She shocks us into realizing the severity of our views of overweight people and how, because we look down on obesity, we as a culture would rather dance around the issue than confront it. Davis also shows the idea of body as self. Our society tends to think of the physical body as the self because it is what we see. Throughout the story, Davis uses images to try and shake this assumption up. "For although Pinky knows him