How is the myth of Pygmalion connected to the plot in the novel, The Fat Girl?

The author has used the myth of Pygmalion in a modern setting familiar to young readers. Pygmalion was a Greek sculptor who fell in love with Galathea, the statue of a girl he had created. When his prayers to bring her to life were answered, he was happy, but he soon discovered that she did not fit his image and dreams of her. Jeff, too, is mostly interested in his image of Ellen, and when she begins to regain her self-confidence and even starts losing weight, he does not even notice. It is an awakening when Ellen, now a pretty but ordinary girl, confronts Jeff before the dance. She is no longer his creation, and he angrily tells her so, hurting her feelings. In the end, their roles are reversed—while Ellen is now coping with her life and making friends, Jeff feels like an outcast, forever doomed to be manipulated by his mother.