I’m Down (Memoir) Blog 10

For the last blog, I originally planned to write about the very last section, however, I feel like this is more interesting and shows more character. Mishna weird friend Marni (who always wears a long sleeve shirt) invites Mishna to stay at her house. Mishna accepts the invitation. However, prior to her previous thoughts about rich people, she finds that they have way worse problems and issues. Marni’s mom is an alcoholic while her dad openly mocks and yells at her. Mishna begins to understand why she is always so catatonic at school and is greatly perturbed by her friends problem. This shows how caring and naive she can be.

“…. That was until I was awoken in the middle of the night by Marni’s dad coming into her room, flipping on the light, and yelling at Marni about how he had to move her bike in order to park his car, which quickly escalated back into the earlier conversation about her lack of character. Marni was rattled again and went into her bathroom, while I put the pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep. But then I had to pee and, think Marni was just smoking, thoughtlessly barged into her bathroom. I flung the door open to find Marni was not smoking. Marni was cutting herself. She was slumped over the title floor of her bathroom with an X-Acto knife making a series of short marks in her left forearm. I was too stunned to say anything, but I think my face said it all because Marni immediately got defensive and said, ‘It’s okay. I’m just relieving some stress.’ And from the looks of her arm, she wasn’t new to this form of pressure release… ‘I’m gonna stay. But you gotta give me the knife.’ She silently handed over the knife. ‘Don’t tell anyone.”

I found this to be one of the most shocking parts in the book simply because I didn’t expect it. I can image Mishna’s face at finding her friend cutting herself, something she has no exposure to. As stated in previous chapters, Mishna grew to hate some of the kids at her school because she thought they didn’t have really problems. Later on in the book, she says she wishes they could just have money problems. One thing I like about this book is how Wolff can be cracking jokes on one page, and on the other have some serious heavy issues. I think because most of the book is light hearted, the dark parts are emphasized. However, the dark parts are quickly covered with funny moments so the overall mood of the novel isn’t too heavy.