Essay

In the book Letters From The Inside, John Marsden presents a character who wasn’t in a particularly honest friendship. I would argue that Mandy faced the challenge of a dishonest friendship with persistence and determination, showing that these qualities can get a truthful response out of a person.

Near the beginning of the novel, a situation arises where Mandy feels that Tracey is not being particularly truthful about her life. Tracey previously told Mandy about her life, making out that she was an all-round normal girl. It wasn’t until Mandy found some gaping holes in Tracey’s story that she started to get suspicious. “Trace, what’s going on? … Remember Prescott High? That’s the school you said you go to… they said they’d never heard of you…” Tracey then began to avoid the problem she had caused and stopped writing to Mandy. This seemed to confirm that Tracey wasn’t being very truthful.

Mandy does not mimic Tracey’s actions and stop writing because the latter was being untruthful, but naturally wanted to find out the truth. She used persistence and determination to get an answer out of Tracey and sent the latter letter after letter trying to either persuade or annoy Tracey into telling her the truth. “Trace, I’m no Sherlock Holmes… Please write back and level with me_ I need to know… I can hack anything except silence… I’ve got to know the truth at least… I’m going to write everyday if I have to, until I get an answer…” Tracey eventually replied to Mandy, but tried to brush it off by saying, “Let’s forget the whole thing…” But Mandy wouldn’t take no for an answer and attempted to guilt Tracey into telling, “…I don’t think you ever trusted me at all.” After this it only took two more letters to persuade Tracey to reveal the truth about her life.

The answer Tracey gave wasn’t what Mandy was expecting. It turned out that Tracey was in a youth prison. She decided to conceal this part of her life in order to find out what it was like to be normal. Writing to Mandy gave her that and she was afraid that if she told Mandy the truth, the latter would stop writing. Tracey was proved wrong. Mandy didn’t desert Tracey but embraced the latter’s situation and tried to make light of it. The way Mandy dealt with this challenge has shown me that being determined can help you through a dishonest friendship. The way Mandy dealt with the answer she received showed that she is not one to judge a person straight away. Because Mandy was not judgemental, she was able to help Tracey through a very difficult situation. Finding the good side in people who have done wrong allows you to help them become a stronger and more positive person.

Mandy is a strong and persistent character and the way she deals with the challenge of an untruthful friendship shows that she can be persuasive without being offensive. If the answer she gets isn’t a very positive one, she is very accepting of the situation the person may be facing. Mandy is certainly a character to look up to.