The Story For Those Who Can't Speak For Themselves

Judy Blume tells the story of the girl with no say in life. Willmadeene, Deenie, is diagnosed with scoliosis, which is a condition where the spine is not straight but is curved at a certain place. This causes alot of problems in the family because this makes everyone change there attitude toward Deenie making her feel uncomfortable. This causes her and Helen, her older sister, to become closer than ever.

Deenie's mom has high expectations of her daughter and this has always bothered Helen because her mom's focus is always on Deenie and her being a model this is Helen's breaking point.

"Oh Ma...you're impossible! Ma didn't give me a special brain. You made that up. And you almost convinced me, Ma...you almost did.... I used to tell myself it didn't matter if I wasn't pretty like Deenie because I have a special brain and Deenie's is just ordinary....but that didn't help Ma....it didn't help at all....because it's not true!"(131)

Helen doesn't feel the love she disserves to get. Helen never talked to Deenie, but as the story progressed I saw that Helen finally started to understand the difference between the love her mom had for Deenie and the "love" that her mom had for her. It brought them closer together because Deenie never knew that Helen felt that way, nobody did. Helen finally opened up about her feelings to her family.

Deenie's mom manipulates Helen and Deenie in the same ways, but they all include her lying to them so that she gets whatever she wants.

I started crying too. Helen doesn't hate me, I thought. She should, but she doesn't. We both cried so hard our noses ran but neither one of us let go of the other to get a tissue. And right through it all, Ma kept talking. "I wanted better for you," she said. "Better than what I had myself. That's what I've always planned for my girls...is that so wrong?"(132)

I think this just goes to show how selfish her mom really is. She doesn't even apoligize after her daughters have told her the pain they go through everday, instead she makes an excuse for her actions to try to justify what she does. She tries to live her dreams through her kids because she feels that she never had a chance to do what she wanted, she makes Deenie be a model because I bet all she wanted to be when she grew up was a model. This brings them together because it shows how the physically come together to cry and share they pain they've both faced together.

I think that this is an issue in many households all over the world that must be stopped because the hurt that this brings is huge. At times the person responsible won't be willing to take responsibility for their actions, like Deenie's mom in the book. There is no need to do this to a child specially in the tough times that Deenie was already going through with her scoliosis problem. I hope that this helped you understand how Deenie felt to know and truly understand the hurt her sister had held so long in her heart.