Confidence In Maureen Johnson's The Madness Underneath

Confidence is a part in everyone’s life, especially self confidence. Every morning we all wake up and look at ourselves in the mirror and either like what we see, or don’t. We dress to impress. Guys do their hair and girls do their makeup. We do our best and never give up on ourselves, or we do the complete opposite. There’s no in between. In the book, The Madness Underneath, by Maureen Johnson, the main character, Rory, demonstrates having both confidence and not having confidence. Her confidence acts as if it is a roller coaster, it goes up and down. Throughout the book, confidence is portrayed through the main character from both perspectives of being confident and not being confident.

First, Rory goes through a lot of troubles and loses

In the book, Rory was thinking this to herself about her boyfriend, Jerome, “This wasn’t his fault. I had lied to him, not because I was evil, but because I had to. My life was a disaster and I was sick of problems and he was just one more. Breaking up made things simple, for me, anyway” (186). Not having confidence in your relationship is never good, especially when it hurts the other person. Another time Rory loses confidence in herself is when she’s told that she’s failing University. She begins to believe she can’t do anything and trying to fight through her problems will not fix anything. She says, “Funny there being no shame because all I felt at them moment was shame. Shame is like melting. You can actually feel your muscles sag and drop, as if your body is preparing you to crawl, or possibly ooze, to the nearest exit” (194). She was completely ashamed of herself and everything she’s done since she arrived at Wexford, her University. She felt as if she threw away a part of her life because of failing. A final reason she loses her confidence is when she sees her friend, Stephen, lying in the hospital bed on life support. Stephen is like Rory’s getaway, he