How The Reputation Depicted In Laurie Halse Anderson's Twisted

“What was the point? So I could go to some suck-ass college, get a diploma, march out into a job that I hated, marry a pretty girl who would want to divorce me, but then she wouldn’t because we’d have kids, so instead she’d become the angry woman at the other end of the kitchen table, and the kids would grow up watching this… If that was life, then it was twisted” (190-191). In the novel Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Tyler John Miller is an average nerd and senior in high school, living in a household of harsh language and constant fighting. He lived in the social background, having only one friend, Calvin Hodges, nicknamed Yoda for his obsession of Star Wars. But at the end of his junior year, he pulls a prank on the school grounds - he spray-paints the school building with obscene words, and he is caught, making him become popular with much of the student body and giving him a reputation for being reckless. When naked pictures of Bethany Milbury, a popular girl and Tyler’s crush, are released after a party, Tyler is the main suspect, though he is innocent, which causes many of Tyler’s problems in this book. Tyler
Twisted states, “Yoda saw me wandering and… He asked me what was wrong. I told him, for a change” (127). Tyler feels like he cannot ask anyone for help, but there are people willing to help him. He is uncomfortable asking for help from his dad, who says he is done fixing Tyler’s problems (55). He lies to many people in his life about how he is feeling, and if he was honest, more people could have helped him. When Tyler is about the jump off the school roof to end his life, he hesitates, considering all the negative effects of killing himself, abandoning his family. If Tyler had mentioned he was having problems and that he felt suicidal, many people could have helped