“About a Boy” is the story of twelve-year-old Marcus and 36-year-old Will and how from which they develop their friendship. Fiona, Marcus's mother, tries not to be like everyone else and tells Marcus to be himself, which in his situation means being like her, and therefore causes him problems fitting in in his new life. school. Will, on the other hand, is completely different from Marcus. He's a grown man but he thinks like a teenager. The points I will cover are how depression is shown in the novel, reactions to suicide and how the characters heal and how this affects the relationship between Will and Marcus. Marcus' bullying leads to his low self-esteem and because of this, he shows depressive tendencies through his thoughts presented in the novel. Fiona is unable to see her own mistakes and as a result, she raises her son as a boy who is seemingly every parent's fantasy, but is also unfamiliar in ordinary childhood life like clothes, music and speech, and all of this results in him being bullied at school. “since he usually wore the wrong shoes or pants, and his haircut was bad all the time, every day of the week, he didn't need to do much to drive them crazy” (p 13). ) Even when Fiona finally hears about the social upheaval he goes through every day, she still thinks that all that matters is that he is himself and that he shouldn't worry about bullies and whatnot. what they think of him. Ellie helps him in various situations and defends him against other kids who want to bully him. Ellie is very resourceful because Marcus can talk to her about his situation in and out of school. Her divorced mother is periodically depressed and has also considered suicide. Marcus has...... middle of paper...... he is a support factor for Marcus when he is bullied at school and when his mother falls into another sad depression. When Marcus asks someone for help, it proves that he has inner strength and is becoming a child. He asks Will to help him ease his mother's feelings of suicide. Marcus wants Will to be his "father figure." “I don't know what I need. Only Will knows what I need” (p. 117). This unusual friendship made a great team for both characters, as they both needed help with different aspects of their lives and, as a result, became better for Will, Marcus, and Fiona. Marcus and Will, those who have very little in common, use their differences to modify their characteristics such as the need for recognition, the search for their identity and the fight against loneliness. Without these two, they could not have achieved what they accomplished together..