Analysis Of What Are Friends For By Marion Winik

Marion Winik’s “What Are Friends For?” expresses the characteristics of friendships and their importance in her existence. Winik begins by stating her theory of how some people can’t contribute as much to a friendship with their characteristic traits, while others can fulfill the friendship. She illustrates the eight friendships she has experienced, categorized as Buddies, Relative Friends, Work Friends, Faraway Friends, Former Friends, Friends You Love to Hate, Hero Friends, and New Friends. In like manner, the friendships that I have experienced agree and contradict with Winik’s categorizations.
The Bad Influence Friends are the people who you are no longer in contact with due to their diminishing acts. A friend in this category was once

the go-to person to have a conversation about anything with. Their parents knew who you were and welcomed you to spend the night in their house unannounced. But eventually, that friend began to spend time with the wrong crowd of people, and followed their self-destructing instincts. You realize their new pattern and separate yourself from this person, as that is not the kind of behavior you want to get involved in. Likewise, to Winik’s friend categorization of Former Friends, the Bad Influence Friends are a sad but memorable to reminisce about.
Quite similarly, there are the Faraway Friends. They are you go-to person for conversations and their parents are welcoming, however, being a bad influence was not the reason of you distance. You schedule video calls to communicate with each other that fit your corresponding time zones. When you struggle with expressing your thoughts, they know exactly what you mean. You also view their social media to catch up on what they have been doing, and have become mutual online friends with the people from their town. Identical to Winik’s friend categorization of Faraway Friends, our friends would always have a connection, despite of our distance.
Families will also always have a connection, hence the Relative Friends. They are friends friend that you only talk to during family functions. You are afraid to talk about topics that you would tell your Faraway Friends in suspicion that they would report your wrong doings to our elder family members. You seclude yourselves from the elder family members waiting dreading for the event to end so you both can go home. During this time, you take silly photos and watch humorous videos on each other’s phones. They open up to you and you do the same. You begin to realize that they have potential of being more than just someone who you can pass time with. However, Winik’s friend categorization of Relative Friends does not best fit my categorization, as it is not “worry free”. Instead, they would resemble as the New Friend.
Winik’s “What Are Friend For?” and my categorizations of friends express similar and contradicting statements.