Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

First published: 1970

Type of work: Domestic realism

Themes: Coming-of-age, emotions, family, friendship, religion, and sexual issues

Time of work: The late 1960’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: The suburban area of Farbrook, New Jersey

Principal Characters:

• Margaret Simon, an only child reared without any religious affiliation, who talks to God about her inner struggles to mature and be accepted
• Barbara Simon, Margaret’s understanding mother, whose parents arrive for a visit after disowning her fourteen years earlier for marrying a Jewish man
• Nancy Wheeler, a neighbor just Margaret’s age who first befriends Margaret and invites her into a secret club with two other girls
• Philip Leroy, the most handsome boy in the sixth-grade class
• Laura Danker, a physically developed classmate said to have a bad reputation
• Grandma Simon, Margaret’s Jewish grandmother, who always wants Margaret’s company
• Miles Benedict, Margaret’s sixth-grade teacher, who says each student must have a personal project for the year

The Story

The novel’s protagonist, Margaret Simon, has been reared in no particular religion, yet she privately talks to God as she encounters the stressful situations in her new neighborhood and school that make up the plot of the book. She always starts her talks with “Are you there, God?” and identifies herself as Margaret. As the title phrase suggests, Margaret questions whether God is listening to her or is even there. Her Jewish grandmother loves and spoils her and wants her to be Jewish. Her mother’s Protestant parents come for a visit and want her to be a Christian. Margaret’s new friend Nancy Wheeler tells her that she must have some religion so she can join either the YWCA or the Jewish Community Center. Margaret investigates different religious denominations, which she chooses as her personal project to prepare for her teacher, Mr. Benedict.

Margaret talks to God, hoping for advice and assistance with a variety of specific concerns throughout the year. She has no brothers or sisters, and she cannot always confide in her circle of classmates, who are not necessarily truthful or supportive. Margaret examines and questions her adolescent body and her social interactions. Most of all, she worries about being “normal,” about being accepted by her friends. Margaret joins a secret club with Nancy Wheeler, Janie Loomis, and Gretchen Potter, complete with secret names. As the year progresses, the Four PTS’s (the Pre-Teen Sensations) drop their nicknames and develop new identities as they start wearing bras, get their menstrual periods, and play kissing games with boys at class parties.

Yet, things are not always as they seem. Friends lie, reputations turn out to be unwarranted, and parents can quarrel. The boy Margaret and the other girls list as their favorite, Philip Leroy, is not her true favorite and is not a good worker in classroom projects. Mr. Benedict, who seems nervous about his first year of teaching, identifies correctly and without comment every test paper when the students try to trick him by not signing their names. Although he is the first male teacher Margaret has encountered and she is embarrassed to talk to him, she recognizes that he is nonjudgmental and learns to respect him.

Margaret sometimes sees even herself telling a lie or being unkind, and she thinks about the person she wishes to be. There are many things to be learned, whether it is following the right group by not wearing socks to school or something as essential as determining her relationship with God. Change, although sometimes it seems too slow and sometimes too fast, is inevitable. Other people change, and so does Margaret. Margaret is not a rebel, but during the months she grows as a person, developing not only physically but intellectually and emotionally as well. As a preteen in a middle-class suburb in contemporary America, Margaret has problems that are common to many girls her age, but they are not problems commonly addressed in literature. Margaret shows the reader her inner thoughts as well as her actions, and she shares her successes and challenges.

Context

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is Judy Blume’s third book, published a year after her first, The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo (1969), and in the next dozen or so years, Blume became the most popular American writer of juvenile and young adult fiction. Simultaneously, she became the author whose books were most often challenged in censorship attacks against elementary and secondary school libraries. Blume’s contribution to adolescent literature is her introduction of topics previously considered taboo. Her fiction openly and sympathetically addresses a wide variety of physical and psychological concerns, including sexuality. Her strength is her ability to examine even the most secret feelings and to make her young readers feel that these are common problems, that they are not alone in having them. Her insistence on the validity of one’s own feelings is emphasized by the publication of The Judy Blume Diary (1981), a spiral-bound notebook with Blume quotations and photographs and blank pages for “a special place to write about your own special feelings.” Blume’s stories inspire trust, and her readers have sent her thousands of letters, some of which are collected in Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (1981).

Blume starts her novels with a basic family or personal situation that illustrates the pains and pleasures of growing up. The protagonist conquers some of his or her fears and learns to adjust to changing conditions. Blume is realistic in suggesting continuing and future problems rather than providing simple and permanent solutions. Her main characters are not totally lovable and perfect, and this understanding of human flaws as well as the attention to commonly felt emotions inspires loyalty in millions of Blume readers.

Blume is not notable for her literary style or aesthetic excellence. She is more interested in sociology than literature, and she makes her characters’ exploits determinedly didactic. Her achievement is in her very readable presentation of realistic problems and the clarity with which she captures and reflects contemporary middle-class values. Adults may or may not approve of changes in social mores and their expression in children’s literature, but Blume’s fiction, despite the attempts of the censorious, has permanently expanded the boundaries of adolescent literature.

Bibliography

Blume, Judy. “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View.” American Libraries 30 (1999): 62-67.

Garber, Stephen. “Judy Blume: New Classicism for Kids.” English Journal 73 (April 1984): 56-59.

Gleasner, Diana. Breakthrough: Women in Writing. New York: Walker, 1980.

Lee, Betsy. Judy Blume’s Story. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1981.

Naylor, Alice Phoebe, and Carol Wintercorn. “Judy Blume.” In American Writers for Children Since 1960: Fiction, edited by Glenn Estes. Vol. 52 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark, 1986.

Weidt, Maryann. Presenting Judy Blume. Boston: Twayne, 1990.