49 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Many little girls daydream about being grown-up and looking like the beautiful actresses and models in movies and magazines. Breasts, in particular, are often treated as a true measure of a woman’s worth, and from childhood, young girls are taught to compare the size of their chests to other girls. In Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Margaret Ann Simon and her friends are similarly fixated on the idea of growing breasts and wearing bras to signify their status as young women. Margaret frets when Nancy Wheeler points out that Margaret is still flat-chested at the age of 11, and Nancy brags that she is already growing breasts. Margaret spends most of the novel pleading with God to help her grow so she doesn’t “feel like some kind of underdeveloped little kid” (7), and when she gets her first bra, Margaret feels overwhelmed and not at all like a grown-up.
When Margaret first sees Laura Danker on the first day of school, she is in awe and can tell right away that Laura wears a bra. Margaret can “see the outline of [Laura’s] bra through her blouse and [she] [can] also tell from the front that it wasn’t the smallest size” (30). Nancy refers to Laura as “[t]he big blonde with the big you know whats!” (34), and Janie adds that Laura has been wearing a bra since the fourth grade. The boys in Margaret’s class also take notice of Laura, and although they want nothing to do with her because they are intimidated by her height and womanly stature, they use Laura’s appearance to bully girls like Margaret. Freddy asks why Margaret doesn’t look like Laura does in a sweater, and on Margaret’s birthday, Philip Leroy pinches Margaret and tells her that the pinch is “to grow an inch,” and Margaret “know[s] where [she] need[s] that inch!” (129). When Margaret buys her first bra, she immediately stuffs it with socks and realizes she won’t look like Laura Danker. Later, when Margaret and her friends look at Playboy and see a nude photo of an older girl, they are stunned at the size of her breasts, and they don’t know if they will ever be able to achieve that size. Blume uses these moments to demonstrate how girls are often taught to compare their bodies to one another, and Margaret’s first bra signifies her perceived failure as a young woman.
When Nancy decides that all of the PTS members must wear bras, Margaret becomes very self-conscious and wonders if the other club members already wear bras. When she goes with her mother to buy her first bra, Margaret is embarrassed to learn that she is “not quite ready for a double A” (47), and Nancy calls the Gro-Bra that Margaret ends up getting a “baby bra” (53). Even the process of putting the bra on is hugely daunting for Margaret. She worries that she will never be able to put on her bra by herself, and she might have to rely on her mother to help her put her bra on for the rest of her life. Once she is wearing her bra, Margaret doesn’t look or feel any different, and she is so desperate to look more mature that she stuffs her bra with socks and cotton balls. She fervently prays to God to help her grow breasts, and she tells him that she has a bra now, so “it would be nice if I had something to put in it” (57) so she doesn’t have to pretend anymore. Margaret believes that no one will take her seriously unless she develops breasts, and her first bra is a symbol of the expectations Margaret creates for herself but also the expectations her friends, classmates, and society have for her as a young woman.
While breasts are an outward sign to the rest of the world that a young woman has undergone puberty, a girl’s period—or menstruation—is considered a very private matter. Five decades after the novel’s initial publication, menstruation is still considered a relatively taboo subject, and young women are not always presented with enough information to understand what is happening to their bodies. When Margaret starts hanging out with Nancy and her friends, she is overwhelmed by the sudden pressure to hurry up and get her period. In Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, getting one’s period signifies an important rite of passage into womanhood, and for Margaret, it becomes the single most important accomplishment of her young life.
Although Margaret’s mother teaches her the basics about female puberty and her changing body, she explains that all the girls in Margaret’s school have to see the official presentation about periods “in case their mothers haven’t told them the facts” (110). Menstruation can be a confusing and uncomfortable topic, and as Margaret’s mother suggests, the conversation is often put off until a girl actually gets her period. Margaret notices that although the school-sanctioned presentation talks about female body parts and why girls get their periods, the film doesn’t explain what it feels like to get one’s period. Instead, “it just [says] how wonderful nature [is] and how [the girls] would soon become women and all that” (111). The film leaves out so many details that when Gretchen gets her period, Nancy, Margaret, and Janie swarm around her to ask for details about the experience. Blume implies that when information is omitted, and young girls are left to their own devices, they will get the information independently, and what they learn without adult guidance might not be accurate.
When Margaret learns that she might not get her period until she is a few years older, she is terrified that she might be the last one in her friend group to menstruate. Her mother tries to remind her that “there’s not much [Margaret] can do about it,” and “some girls menstruate earlier than others” (115), but Margaret begins to think there might be something wrong with her when Nancy also gets her period. Margaret is seized with jealousy, and the idea of having to congratulate Nancy for being more grown-up than her makes her furious. However, when Margaret learns that Nancy lied about getting her period, she feels bad for Nancy and admits that she doesn’t want her period enough to lie about it. Nancy pleads with Margaret not to tell anyone because “[she’d] die if the others knew” (124) about her lie. When Margaret finally gets her period at the end of the novel, she is relieved and thanks God for hearing her pleas and allowing her to feel normal after all. Finally, Margaret feels like she can enter the ranks as a woman, and she realizes that everything will be okay: she’s normal, she isn’t lagging behind her peers, and the rest of her body will catch up in time.
When Margaret begins her exploration of different religions, she pays particular attention to the physical locations in which worship occurs. She doesn’t bother learning about the big differences in doctrine between Judaism and Christianity: instead, her approach to “learn about religion” is to attend different religious services to find something that resonates with her. The different houses of worship seen throughout the novel represent Margaret’s expectations about religion, and her experiences offer unique insight into the mind of a person who has never been exposed to religious services before.
When Margaret tells the PTS she was raised with no religion, they are surprised and mention the Y and the Jewish Community Center. They explain that everyone in Farbrook goes to one or the other: Jewish citizens go to the Community Center, whereas Christian citizens go to the Y (short for Young Men’s Christian Association). This relatively minor detail has never affected her life before. Margaret makes no mention of her or her parents attending any type of recreational center in the past, but this intense fear of not belonging to any one group kick-starts Margaret’s exploration of religion. She tells God that “[her] new friends all belong to the Y or the Jewish Community Center,” and Margaret doesn’t know “which way [she is] supposed to go” (42). Thus begins Margaret’s exploration of religion, and because it is sparked by a fear of not knowing which building to go into, buildings and religious services become the backbone of her explorations.
When Margaret goes to temple with her grandmother, she quickly becomes bored when she cannot understand anything the rabbi is saying. Without any previous experiences with Judaism, Margaret is adrift in a sea of traditional ideas and sometimes entire languages she doesn’t know. Her favorite part is when the choir sings, and the music plays, but as a whole, she is disappointed with her experience because she doesn’t feel God’s presence. However, she admits that perhaps a person “[has] to go more than once to know what it’s all about” (66). She switches her focus to attending church with Janie, and although she “[doesn’t] feel anything special in there [...]. Even though [she] wanted to” (72), Margaret picks up on the similarities between temple and church. They take place in similar-looking buildings, and they both feature lots of singing and confusing concepts that she doesn’t understand. While Margaret struggles to find the correct religion for her, Blume uses this subplot to point out the beautiful similarities in many organized religions, even though people tend to focus only on the differences. Still, Margaret finds herself “more confused than ever” (108) and asks God to help her understand what she should do. In the confessional at Laura’s church, Margaret momentarily thinks that she hears the voice of God, but when she discovers that it is only the priest, she is overwhelmed with disappointment and shame. She starts to realize that she “only feel[s] [God] when [she’s] alone” (138), and perhaps the answer to her faith lies not in buildings or worship services but in her small moments of vulnerability and openness when she speaks to God in private.
By Judy Blume