Beezus and Ramona

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1955

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Beezus and Her Little Sister”

Nine-year-old Beatrice Quimby, whom Ramona nicknamed “Beezus,” finds her little sister’s childish behavior embarrassing and feels like she is the only person in the world with a bothersome baby sister who always gets her way. Beezus admires her Aunt Beatrice, her namesake, and dreams of becoming just like her someday. Beezus recalls embroidering a potholder for Beatrice. While Beezus works on the gift, Ramona interrupts her over and over, riding around the room on her tricycle playing the same forlorn note on a harmonica. When Beezus suggests she go play with her doll Bendix, Ramona insists Beezus read to her from her favorite book, The Littlest Steam Shovel. Everyone in the Quimby family is so tired of the main character Scoopy’s sad story that Mr. Quimby banned anyone from reading it aloud. After Beezus reads the book, careful to make all the machinery sounds, Ramona resumes her tricycle riding and harmonica playing, much to Beezus’s dismay. Beezus decides to take Ramona to the library in hopes of finding another book. Ramona insists on wearing rabbit ears she made as a school project. Mrs. Quimby allows it, but Beezus is mortified at her sister’s appearance. On the way to the library, the sisters run into their neighbor Mrs. Wisser, who calls Ramona “…a dear little bunny…” (12). Beezus is jealous the woman finds Ramona adorable but not her, especially when she comments on her nickname. Ramona shows Mrs. Wisser a scab on her knee, and Beezus is again embarrassed by her little sister’s uncouth behavior.

At the library, Ramona speaks too loudly and rebuffs Beezus’s attempts to help her select a book. When she selects Big Steve the Steam Shovel, Beezus is ready to give up her effort of redirecting Ramona’s interests. Ramona thinks they must purchase the books to take them home, but Beezus dutifully explains how libraries work. Ramona wants a library card, but she cannot yet sign her name, so Beezus lets her use her card. When they return home, Beezus attempts to help Ramona with her signature, but the script is just a jumble of incomprehensible dashes and dots. Two weeks pass, and when the due date for the book arrives, Ramona refuses to hand it over, claiming it belongs to her now. When Mrs. Quimby finds the book, she discovers Ramona scribbled her “name” in purple crayon on every page. Beezus and Ramona shout at each other, but Mrs. Quimby intervenes, giving Beezus money to pay for the damaged book. Miss Evans, the librarian, takes the payment and stamps the book “Discarded.” When Miss Evans returns it to Ramona, Beezus is worried her sister did not learn her lesson. Miss Evans agrees and takes the book back, explaining that it belongs to Beezus since it was checked out on her card. Ramona angrily threatens to throw a fit. Thinking quickly, Beezus tells her if she has a tantrum, she will not read the book to her later. Ramona relents, and the sisters walk home.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Beezus and Her Imagination”

Beezus attends an art class after school each Friday at the Glenwood Park recreation center, and Ramona enjoys playing in the park’s sand pile while Beezus is in class. Ramona is an imaginative child, and today she walks her invisible lizard, Ralph. Beezus wishes she were as creative as her sister and worries that her teacher, Miss Robbins, does not like her paintings because she never displays them in the center of the wall. On the way to class, the sisters stop at the drugstore and a radio store; all the while, Ramona continues with her fanciful play. Entering the class, Beezus feels anxious about painting and bemoans her assigned seat next to the class troublemaker, Wayne, who sucks on a grape lollipop and teases Beezus as class begins. Miss Robbins assigns the class to paint an imaginary animal. As Beezus struggles to think of an animal that is not real, Ramona suddenly bursts into the room, proclaiming she wants to paint because Howie threw sand on Ralph. She introduces the invisible lizard to Miss Robbins, who says, “Well, here is a little girl with lots of imagination” (47) and invites her to stay and paint a picture of Ralph. Beezus is annoyed that Miss Robbins thinks Ramona is imaginative and that Ramona got her way again, but she tries to focus on her art assignment.

Beezus nervously observes the other students’ progress. She peeks at Ramona’s painting, and the sisters begin to argue over the portrayal of the sky. Beezus decides to paint a flying horse but overthinks all the details and listens warily as Miss Robbins praises other students’ work. When Miss Robbins views Beezus’s progress, she makes several critiques, and Wayne comments that the horse looks like one on a billboard advertisement. Beezus laments her lack of artistic creativity, but Miss Robbins encourages her to try again and just have fun with the painting process. Meanwhile, Ramona painted only footprints, marking her invisible pet’s tracks on the paper. Suddenly, Wayne cries out that Ramona is eating his lollipop. The two children begin to fight over the candy as Beezus tries to intervene. Wayne bumps into the paints, spilling them all on the floor and all over the children. Beezus stands up for Ramona when Wayne tries to blame it all on her. Miss Robbins calms the children, and Beezus sends Ramona back out to the sand pile. When she refuses to go, Beezus threatens to tickle her. She is astonished when her tactic works and Ramona obligingly leaves the class. Emboldened by her success with her little sister, Beezus begins painting again. The distractions in the room fall away, and she allows her imagination to run wild. Soon, she has a painting of a cotton-candy-breathing dragon with lollipops for a spine. Miss Robbins enthusiastically praises Beezus for her creativity and posts the picture in the middle of the display wall.

Chapter 3 Summary: “Ramona and Ribsy”

Henry Huggins comes to play checkers with Beezus and brings along his dog, Ribsy. Beezus enjoys his company because Henry respects her intelligence, but Ramona threatens to spoil their fun. Ramona, wearing her rabbit ears, rides her tricycle around the living room and demands Henry and Beezus let her join the game. Ribsy cautiously watches Ramona from his spot on the rug. When Beezus tells her no, Ramona asks to play tiddlywinks. As Beezus tries to ignore her sister’s shouts and contemplate her next move on the board, Ramona rams her tricycle into the coffee table, toppling the checkerboard onto the floor. Angrily, Beezus calls for her mother to intervene. Mrs. Quimby sends Ramona to her room, but she refuses to go and throws herself onto the floor in a tantrum. Beezus and Henry resume their checkers game, and Henry barely registers the scene: “Tantrums were not that unusual in the Quimby household. Even Henry knew that” (74).

Mrs. Quimby allows Ramona out of her room after only a few minutes, based on her promise that she will not disturb Beezus and Henry. She also gives Ramona a cookie, and Ribsy, interested in her snack, follows her out of the room. Soon after, Beezus hears Ramona shouting, “Let me in!” (77): Ribsy has become locked in the bathroom. Ramona claims the dog locked the door. Ramona begins to sob as Mrs. Quimby tries to figure out how to get the door unlocked. Henry tries to calm the barking dog and suggests they climb in through the window or call the fire department. Beezus, thinking she has a clever idea, suggests putting glue under the door to coat Ribsy’s paws, which should help him push the button to unlock the door. Ramona tells her mother she needs to use the bathroom. Mrs. Quimby takes her next door to use the neighbors’ facilities, and they tell her how to use a nail file to pop the lock. Ribsy is freed, and Ramona tells Henry she put him in the bathroom because he was a naughty dog who ate her cookie. Henry leaves, and Beezus is angry with Ramona for ruining her time with her friend. Ramona begs Beezus to play tiddlywinks, but Beezus refuses. Aunt Beatrice calls, and Beezus wishes her aunt would visit soon. Beezus feels conflicted because she is supposed to love her little sister like her mother loves Aunt Beatrice, but Beezus does not like Ramona at all.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The opening chapter introduces the reader to the vivid life of the Quimby family by setting the scene in the middle of the living room, the space where much of family life takes place. Cleary presents the reader with a familiar tableau: two quarrelsome sisters in a battle for their parents’ attention. Narrated in the close third person from Beezus’s perspective, the novel offers an intimate view of The Interior Life and Emotional Experience of Childhood. Ramona tests the limits of her family’s tolerance of her behavior by clanging around the room, raising the volume of her voice, and loudly playing the harmonica. Although Beezus is only nine, she is a sensible girl who feels the need to “parent” her little sister when Ramona receives little to no discipline from her actual parents. This position often causes Beezus anxiety and distress. The actions and feelings of the adults in the narrative take a back seat to those of the children as the novel highlights the wonderment of freedom in youth and the ways children’s experiences shape their views of the world around them.

The book opens with Beezus engaged in the grown-up, traditionally female activity of crocheting, further illustrating her prudent nature in contrast to Ramona’s impulsiveness. She worries she is not doing it well and longs to emulate her aunt, whom she idolizes for her independent spirit. Beezus’s admiration of Beatrice occurs alongside her efforts to uphold the traditional gender roles of a female in the 1950s. She easily slips into the role of mothering Ramona as she teaches her to spell her name and schools her on proper manners, such as not showing others her scabs or speaking too loudly inside the library. Conversely, Ramona is fascinated with clanging steam shovels and massive earth-moving machines and lives in a fantastical world of her imagination. However, Ramona’s actions do not attract negative attention from her parents or other adults, and they do not scold her for her lack of femininity. Beezus is approaching the age of worrying about what others think of her. Ramona’s free-spirited inhibition is simultaneously an embarrassment to her older sister and a trait Beezus envies. Her desire to do tasks the “right” way censors and constrains her, and she struggles to explore her imagination. The library scene sets up a pattern for the rest of the novel. Although Beezus thinks Ramona always gets her way, each chapter ends with both sisters learning small lessons that represent typical aspects of The Experience of Childhood in America. Both sisters mature through the day-to-day activities of living in what is presented as a typical white working-class neighborhood, and they provide a snapshot of typical scenes of the 1950s: walking to school and to the library; playing tiddlywinks and checkers; making potholders and other crafts; going to after-school activities at the local parks and recreation center. Cleary shows ordinary children in everyday circumstances learning to interact with their environments.

When Beezus flounders in art class, the author explores the real-world anxiety children often experience in looking for the approval of adults. Beezus longs for the approval of her teacher and endures the resulting painful internal conflict when she fails to impress her with her creativity. Cleary takes the reader inside Beezus’s head as she shakes off her anxiety and allows the creative process to flow, reinforcing her self-esteem. Although the moment is a low-stakes episode in the plot of the novel, it illustrates a small moment in Beezus’s process of coming of age; she finds her own path and develops friendships with like-minded companions. Beezus’s interactions with Henry Huggins humanize her and set her apart as an individual. In Chapter 3, quality time with a friend who admires her sensibility gives Beezus a chance to be more than Ramona’s big sister and have a life and friendship of her own. However, Ramona again inserts herself into the situation, ruining Beezus’s afternoon with Henry. The end of Chapter 3 leads Beezus to the realization that she intensely dislikes her little sister, and she is filled with shame and doubt about her own nature because she feels that as the older sister, it is her job to love Ramona unconditionally. At this moment, not only does she dislike Ramona: She finds her repellent. As she listens to her mother and her aunt chatting on the phone, Beezus feels as though she has failed at her sisterly duties, and this perceived failure makes her feel like a bad person. Chapter 3 serves as the midpoint of the novel but is also a turning point for Beezus, as she begins to take a harsher, more punitive view of her sister. Through the contemptuous exchanges between Beezus and Ramona, the author explores the often complicated and fraught dynamics of Relationships Between Sisters.