Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Puberty
Friendship, Fitting In, and Social Pressure
Religion
Family Conflict
Summary
Analysis
Margaret asks God if he’s there and then says her family is moving today. She’s terrified, since she’s never had to live anywhere else before. What happens if she hates her school, or if the other kids hate her? She begs God to help her and not let New Jersey be too awful.
By opening with a conversation with God, the novel situates Margaret’s relationship with God as a central theme. The relationship is clearly intimate, as Margaret feels comfortable sharing her fears and hopes with God.
Themes
Margaret and her family move right before Labor Day. On moving day, she knows exactly how hot it is because Mom sniffs under her arms (she does this only when it’s warm to check that her deodorant is working). Margaret doesn’t use deodorant yet, since she’s only 11.
The implication here is that only adults or almost-adults use deodorant. Margaret shows that she still thinks of herself as a child, since she doesn’t yet have to wear deodorant.
Themes
It was a surprise for Margaret to get home from summer camp and learn that her parents had rented out their New York apartment and bought a house in Farbrook, New Jersey—a place Margaret had never heard of. Her parents explained that Dad could still work in Manhattan, Margaret could go to public school, and Mom could garden. Margaret had no idea Mom even wanted to garden.
Margaret implies that she generally has a close and open relationship with her parents, so their decision to make this move without talking to her about it is unsettling. Margaret also has to confront the possibility that she doesn’t know her parents as well as she thought, given that she didn’t know about Mom’s gardening aspirations.
Themes
Margaret suspects that her family is leaving the city because of Grandma, Sylvia Simon. Mom thinks that Grandma has too much influence over Margaret—Grandma is the one who sends Margaret to summer camp and pays for Margaret’s private school. She also knits Margaret sweaters, with labels sewn in that say “made expressly for you…by Grandma.” Grandma doesn’t do this because Margaret’s family is poor (they’re not poor in part because Margaret is an only child, which wasn’t the plan, but Margaret isn’t complaining).
Keep in mind that as a first-person narrator, Margaret isn’t totally reliable—she tells readers her opinions, which aren’t necessarily fact. So it’s impossible to know how much Margaret’s parents resent Grandma’s influence over Margaret. Alternatively, they could simply dislike the fact that Grandma seems to control a lot of things about Margaret’s life, such as where she goes to school and what she wears.
Themes
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Escaping Grandma’s influence is the only reason Margaret can come up with for the move. Grandma doesn’t have a car and hates buses and trains (she believes they’re dirty), so she won’t be able to see Margaret much. Grandma is fun—except for when she asks Margaret if she has a Jewish boyfriend. This line of questioning is ridiculous: Margaret doesn’t have boyfriends, and she doesn’t know why she should care if they’re Jewish.
Even though the novel opened with Margaret talking to God, Margaret shares here that a formal religious identity isn’t important to her—her personal relationship with God is. She doesn’t think it should matter whether a future partner identifies with a particular religion, either.
Themes
