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Chapter 9
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
During the first week of November, three things happen. First, Laura Danker wears a sweater to school, and according to Nancy, Mr. Benedict’s “eyes almost popped out of his head.” Freddy apparently noticed, too; he teased Margaret for not looking like Laura in her sweaters. Margaret wears sweaters all the time since Grandma makes her so many, but she knows she won’t look like Laura even if she stuffs her bra. She also wonders if it’s true that Laura goes behind the A&P with Evan and Moose, and she wonders why Laura would do that. Margaret thinks about Moose a lot. She watches him from her window.
Once again, Margaret parrots what Nancy says about Mr. Benedict staring at Laura—there’s no way to corroborate this. It does seem to be a fact, though, that Laura’s bust is obvious to most everyone—even Freddy. Though Margaret is willing to question whether Laura really goes behind the A&P with Moose, and why Laura might do that, it’s also significant that she doesn’t take this questioning any further. She seems content to accept Nancy’s assessment of Laura.
Themes
Second, Margaret goes to church with Janie. She and Janie have gotten closer, especially since they often get to talk during gym class. Church is funny because it’s exactly the same as temple, aside from being entirely in English. They read from a prayer book that makes little sense, the minister gives a sermon, and Margaret counts hats. At the end, everyone sings a hymn and then shakes the minister’s hand. Margaret feels like a pro, but she feels ready to faint when Janie introduces her to the minister as having no religion. The minister gives Margaret a “maybe-I’ll-win-her look” and invites her to come back again. After this, Margaret tells God that she didn’t feel anything special and promises to try harder next time.
Margaret seems to have gone into her religion project expecting something far more meaningful and dramatic to happen once she set foot in a house of worship. Instead, she finds that organized religion is mostly about sermons, singing, and being with other people who believe the same things. Though this can be meaningful to some people, it’s not so meaningful to Margaret—her personal relationship to God is more important to her. However, Margaret seems to draw less comfort from that relationship as she struggles to choose a religion.
Themes
Third, the principal announces that the PTA is putting on a square dance for the sixth graders, in honor of Thanksgiving. Mrs. Wheeler is involved in organizing it, so Nancy tells the Four PTS’s to give her a list of the boys they’d like to dance with so she can try to help. When Margaret, Gretchen, and Janie all say they want to dance with Philip Leroy, Nancy rescinds the offer.
Keep in mind that Nancy hasn’t given her friends any indication that it’s okay to openly like other boys—so it makes perfect sense that they all want to dance with Philip, the one boy Nancy adores.
Themes
Mr. Benedict spends the next two weeks teaching the students to square dance. He always uses Laura Danker to demonstrate steps, supposedly because she’s the only girl tall enough. Nancy, however, gives Margaret a look. None of the boys want to be Laura’s partner since they’re all much shorter than she is, even Philip Leroy. The lessons aren’t much fun because most of the boys just want to step on the girls’ feet.
Nancy wants Margaret to think that there’s something nefarious going on when Mr. Benedict dances with Laura—but it also seems like the height difference between Mr. Benedict and another female student would truly be too much. Keeping Margaret suspicious of Laura is another way Nancy ensures that Margaret won’t try to befriend Laura.
Themes
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On the morning of the square dance, Margaret gets dressed and tells God she can’t wait for the dance. She wants to dance with Philip Leroy, who she thinks is handsome but doesn’t like as a person. The PTA decorates the gym to look like a barn, and most of the chaperones are dressed as farmers. There’s a real square-dance caller, and before every dance, the boys and girls line up separately so they can partner off. Margaret tries to figure out in advance who her partner is and tries her best to avoid dancing with Freddy Barnett and Norman Fishbein, who’s a “big drip.” Margaret notices that when Freddy dances with Laura, he blushes bright red.
In Margaret’s conversation with God, it becomes even clearer that she has no interest in actually getting close to Philip—he’s cute, but that’s not enough to outweigh Margaret’s dislike of him as a person. When Margaret refers to Norman as a “drip,” she means that he’s unintelligent and uncool. Noticing Freddy’s blush when he dances with Laura suggests that Laura’s developing body is embarrassing for everyone—especially since the boys, who are all shorter than Laura, are so much less developed than she is.
Themes
All the girls want to dance with Philip Leroy, so they jostle around in line a lot. Margaret winds up dancing with Philip once, after dancing with nice, polite Jay Hassler. Nancy is angry and Margaret is thrilled—until it turns out that Philip is one of the boys who stomps on girls’ feet. He also makes Margaret’s hands sweat. Finally, the dance ends. Mom picks Margaret up in the family’s new car (she finally won Dad over) and hurries home to finish the paintings she’s hoping to give as Christmas gifts.
Having danced with Philip, Margaret has even more reason to dislike him: he’s rude and makes her sweat. She begins to see the consequences of lying and pretending to be someone she isn’t in order to fit in. This consequence is fairly minor, but it nevertheless shows Margaret that perhaps pretending isn’t worth it.
Themes
