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Chapter 19
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
A week before spring vacation, a letter arrives from Mom’s parents, Mary and Paul Hutchins. Dad doesn’t like them, so he “hits the roof.” He demands to know how they got their address and Mom whispers that she sent them a Christmas card. Incensed, Dad insists that they just want to make sure Margaret doesn’t have horns. Margaret hates it when her parents fight, so she tells them they’re both being ridiculous and runs to her room. She slams the door and puts on a loud record.
Dad’s comment about Mary and Paul wanting to check if Margaret has horns shows that at least in his experience, his in-laws care only about a person’s religion and judge them based on that. So it no doubt seems like a betrayal that Mom reached out to them at all. For Margaret, though, all of this seems silly and not worth fighting over.
Themes
Minutes later, Dad comes into Margaret’s room and shuts off the record player. Mom follows him in with the letter; her eyes are red. Dad says that this concerns Margaret too; she should read the letter. Margaret takes the letter and reads it. Grandmother writes that she and Grandfather have been thinking about Mom a lot—they want to see her after all these years and they know they made a mistake. They’ve been speaking with their reverend, and now they’re coming for a week. They want to see Mom and meet Margaret. Margaret understands why Dad is mad; the letter doesn’t mention him.
At first glance, Grandmother and Grandfather seem to be ready to move past their differences with their daughter and prioritize family over religion. But as Margaret points out, they also don’t mention Dad—and an apology is also conspicuously absent. Put simply, they don’t actually seem ready or willing to reconcile; Dad might be correct in his assumption that they just want to check in on Margaret.
Themes
Dad says that Grandmother and Grandfather are coming on April fifth. Brightening up, Margaret says she’ll be in Florida and won’t have to see them, but Mom and Dad exchange a look. Margaret realizes she’s not going to Florida. She shouts that this isn’t fair. She begs Mom to not do this to her. Mom is “stupid” and Margaret hates her. Mom tries to console Margaret as Dad says that someone should call Grandma and tell her. Mom says that Margaret can share the news, but Margaret refuses.
Mom and Dad want Margaret to have a relationship with all her family members and not just Grandma. But for Margaret, this is the worst news she’s had in a long time, and as a result, her relationship with her parents starts to get rockier. For most of the novel, Mom and Dad have been fine with letting Margaret make her own choices, but here they put a foot down, and she’s not used to that.
Themes
In Mom and Dad’s room, Mom calls Grandma. She says that Margaret won’t be able to come and then passes the phone to Margaret. Margaret refuses it, so Mom whispers that Margaret just needs to tell Grandma she’s not sick. Margaret takes the phone, says she’s not sick, and says she wants to come but can’t. With Mom’s prodding, Margaret says that Mom’s parents are coming, and now Mom won’t let her go to Florida. Margaret starts to sob. Mom takes the phone back, apologizes to Grandma, and says that everyone needs to try to understand.
Mom treats her parents’ visit as a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is the first chance she’ll get to try to patch things up with her parents, and it’s important to her to show her parents how wonderful Margaret is. Again, for Margaret, this is the end of the world. Margaret isn’t yet willing to try to understand Mom’s point of view, and from her emotional perspective, it seems like Mom is treating her terribly.
Themes
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Margaret tells God that everything is going wrong—this must be her punishment for being so horrible to Laura. She says she always tries to be good and begs for God to let her go to Florida instead of seeing her grandparents.
Privately, Margaret believes she knows exactly why she can’t go to Florida: it’s payback for being mean to Laura. In other words, she believes that if she behaves well, God will reward her, and if she behaves badly, God will punish her. This shows that her spirituality does guide her behavior, even if she doesn’t go to church.
Themes
