Religion Theme Analysis

When 11-year-old Margaret and her parents move from New York City to Farbrook, New Jersey, Margaret experiences a shock: unlike in New York, everyone in Farbrook classifies people by their religion. Margaret’s Jewish Dad and Christian Mom have purposefully raised Margaret without religion, so this poses a problem for her: though she talks to God privately, she doesn’t attend religious services. And part of fitting in and being “normal” in Farbrook, according to Margaret’s friends, means either joining the Y (if one is Christian) or the Jewish Community Center (if one is Jewish). As part of her quest to fit in in her new home, Margaret embarks on a yearlong project to research different religions and figure out which religion she wants to be, a project that doesn’t go entirely to plan. Though Margaret isn’t able to draw any conclusions about her religious identity by the end of her sixth-grade year, the novel ultimately suggests that attending religious services isn’t necessarily the same as being religious or spiritual; it can, as Margaret discovers, be just another way to fit into a community. Rather, the novel proposes that a person’s personal connection to God is far more important and meaningful than affiliation with a church or temple.

For Margaret’s entire life before moving to Farbrook, religion hasn’t been a big concern. In fact, from the beginning of the novel, she’s dismissive of religion. When noting that her Jewish Grandma keeps asking if Margaret has Jewish boyfriends, Margaret explains that she doesn’t date—and she asks readers why it should matter whether she dates someone who’s Jewish or not. With this, Margaret makes it clear that she doesn’t see religion as a defining factor in her own identity, and she doesn’t see it as a defining factor for others, either. This is presumably the kind of outlook that Margaret’s parents want for their daughter: Mom’s Christian parents disowned her when she married a Jewish man, so they see religion as something nefarious that can tear families apart. They’ve therefore diminished the importance of religion to their family, raising Margaret without one, to spare Margaret the heartache of going through what Mom did. However, once Margaret gets to Farbrook, she learns that identifying as “nothing” will make it impossible to fit in. This is why she embarks on her personal project to decide which religion she is—in her mind, the purpose is to help her fit in by showing her whether she should join the Y or the Jewish Community Center.

Margaret thinks of being religious as simply attending services—something that doesn’t feel meaningful for her. Margaret first attends temple with Grandma for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Though she loves the music, she doesn’t understand any of the rabbi’s sermon, even the parts in English. Instead, she ends up counting different colored hats in the temple. Later, she’s surprised that, when she accompanies Janie and Nancy to two different Christian churches, she has much the same experience—she loves the music, doesn’t understand the service, and doesn’t feel closer to God. This suggests that Margaret’s insistence that being religious means attending services is, if not totally incorrect, at least overly simplistic. Especially since she’s so concerned with fitting in, it’s disorienting and confusing when none of the houses of worship feel like home to her—in her mind, this means she’ll never be able to choose whether to join the Y or the Jewish Community Center, as she doesn’t feel at home in either faith. And this becomes even more upsetting when, after her maternal grandparents’ disastrous visit, Margaret declares that she doesn’t believe in God—which, in Margaret’s understanding, condemns her to never fitting in in Farbrook.

However, Margaret’s attempt to find a church community, the novel suggests, misses the point of religion—what’s more important is her personal relationship to God. Indeed, Margaret has an intimate relationship with God. She talks to him regularly throughout the novel and implies that she’s been doing so for some time—long before she begins her project to choose a religion. Her conversations with God help her unpack her fears and desires about puberty, friendship, and family. However, as Margaret researches and tries out religious communities, she essentially implies that she doesn’t think her private relationship to God is legitimate or worthwhile—in her understanding, she has to seek God in a church to have a real relationship with him. But when Margaret stops giving God the silent treatment at the end of the novel and resumes her private conversations with him, it seems that she has learned an important lesson: that she doesn’t have to go to a church to have a relationship with God, or to be sufficiently spiritual. Her relationship with God might not help her fit in with her peers, but it does offer Margaret a nonjudgmental, open place where she can voice her fears and say things she’d never say to any of the people in her life—something the novel suggests is a net good. Ultimately, the novel encourages readers to realize that spirituality doesn’t have to be tied to a certain belief system or house of worship to be meaningful or legitimate.