Are you there god It's me, Margaret
Are you there god It's me, Margaret. (Original English title: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. ) is a 1970 novel for young people by the American writer and educator Judy Blume . It's about Margaret, a sixth grade student who grew up without religious affiliation and who grapples with the question of which religion she would like to belong to. In addition, typical topics of growing girls play a central role: the purchase of the first brassiere, the onset of menstruation, the first “real” party, relationships with boys in their environment, the first kiss, envy of other girls whose bodies mature earlier, and the delimitation of one's own opinion from the views of girlfriends.
The novel is considered a teenage classic. The US American magazine Time selected the short novel as one of the best English-language novels published between 1923 - the year Time was founded - and 2005.
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The central conflict of the novel is Margaret's desire to be clearer about her religious ties. Margaret's mother is Christian, her father is Jewish. The marriage between the two has led to an estrangement with Margaret's maternal grandparents and was the reason for the parents to let their daughter grow up without religious affiliation. Margaret also makes her examination of religion the subject of her school project, in which she is supposed to deal more intensively with a topic for a school year on her own.
The novel is structured in strict chronological order and is reminiscent of diary entries. In between, prayer-like texts are inserted, each beginning with the words of the novel's title:
“Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. We're moving today. I'm pretty scared, god. I have never lived anywhere other than here. What if I hate my new school? What if everyone there hates me? Please help me god. Don't let New Jersey be too awful. Thank you very much."
The conflict is exacerbated by the grandparents. Her maternal grandparents attach great importance to the fact that, as the daughter of a Christian, she is also a Christian. Her father's grandmother, on the other hand, takes her granddaughter to the synagogue to give her a feeling for what it means to be a Jew.
“At 11:30 am the rabbi gave a speech. Grandma called it a sermon. At first I tried very hard to understand what he was talking about. But after a while I gave up and started counting hats. I counted eight brown, six black, three red, one yellow, and one leopard print before the rabbi finished. Then we all got up and we all sang in Hebrew that I don't know. And that was it! I was expecting something else. I don't know what exactly. A feeling, maybe. But I suppose you have to go there more than once before you know what it all means. "
When the grandmother tells her to always remember that she is a Jewish girl, Margaret vehemently rejects this and even claims that she does not believe in God, to which her grandmother reacts angrily. In her search, Margaret also takes part in services of other religions, but often dispels her boredom during services by counting and sorting the hats of the people sitting in front of her. Margaret even goes to a confessional in a Catholic church out of curiosity. Unfamiliar with the concept of confession, she first believes that God is speaking to her when the priest she has not seen speaks to her. She escapes from the confessional when she realizes her mistake.
In parallel to her confrontation with the question of religious affiliation, Margaret dealt with typical problems of adolescent girls. She quickly makes new friends at her new home in New Jersey, with whom she will soon be competing as to which of them will be the first to wear a bra or which of them will menstruate first. Laura Danker, a classmate of Margaret's new friends, does not belong to the close group of friends. She is the tallest and most physically developed classmate, a fact that girls are jealous of. They jealously discuss whether their class teacher pays them more attention than they do. They also imply that Laura Danker is secretly meeting up behind the supermarket with Evan Wheeler, the older brother of a classmate, and Moose Freed, a boy Margaret finds interesting. Margaret only makes her point of view clear through a direct confrontation with Laura:
“Think about how you would feel if you had to wear a bra in fourth grade and everyone laughs at you and what it's like to keep crossing your arms in front of you. And what it's like when the guys call you dirty names just because of your appearance. "
The novel ends with the end of the school year. In a letter to her class teacher, she sums up her project and states that she still doesn't know which religion she wants to belong to when she is an adult - if she wants to belong to any religious group at all.
Characters of the act
- Margaret Simon - protagonist of the plot. She is the only child of her parents and is 12 years old at the beginning of the novel and on the verge of puberty.
- Barbara Simon (Hutchins) - Margaret's mother, a housewife who grew up as a Christian.
- Herbert Simon - Margaret's father, an insurance salesman who grew up in a Jewish family.
- Sylvia Simon - Margaret's paternal grandmother who is close to the Simon family.
- Nancy Wheeler - Margaret's first friend in her new place of residence.
- Gretchen Potter - A friend of Nancy whose father is a doctor and whose anatomy books Margaret and her friends use to understand male anatomy.
- Janie Loomis - Another girl Margaret befriends. To her shame, Janie is the last girl out of this circle of friends who starts menstruating.
- Evan Wheeler - Nancy's older brother
- Moose Freed - Evan's friend who mows the lawn of the Simon's family and Margaret becomes interested in him.
- Miles J. Benedict Jr. - Margaret's class teacher who just graduated from university and is a dedicated first class teacher. He requires each of his students to spend a year studying a topic more intensively. Margarete project is her engagement with religion.
- Laura Danker - A classmate of Margaret's who goes through puberty very early and who is the envy of Margaret's friends for her feminine build.
- Phillip Leroy - A classmate of Margaret's that initially fascinated her and her friends.
- Mary and Paul Hutchins - Margaret's maternal grandparents, who largely broke off contact with her after their daughter's marriage to a Jew, and in the year of the novel they resume for the first time after 14 years of silence.
classification
The author Judy Blume is a very successful writer of youth and adult literature who has sold more than 80 million books to date and whose works have been translated into 31 languages. In her youth novels, Blume repeatedly addresses controversial or problematic topics. “Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret ”is considered to be one of the first novels to openly address menstruation. In other novels, some of which have not been translated into German, she has dealt with racism ( Iggie's House ), masturbation ( Deenie ; Then Again, Maybe I Won't ), teenage pregnancy ( Forever ). This has also led to controversy in the United States about which topics are age-appropriate. Judy Blume has received several awards for her contribution to youth literature. In 1996, for example, she received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her contribution to youth literature.
Trivia
Self-adhesive sanitary napkins did not appear until the early 1970s. At the time of the first publication of the novel, women wore a cotton cloth belt that was fastened with straps around the legs or abdomen or they used monthly panties with the bandage buttoned into them. “Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret “was adjusted accordingly in later editions, as these belts and monthly panties disappeared almost completely very quickly and would have been incomprehensible to later generations of teenagers. The first use of belts or monthly panties, however, required (first) guidance from a more experienced person - usually the mother. The comparatively broad space that takes up the first practice with the sanitary napkin or the need in the novel to get help from the mother is no longer entirely conclusive against the background of self-adhesive sanitary towels.
Single receipts
- ^ Judy Blume: Are You There, God. It's me, Margaret. Introduction to the first chapter. The original quote is: Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. We're moving today. I'm so scared, God. I've never lived anywhere but here. Suppose I hate my new school? Suppose everybody there hates me? Please help me, God. Don't let New Jersey be too terrible. Thank you.
- ^ Judy Blume: Are You There, God. It's me, Margaret. Excerpt from the ninth chapter. The original quote is: At eleven-thirty the rabbi made a speech. A sermon, Grandma called it. At first I tried very hard to understand what he was talking about. But after a while I gave up and started counting different colored hats. I counted eight brown, six black, three red, a yellow and a leopard before the rabbi finished. Then we all stood up again and everyone sang in Hebrew that I didn't know. And that was it! I expedted something else. I don't know what exactly. A feeling, perhaps. But I suppose you have to go more than once to know what it's all about.
- ^ Judy Blume: Are You There, God. It's me, Margaret. Excerpt from the ninth chapter. The original quote is: Think about how you'd feel if you had to wear a bra in fourth grade and how everybody laughed and how you always had to cross your arms in front of you. And about how the boys called you dirty names just because of how you looked.
- ↑ Blume, "Judy's Official Bio" .
- ^ Top Ten Challenged Authors 1990–2004 . American Library Association ( ALA ). Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
- ^ "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" . National Book Foundation. Accessed August 9, 2014.
- ↑ Wyatt, Edward (September 15, 2004). "Literary Prize for Judy Blume, Confidante to Teenagers" . The New York Times .