Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is a 1970 book by Judy Blume, which according to Wikipedia is typically categorized as a young adult novel, about a girl in sixth grade who has grown up without a religious affiliation. Margaret’s mother is Christian and her father is Jewish, and the novel explores her quest for a single religion. Margaret also confronts many other pre-teen female issues, such as buying her first bra, having her first period, coping with belted sanitary napkins (changed to adhesive pads for more recent editions of the book), envy toward another girl who has developed a womanly figure, liking boys, and whether to voice her opinions if they differ from those of her friends.

The main conflict in the novel comes from Margaret’s need to settle her mixed religious heritage. She frequently begins praying by saying the title: “Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret.” In school, she is assigned a year-long independent study project; she chooses a study on people’s beliefs, which proves to be more than she can handle, as she finds out a lot about herself as well.

Margaret also deals with conflict with her grandparents on both sides of her family. Her maternal grandparents try to guarantee that she is Christian. Margaret enjoys spending time with her paternal grandmother, who seems to accept her for who she is and is more tolerant of her son’s interfaith marriage, although she refers to Margaret as “my Jewish girl” and introduces her to synagogue services for the purpose of showing her what the Jewish faith entails. When her Jewish grandmother tells Margaret to remember that she is a Jewish girl, Margaret claims not to believe in God, which angers her grandmother. The ambiguities of her interfaith identity are particularly highlighted in a scene—following a heated argument with another girl—in which Margaret visits a church and finds her way to the confessional. There, the unseen priest inquires as to her problems, but— believing at first that the priest is God himself speaking to her, and not comprehending the concept of Christian confession or its confidential nature—Margaret simply responds, “I am sorry,” before running out of the church in tears.

Margaret moves from New York to the New Jersey suburbs, where she encounters Nancy, who leads her into a club where they talk about boys, bras, and periods. She becomes attracted to Phillip Leroy, a boy at school, and kisses him at a party while playing Two Minutes in the Closet (see Seven Minutes in Heaven). Judy says that her character, Margaret, came from her own childhood experience of not maturing liker her other classmates and like her character in the book, Judy tried exercises to get her bust to grow. But Judy’s own religious experience differs from her character.