Ramona and Her Mother

The previous book ended at Christmastime, and the story picks up at the beginning of the new year, symbolizing the changes within the Quimby family. The Quimbys host the New Year’s Brunch to celebrate Mr. Quimby’s new job, which serves as a much-needed self-esteem boost for him as he has recently experienced a prolonged period of unemployment. Establishing the theme of Building Resilient Families, the first chapters expose the underlying tensions created by Mr. Quimby’s unemployment and new job. Ramona is happy that her father is newly employed but knows his job is demanding and unfulfilling. With Mrs. Quimby now working full-time, the shifting family dynamics create anxiety for Ramona as she becomes more aware of the world around her. Having shouldered the role of financially supporting the family while still running the home, Mrs. Quimby is fraying at the edges. Her harried party preparation reveals a woman cracking under the burden of too much responsibility. Ramona longs to have her mother home again, something she sees as restoring the proper order to life. At the same time, Ramona misses the afternoons she used to spend with her dad. The changes force her to sacrifice quality time with her dad and endure Willa Jean’s annoyances. Though she does have selfish concerns, Ramona’s concern for her father’s happiness reveals her growth and highlights the importance of empathy within families.

Ramona is growing physically, but she is also maturing emotionally and psychologically. Her interactions with Willa Jean reveal Ramona’s desire to distance herself from childhood. Willa Jean is the age Ramona was when she was introduced into the series, and many of the annoyances Ramona has with the toddler mirror the ways she annoyed Beezus and her friends. Ramona’s growing self-awareness reflects one of The Challenges of Growing Up and Seeking Independence. Not only does Ramona not want to be compared to Willa Jean, but she also makes conscious efforts to appear more grown-up, as when she refrains from correcting Mrs. Swink when she gets her name wrong. The adults’ laughter is perplexing, even frustrating, because Ramona doesn’t know what she did to provoke it. This situation is especially daunting for a sensitive child who doesn’t want to be laughed at, and Ramona dislikes feeling powerless over other people’s reactions to her. When the party guests fawn over Willa Jean’s frilly dress, Ramona instantly becomes self-conscious about her plain clothes and gap-toothed smile when, just moments before, she looks approvingly at herself in the mirror. Her feelings illustrate her growing awareness of the way others view her.

The third-person narration hews closely to Ramona’s thoughts, particularly those that she cannot articulate to others, such as her own desire to pull every tissue out of a box of Kleenex. At the same time, the narrator maintains just enough distance from Ramona to display her thoughts and actions in a broader context. The narrator doesn’t accept Ramona’s impressions at face value, but they also do not directly contradict her, even when her reactions are clearly disproportionate. For instance, Ramona’s tantrum when she cannot properly sew Ella Funt’s pants is presented matter-of-factly; the narrator makes no comment on whether the tantrum is justified or not, choosing instead to allow Ramona the space to process her emotions. The narrator does not see Ramona as a child to be laughed at; rather, she is someone to sympathize with.

Ramona still longs for the thrills of childhood, but she seeks to avoid the condescension she feels from adults. Eating in the kitchen with Willa Jean rather than in the living room with Beezus and the adults is an indignity: Ramona is old enough to keep an eye on Willa Jean while her parents eat, but she is not grown up enough to be treated like Beezus. At the same time, Ramona wants to be viewed as an older child, yet inside, she longs to cuddle Willa Jean’s plush teddy bear. Ramona is caught between the last remnants of early childhood and growing self-awareness, and she acts out to release the tension.

Beyond the tension of family dynamics and maturation, Ramona senses an uncomfortable shift in Beezus and Mrs. Quimby’s relationship. Though she has always been closer to her artistic father, she is newly aware of a desire to be compared to her mother. When the party guest refers to Beezus as her “mother’s girl,” Ramona worries that she is missing out on The Bond Between Mothers and Daughters. Whether it be her parents or her teachers at school, Ramona craves validation from adults, even—or especially—when those adults are unaware of how deeply she feels their reactions to her. Beezus, by contrast, is about to be a teenager. Ramona register’s Beezus’s transition in terms of washing her hair more and being newly concerned about saving trees. Mrs. Quimby recognizes that Beezus needs more nurturing, but Ramona perceives their closeness as favoritism.

When Mrs. Quimby invites Ramona to sew with her, Ramona views it as her chance to connect with her mother. Beezus’s intrusion—and, more than that, her irritating competence at a task that is vexing her younger sister—brings Ramona’s anxiety to a head, and she explodes in childish anger by throwing her sewing project across the room. Ella Funt and her ill-fitting pants are a metaphor for Ramona as she struggles to figure out where she fits in her family. Each role she tries never seems to fit correctly, nor does she feel like she is successfully fulfilling her parents’ expectations. Running to hide in the bathroom signifies Ramona’s desire to hide her childish emotions from her mother and big sister. Yet, she can’t resist the urge to empty the toothpaste tube in the bathroom, squeezing her frustrations into a towering mound. While she may not have been able directly to experience the thrill of emptying a Kleenex box, Ramona fulfills her desire, and the experience serves as a tactile, briefly satisfying moment of stress relief. Emptying the tube allows Ramona to empty herself of all her pent-up frustration and anxiety. However, the satisfaction is short-lived as Ramona’s maturing sense of self immediately reminds her of the ensuing consequences of her impulsivity. Mrs. Quimby’s punishment for Ramona’s crime—making her use up the squeezed toothpaste while the rest of them use a fresh tube—makes her feel isolated from her family, even as it also suggests the Quimbys’ continuing financial struggles.