Ramona the Brave

“Ramona was used to being considered a little pest, and she knew she sometimes was a pest, but this was something different. She felt as if she were standing aside looking at herself.”

The mention of Ramona as a pest references the previous book in the Ramona the Pest series. The passage reflects Ramona’s growth as she transforms from a preschooler to a school-aged child. She is more self-reflective and recognizes the changes in herself.

“The two sisters exchanged a look of complete understanding. They both knew this was the sort of advice easy for adults to give but difficult for children to follow.”

Though Ramona and her sister Beezus are different from each other, they find a moment of solidarity in recognizing the futility of their mother’s suggestion to just ignore the bullies. Mrs. Quimby has forgotten how hard it is to be a child and deal with peer teasing and bullying. Though Ramona is several years younger than Beezus, she’s experienced enough to have common ground with Beezus in this area.

“Beezus gave her sister a look of disgust. ‘Ramona, grow up!’ Ramona lost all patience. ‘Can’t you see I’m trying?’ she yelled at the top of her voice.”

This passage reflects Cleary’s use of humor and demonstrates how a child thinks. Ramona wants to grow up, but she views the command literally and points out that she can only grow as fast as her physical body will allow.

“Just think! You’re going to be liberated!”

Beezus’s statement reflects the feminist thoughts of the era. When Cleary wrote the novel, most women did not work outside the home. Beezus associates her mother’s new job as an expression of female empowerment and liberation from being trapped in her domestic duties. Beezus is happy about her mother’s new opportunity, but Ramona has concerns.

“Something was going to happen after all. And when school started, she would have something exciting to share with her class for Show and Tell. A hole chopped in the house!”

In true Ramona fashion, she is more excited about the possibility of an adventure than the actual house renovation project. The passage exemplifies Cleary’s use of humor through Ramona’s distinctive narrative voice. “A hole chopped in the house” sounds authentic to a child’s perception of the event and the type of description an imaginative six-year-old would use.

“That night, after the sisters had gone to bed, Beezus whispered, ‘It’s sort of scary, having a hole in the house.’”

The sisters’ differing reactions to the hole in the house exemplify their differences in character. Ramona views the hole as a chance for adventure, and she and Howie spend the day repeatedly running through the house and leaping out of the hole, turning the house into a playground. Beezus is older, and the hole represents a fear of the unknown and a possible way for someone or something nefarious to enter the house uninvited. In a twist of roles, Ramona helps her older sister turn the fear into a game as they take turns creating a ghost story for the gaping hole.

“The sisters shivered with pleasure and were silent while Ramona’s imagination continued.”

Cleary captures a sublime moment of childhood where Ramona is simultaneously frightened and thrilled by the ghost story game. Channeling her vivid imagination and love of adventure, Ramona turns the scary gash in their home into a game.

“Ramona saw Beezus and Mary Jane. ‘Hi, Beatrice,’ she called, to let her sister know she would remember not to call her Beezus at school.”

Resolving the earlier debacle of Beezus’s nickname, the sisters agree that they will continue to use it at home, but in public, she would be Beatrice. Ramona holds to their agreement, demonstrating the growth in her relationship with her sister. She respects and recognizes her need for acceptance from her peers, something Ramona will come to learn about as she matures.

“[…] Susan with her fat curls like springs touching her shoulders. Boing, thought Ramona as always, at the sight of those curls. This year she promised herself she would not pull those curls no matter how much they tempted her.”

In the previous book in the series, Ramona is obsessed with her classmate Susan’s red, curly hair. One day, she loses her self-control and pulls one of the curls. Ramona’s ability to resist temptation now demonstrates her maturation and development of restraint. The passage also employs onomatopoeia as Ramona imagines the sound the curl would make if she pulled and released it. 

“She wanted to kick, but she did not, because now she was in the first grade.”

As a toddler, Ramona expressed her emotions physically and struggled to control her headstrong and impetuous nature. Her acknowledgment of the need to control her physical body reveals growth and maturity. However, Ramona only associates the need for self-control with advancing to the next grade. She has yet to fully understand the social and emotional implications of proper social behavior.

“That was the trouble with Howie. If she offered him a glass of bug juice, he said, ‘That’s Kool-Aid.’ If she said, ‘It’s been a million years since I had a Popsicle,’ he said, ‘You had a Popsicle last week. I saw you.’”

Ramona realizes the differences between her and her best friend, Howie. She is an adventurous dreamer, and he is a realist. He sees Ramona’s hyperbole as lies, whereas she views it as her way of telling fantastical stories. As toddlers, the two friends bonded over a shared love of playtime, but as they get older and their personalities evolve, Ramona begins to understand how friendships can become complicated.

“[…] when the air was hazy with smoke from the distant forest fires and the sun hung in the sky like an orange volleyball […]”

The author employs figurative language to give the reader a clear vision of the scene. Using a simile to compare the sun to an orange volleyball paints a striking image of the September, late afternoon sun that Ramona sees from her classroom window.

“She was not like poor little Davy, who was still stuck on saw and was. If the book said saw, Davy read was. If the book said dog, Davy read god.”

Through Ramona’s view of her classmate Davy’s struggles, the author shows a realistic picture of the problems a child might encounter in first grade. Davy struggles with dyslexia or another type of language processing issue. Ramona’s empathy towards her classmate displays her maturity and depth of character.

“Her head told her to keep her hands to herself, but her hands did not obey.”

For all of Ramona’s growth, Susan’s plagiarism of her owl is too much for her to bear. Susan’s stealing of her idea is compounded by the pressure to please her teacher and not be humiliated in front of her classmates. The limits of Ramona’s first-grade emotional capacity are pushed too far, causing her to lose control of her emotions and her body.

“They would be disappointed in Ramona, that’s what they’d be, and nothing made Ramona feel worse than knowing that her parents were disappointed in her.”

In Ramona, the author captures the common longing of children to gain acceptance from adults in their life. Ramona longs to please her teacher Mrs. Griggs, but she cares deeply for her family. She enjoys recognition from Beezus, but it is her parents she longs to please most of all.

“Ramona’s conscience hurt, and a hurting conscience was the worst feeling in the world.”

When Ramona was a toddler, she acted out without remorse or acknowledgment of her mistake. The author displays growth in her character as she begins to understand the consequences of poor choices on others. However, Ramona’s most profound growth comes when she internalizes the bad choices and realizes their effect on her.

“Ramona dreaded school because she felt Mrs. Griggs did not like her, and she did not enjoy spending the whole day in a room with someone who did not like her, especially when that person was in charge.”

Mrs. Griggs’s strict classroom management contrasts with Ramona’s free-spirited nature. When her teacher becomes frustrated with Ramona’s lack of focus and self-control, Ramona interprets it as dislike. Through interacting with her teacher, Ramona is learning an important life lesson about dealing with conflict in relationships.

“She closed her new curtains, shutting out the dark eye of the night.”

The author highlights the childlike fear of the dark by personifying the pitch-darkness outside as a malevolent force. Ramona tries to be brave and goes through a nightly ritual to shut out her fears, part of which is closing the curtains tight. However, the darkness in her room is equally frightening, and she struggles to overcome her anxiety, which causes her to lose sleep.

“Ramona was indignant. Her dream was her own, not something passed down from Beezus like an old dress or old rain boots.”

This passage reflects a pivotal moment in Ramona’s emotional state in the novel. After deciding to release her fear of the dark, she awakens the next morning feeling full of hope and optimism. Her new shoes symbolize her fresh perspective and the harnessing of her independence.

“Guts! Guts! Guts!”

Cleary employs her trademark sense of humor in Ramona’s outburst. In her childish state, Ramona thinks her invective is a curse word, but she is just looking for a way to express her anger and release some pent-up anxiety. Ramona does not desire to displease her parents by cursing but only wants to get their attention. Ironically, the word “guts” can also mean a type of bravery or fortitude of spirit. Ramona does not realize that it takes guts to do some of the bold things she does.

“Everyone was against her. Nobody liked her. Even the cat did not like her.”

Ramona’s internal dialogue expresses the sentiment of most children as they struggle to navigate an adult world. She is learning the discomfort of injustice and difficulties with interpersonal relationships. Even the cat does not like Ramona, but her mother teaches her later that Picky-picky does not enjoy her because she is too rough with her, which is part of an ongoing lesson Ramona is learning about self-control, particularly with her physical body.

“Beezus’s old boots, which so often weighed her down, were home in the hall closet.”

Having lived in her sister’s shadow her entire life, Ramona longs for independence and a life to call her own. This includes her wardrobe, which often consists of Beezus’s hand-me-downs. On this day, however, Ramona wears new oxford shoes that did not belong to her sister before, and the shoes symbolize Ramona’s fresh start. No longer weighed down physically by the clunky boots but also emotionally by their significance, Ramona skips off to school with a renewed sense of purpose and hope for the future.

“They too had faced big dogs and been frightened. Ramona felt better.”

Ramona’s classmates’ show of support and solidarity represents Cleary’s intention to explore the real experience of a child’s inner life. When Ramona shares her story, the students feel less alone in their fear, and Ramona feels a sense of acceptance and belonging amongst her peers. After spending the entire narrative in a tangle of nervous anxiety, the simple statement that Ramona felt better brings a sense of relief to all the tension in the story.