Rodrick Rules

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2008

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-6

Part 3, Chapters 7-8

Part 4, Chapters 9-11

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Money and Mom Bucks

When Greg and Rodrick start to ask for more money from their parents, Mrs. Heffley decides to create a system known as Mom Bucks. She promises to pay Greg and Rodrick with fake money that they can cash in for real money, but they must do chores and help out if they want to reap the benefits. While the Mom Bucks are supposed to represent a foolproof system for encouraging responsibility and ambition, they quickly deteriorate into a chaotic system of greed and deception.

When Mrs. Heffley first introduces the Mom Bucks program, she gives Greg and Rodrick some money to get started. Rodrick expresses immediate disinterest in the program by cashing in all of his money and spending it on magazines. Mrs. Heffley is disappointed, but Greg shows great interest in the idea of saving up his Mom Bucks for something he really wants. Mrs. Heffley tries to persuade the boys to help out with tasks like raking their grandmother’s yard, and she even offers to “pay [them] $100 in Mom Bucks for each bag [they] filled” (86). Greg and Rodrick reluctantly agree, but in the middle of their raking and bagging, Rodrick teaches Greg how to cheat the system by underfilling the bags. Thanks to Rodrick’s trick, the boys quickly run out of bags for the leaves, even though the job isn’t done, and they are rewarded with the Mom Bucks for taking the easy way out.

When Greg discovers the counterfeit Mom Bucks in one of Rowley’s board games, the Mom Bucks program loses all of its meaning. Mom Bucks were meant to inspire good decision making and helpfulness, and to show the benefits of hard work. This illusion dissipates when Greg finds himself in possession of a huge amount of money that he did not earn. Greg plans to cash the Mom Bucks in slowly over time so as not to alert his mother, and he even knows that he will need to “earn a few Mom Bucks for real here and there so she doesn’t get too suspicious” (141), but Rodrick ruins the plan when he again expresses his disinterest in the program when he tries to cash in the fake money to purchase a motorcycle. Mrs. Heffley ends the Mom Bucks program, and instead of learning the benefits of hard work, Greg and Rodrick learn what happens when they try to take advantage of their mother and her generosity.

Diaries and Journals

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series focuses on a middle-school-aged boy who begrudgingly starts keeping a journal at his mother’s insistence. In a world where journals and diaries are often associated with femininity, Greg has always been self-conscious about carrying around a book that says “diary” on the front cover. In Rodrick Rules, diaries and journals are symbols of a person’s inner thoughts, and Jeff Kinney demonstrates how journals can be used in vastly different ways for different people.

Although Greg was initially concerned about bullies in school, he has since discovered that his brother Rodrick is a greater threat to his journaling habit. Rodrick teases Greg for keeping a journal, and Greg notes that he will need to do a better job of securing his new journal. Later, the reader learns that Greg took out his old journal over the summer, and “taking out a book that said ‘diary’ on the cover in front of Rodrick was a HUGE mistake” (206). Rodrick harassed Greg and tried to steal his journal, which resulted in the embarrassing incident at Leisure Towers. The stigma around boys journaling their feelings is still strong, and Rodrick—like many people—believes that journaling is a feminine activity worthy of teasing.

Although Greg has been harassed by Rodrick in the past for keeping a journal, he has no empathy or patience for Rowley’s journal, and Greg judges Rowley for keeping such an embarrassing-looking diary. Greg is annoyed when Rowley asks for a diary because he thinks Rowley is just trying to copy him. Rodrick tries to make Greg feel shame for keeping a journal, and in turn, Greg doesn’t hide his disdain for Rowley’s diary. Of course, Greg thinks that Rowley will use his journal the same way Greg uses his: to write down “all sorts of juicy gossip” (91) and humiliating secrets about other people. But when Greg steals Rowley’s diary to see if he wrote anything about Greg, he is confused and a little disturbed to see that Rowley is simply writing down a narrative of his action figure battles. Even so, Greg’s hypocrisy is clear: He thinks Rodrick is a jerk for stealing his journal, but when Greg wants to know Rowley’s inner thoughts, he invades Rowley’s private space and violates his trust.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms are a point of contention for Greg in Rodrick Rules and become the crux of the relationship tension between Greg and Rodrick throughout the novel. At the beginning of the narrative, Greg submits to Rodrick’s continuous blackmail, as he is paranoid that his embarrassing incident of accidentally hiding in a women’s restroom over the summer will be the death of his reputation in middle school. Rodrick threatens to tell Greg’s school all about his accident and uses the situation to hold power over Greg that he maintains until after the talent show. For example, the representation becomes more complicated when proof of Rodrick’s house party is written on the back of their bathroom door, and the brothers must switch the doors to hide the evidence.

As bathrooms are designated privacy and safety to maintain hygiene and appearances, the bathrooms throughout Rodrick Rules represent Greg’s social transition throughout the novel and the extent he’s willing to go to maintain his popular reputation. The bathroom is a place of embarrassment and shame from the beginning of the story, and a way for Rodrick to force Greg to do his bidding. Once Rodrick hosts the house party while their parents are away, the bathroom becomes an equalizer as the brothers must replace the door so that their parents don’t find out about what Rodrick was up to. While Greg remains the sibling with the lesser power, knowing what Rodrick has done and how its evidence is rooted in the bathroom becomes the start of Greg’s reflection on how he can cause Rodrick pain like he’s caused Greg.

When Greg accidentally violated the privacy of the women’s restroom to hide from Rodrick over the summer, he is desperate to hide his embarrassment. After the rumor evolves, Greg takes advantage of the restroom rumor to boost his social status in middle school. The transition of the bathroom from a place of embarrassment to an equalizer to cover evidence of the house party to a place where Greg becomes popular parallels the way Greg evolves throughout the narrative.