As promised...Are you there God?

There was one specific part in the book that I want, no need, to talk about. When Margaret's maternal grand-parents come to visit, they immediately start in on Margaret being a Christian. Of course she freaks out. She says "who needs God anyway?!"

And here is where I think her parents failed her. Instead of raising her to understand WHY people have these beliefs and hold these faiths so strongly,they just tell her she can make up her own mind eventually. Obviously, as we have seen throughout the book, Margaret is the kind of person who (at least for now) needs God. She needs to believe there is something bigger then herself-and what 6th grader in the 1970's wouldn't? It was a difficult era politically and (for Margaret among many other American pre-teens) personally. Her parents set her up for failure. When she stopped talking to God I had to put down the book for a few days, I was so mad. I just wanted to run in and be like, "It's OK! You don't even have to call it God if you don't want to! These things you are thinking about are important and something is listening!" But I guess she found that out on her own in the end.

OK, so now I need to go to geography, then it's home to keep packing, getting ready for the exodus!