Verma 1

Riya Verma
Mrs. Barnes
Honors Language Arts 8
04 October 2015
The Struggle with Religion
Over the course of human history, religion has always tended to be a sore spot. Most
people believe in a religion, but not all of them have the same interpretation. Readers follow
Margaret, a 12 year old girl, in Judy Blumes Are you there God? Its Me, Margaret, who is
trying to strike a balance between her new busy schedule as a sixth grader and figuring out which
religion she wants to follow. Her judgement gets clouded when she gets an unexpected visit from
her mothers parents, who tried to force her to into becoming a Christian. Margarets mother had
made it clear that Margaret was to choose on her religion without any outside influence. Markus
Zusaks The Book Thief, tells the tale of 11 year old Liesel and her foster parents, Rosa and Hans
Hubermann who share a grave secret with her. They are hiding a Jew named Max in their
basement during the height of World War 2. He struggles to survive under the circumstances that
are forced on him due to his religious belief. Being a Jew in that time period was not easy. In
normal situations religion is a peaceful thought whereas in both situations it brought disruption in
their lives. Both authors use plot, character development, and social conditions to suggest that
religion is more than just worshipping God.
Religion is one of the two ways: life-changing or just another part of life. Authors, Blume
and Zusak use plot to emphasize the theme. For both Max and Margaret, religion was a lifechanging idea. Within Margarets family, religion had always been a sore spot. Margarets friends
could not understand her situation so she had to explain. See uh... my father was Jewish and

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uh...my mother was Christian and...Well, my mothers parents who...at least she accepted the
situation...They eloped(Blume 35). This quote shows that people take religion very seriously
and it can sometimes stop being about God. The plot of the book is that Margarets grandparents
were so obsessed about their religion that they considered religion before their own daughters
happiness. They thought that if their daughter was to marry a Jew, there would have been a bad
influence in their house and that God would be mad at them. They tried to fix their mistake by
forcing Margaret to follow Christianity. Blume uses the ongoing conflict of Margarets mother
and grandparents to suggest that sometimes people get ahead of themselves and then religion
becomes more than just worshipping God. Max also faced the same problem. He was a Jew
living in Nazi Germany. The Jews, the minority religion group, were brutally murdered. Hitler
was saying that his majority (the Nazis) was better than the Jews. Maxs religion was the reason
that made him go into hiding to save his life. Papa apologized. Its quite pathetic. I realize that.
Better than nothing, Max assured him.Better than I deserve-thank you(Zusak 208). Maxs
religion was responsible for his new living conditions. He had to live in this kind of lifestyle
because his religion was being targeted. He, as a person, was being targeted, not for his thought
process but for his religious belief. It was just the label that made him a target. For Max and
Margarets families, religion was an impacting force in their lives. It was something that had
greater influence. Zusak uses the plot of the story to show the theme. He uses Maxs situation
and struggles to stay alive to develop the theme of the book. The plot of the book was Maxs
survival in the time where Jews were being murdered. Jews were being murdered because of
their religious beliefs. There is another point of view to this which includes the actually
worshipping of God.

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While some may argue that the author is making a claim that the bias revolves around
how someone worships God they fail to understand that the text never mentions how someone is
against anothers practice. In Are you there God? Its Me, Margaret, Margaret's mothers parents
did not approve of their daughters marriage to a Jew, despite how much she loved Herb.
Margaret Its not too late for you, dear. Youre still Gods child. Maybe while Im visiting I
could take you to church and talk to the minister. He might be able to straighten things
out(Blume 134). Margarets maternal grandmother words proved that she was scared of God.
She wanted everything to be right in Gods eyes. Another quote that proves that is, Just
remember, Margaret no matter what they said youre a Jewish girl. No Im not...Margaret
dont ever talk like that about God(Blume 140). All of them were so caught up on how God
would feel and treat them if they made a mistake, they didnt even consider their familys
feelings and thoughts. Similarly, Max experienced this as well. Hitler did not hate Jews because
of the religion they practiced. He hated them for the fact that a lot of Jews were against him. The
Fuhrer says,
Can you see that this enemy has found its ways- its despicable ways- through our armor,
and that clearly, I cannot stand up here alone and fight him? The words were visible.
They dropped from his mouth like jewels. Look at him! Take a good look...Hes
infesting you with his family and hes about to take you overBefore you know it, youll
be working for him at minimum wage while he can hardly walk from the weight is his
pockets (Zusak 254).
During this entire phenomenon of how and why Jews were inferior and why everyone should be
against them, Hitler never once mentioned that his religion was better than Jews religion or his
God was better than Jews God. During this time period, Jews were hunted down for various

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reasons and not one of them was how they practiced religion. This goes to show that God was
never a part of World War Two. Thanks to religion the characters have to develop accordingly.
A common phrase, most grow up, hearing is people change. To be honest, the people
who change the most are young adults.They change and develop more as they learn. At the
beginning of Are you there God? Its Me, Margaret, Margaret is a naive girl eager to choose her
religion. By the end of the school year Ill know all there is to know...join the Y or the Center
like everybody else, she claims to God (Blume 61). Her claim to God shows how little she
knew about religion, She learned later that religion was more complicated than that. To help her
decide she went to the synagogue and church. And thats it! I expected...once to know what its
all about, Margaret says about the synagogue visit (Blume 59). Upon visiting the church she
noted that, The funniest thing thing was it was just like...the minister gave a sermon I couldnt
follow (Blume 63). These visits to the different religious places helped her decide on which
religion she wanted to follow. While she was learning more about religion, her judgement was
clouded due to an unexpected visit from her grandparents and a flashback of her parents past.
Blume uses the unexpected visit to show how far Margaret has gotten with her religious finds.
Margaret was first shown as a childish girl who wanted to fit in. After actually trying to find her
religion readers see a new Margaret who honestly wants to find a religion that fits her. The visit
shows how Margaret had built up this perfect sense of knowing all about religion and then
finding out she has a long way to go. Like Margaret, Max also changed throughout the course of
the book. When readers first met Max, they were introduced to a resilient kid who liked to fight.
With his state of mind he could not quite understand death. When his uncle died he thought to
himself, Wheres the fight?... feel my fist on his face (Zusak 189). As a kid that is all he
could think of. While growing up, Max started to lose these childish thoughts. He understood

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that there was more to life than he could just see. Growing up and going towards Nazi Germany
his life changed. He was forced to move away from his family, live with another family, and
endanger all of them for his survival. With his newly gained wisdom he knew that he must do
this no matter what. His final words and thoughts before he left were, I wont leave. If we all
cant go...If only he had turned for No final good-bye (Zusak 193). Max started to
comprehend that he had to do whatever it took to survive. They examined the piece of paper
amid the grotesque of his relief (Zusak 194). Max was forced to leave behind everything he
had for a chance of survival. All around him, people hated the Jews and support the opposition
which was the Nazi Party. Zusak used Maxs personality as a kid and his personality as a young
man to show how much Max had changed because of his religion. All of the evidence shows how
Maxs religion helped him into developing into a more responsible and grown up figure
compared to how he acted in his childhood. Due to their religion they adapted to match their
social conditions.
Humans are constantly trying to gain the approval of others. The authors use social
conditions to symbolize the way others try to gain approval. People like to consider their social
conditions before doing anything,which is exactly what Margaret does. Since she was new to
New Jersey, her goal was to get new friends and be social. To fit in Margaret felt like she needed
to join either the Y or the Center. Her new friends were astounded that she did not have a
religion. Wed be happy to help with hers...I don't go to Sunday schoolYou mean to
Hebrew doesnt even go to Sunday school (Blume 10, 34). These reactions made
Margaret uncomfortable. Until then she thought that it was normal not to have a religion. The
reader can infer that Margarets friends from New York never questioned her absence of a
religion, so she felt awkward when her new friends acted differently compared to the New York

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friends. So to fill the gap she went out to find a religion. Blume uses Margarets social conditions
to symbolize how she tries to find a religion to participate in to be like everyone else in school.
The author uses the evidence above to prove that Margaret felt awkward about her new friends
reactions. Margarets quest symbolize how desperate she was to fit in at a new place. Maxs
problem was opposite of Margarets but still similar. Max was shrinking away and not wanting to
be Jewish as much. He was proud to be Jewish but it came with the risks. The Fuhrer did not like
Jews. Since he was the most well respected man in Germany, many people became his followers.
This was a bad thing for Jews as they had majority of people against them because of one
persons opinion. My fellow Germans, can you see something here tonight, cant far more
sinister.. see that? (Zusak 254). As a natural instinct, humans like to please those who they
think are better than them. Zusak shows how the bandwagon effect is used when it comes to bias.
He uses the Germans and Maxs social conditions to symbolize the way that other Germans
reacted to the Fuhrers hatred towards the Jews. The author uses the different ways people acted
towards Jews to suggest that many people followed Hitler because of the herd mentality.
Margarets friends belonged to some religion so she wanted to have one too. The Fuhrer hated all
Jews and thought they should be murdered, as did 90% of the Germans.
Religion is a very complex subject for a many people. It has made people being shunned
from their lands or being killed over, for generations. Depending upon the religion a person
follows, others may take it seriously or very lightly. Both Zusak and Blume use plot, character
development, and the characters social conditions to suggest that religion is more than just
worshipping God. But is religion not to be blamed for most of historys killings?

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Works Cited
Blume, Judy. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Bradbury, 1970.
Print.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.