Ramona Forever

In Ramona Forever, Beverly Cleary establishes a primary theme on the highs and lows of growing up. By portraying Ramona Quimby’s everyday challenges and triumphs, Cleary makes her a relatable protagonist whose childhood will echo the reader’s own experiences. This is important for the book’s role as a middle-grade narrative, especially the didactic and therapeutic purposes of traditional children’s literature. The novel casts many of the highs and lows of childhood as unavoidable parts of youth, especially as the result of children’s limited autonomy. This theme is focused on Ramona’s emotional responses to these events, the choices that she makes when dealing with her feelings, and the consequences of these choices. In other words, this theme promotes the novel’s message that well-regulated emotional control and adaptation is a key life skill, especially when an individual’s control over external factors is limited. 

As a result, Ramona’s “low” points in the story tend to be when she is in conflict with other people. For instance, when her babysitter is angry with her, Ramona becomes very upset: “Ramona sat, and Ramona seethed, angry at the unfairness of all that had happened” (21). Another low point for Ramona is her argument with Beezus, which worries Ramona for over a day as she stews in her guilt and anger: “Strangely, when Ramona’s heart was heavy, so were her feet. She trudged to the school bus, plodded through the halls at school, and clumped home from the bus after school” (54). In the first of these, Ramona has been treated unjustly, whereas, in the second, she has lost her temper and insulted her sister: Together, these episodes offer opposite sides to explore Ramona’s growing understanding of healthy emotional processing. 

It is also essential to this theme that the novel shows the regular challenges of life for a child, especially those that impact them but are outside their control. This encompasses the adult subjects of death, financial and employment insecurity, romantic relationships, and pregnancy, as seen through Ramona’s perspective. A key episode is the death of Ramona’s pet, Picky-picky. Ramona is alarmed by her cat’s sudden death, and a bit anxious about being near “the ghost of Picky-picky,” and she cannot “bring herself to lift the lifeless Picky-picky” (57). Sometimes Ramona’s challenging experiences include unexpected twists, showing her—and the reader—that life can be wonderfully unpredictable. For example, Ramona is initially horrified to learn that her Aunt Bea is dating Uncle Hobart: “She had that sinking feeling she always felt when she rode down in an elevator. She knew—she just knew—that Howie’s uncle was seeing her aunt” (82). However, in the end, she begins to like and respect Hobart, and their wedding day is a wonderful experience for Ramona, who considers it a “perfect day” (130). Thus, the novel shows that emotional intelligence and resilience are the way to navigate the highs and lows of growing up.

Similarly, Ramona is ambivalent about the idea of becoming a big sister, but soon grows to love her little sister Roberta and shares the family’s excitement about her. Meeting Roberta makes her feel “unexpected love and sympathy” for her little sister (145), who Ramona is now curious about. These events show that what Ramona sometimes expects to be “low” can become a “high” point for her, helping her learn to stay positive and open-minded to other good experiences on the horizon. Overall, an optimistic Ramona feels that she is “winning at growing up” (146), summing up the positive trajectory of this theme through the novel.