Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the first in a growing series of fictional comics by Jeff Kinney. In the book, we get collected episodes from a year in the tragicomic life of the book’s protagonist, Greg Heffley, presented in the form of a diary (Heffley: “First of all, let me clarify something: this is a JOURNAL, not a diary”). . The book proceeds not by a developing plot per se, but rather by its sequential format. A handwritten typeface, printed on lined paper (like in a journal), is mixed with illustrative cartoons on each page.
Heffley is a prepubescent high school student who is generally not satisfied with his lot in life: he is caught between a spoiled younger brother and an older brother who regularly victimizes him with pranks; he’s surrounded by “morons” at school, including, apparently, his socially unaware “best friend” Rowley; it is not popular; his parents have no idea; and his passion for violent video games is frustrated at every turn.
As is probably already evident from this minimal description, the soul of the book – and what I consider its core subjective appeal – is a particularly youthful brand of pessimistic humor. Think Beavis and Butthead with the volume slightly low. Throughout the book, I was howling at Heffley’s scathing remarks about high school, laughing at the extent of his self-deception, laughing at his rawness, or laughing at his low regard for those around him.
For example, near the beginning of the book, Heffley sums up high school with the following joke: “Let me just say for the record that I think high school is the dumbest idea ever invented. mix with these gorillas who need to shave twice a day. And then they wonder why bullying is such a big problem in high school “(p. 3). Tweens will find a lot to relate to and laugh at in this book; I am not surprised that it is so popular.
Now the flip side: despite being genuinely fun, the book is very slim in development value. However, more precisely, I think the book can be detrimental to development. The central problem is that Kinney makes us laugh at the bad things Heffley says and does and at his deceptive and selfish attitudes, wanting more and implicitly approving.
For example, when skinny Heffley realizes he has no chance in wrestling class, he sets up a makeshift press bench and invites Rowley to be his weightlifting observer. He has Rowley go first, to see if he’s as committed to “bulking up” as Heffley is, and then proceeds to leave Rowley trapped under the bar for a while, to help him “get serious about exercising.” When Rowley goes home, his feelings (if not his body) clearly hurt, Heffley concludes (without ever having raised the bar once!) That Rowley is letting him down, and that Rowley is not that dedicated to lifting weights. As the. is.
Now of course I laughed at this (I’m not a saint), but the question is, should I laugh at that? More importantly, should preteens, whose moral character is in the relatively early stages of formation, laugh at it? My concern here is that the book simply reinforces, and subtly leads us to approve, a certain self-centered negativity that should be purged from preteens, not more deeply anchored through repeated and pleasurable reinforcement.
Okay, okay, I’ve already heard the objections: “Isn’t this just puritanical paranoia? What’s wrong with a little frivolous fun? Couldn’t the book just be like junk food, I mean, okay once from time to time, but not like a constant diet?? “Answer: there is nothing wrong with frivolous fun. The problem is, reading books like this is not frivolous fun. Think of it this way: As a parent, would you like your child to be Greg Heffley’s best friend? My answer is clearly “No.” Why? Because our friends influence who we become, the choices we make, the attitudes we adopt, in short, our character, and I don’t want my kids to have Heffley’s character. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the characters in the books we enjoy become our friends for a season, and perhaps for a long and influential season if the book is part of a series. (Hence the lack of junk food analogy: if you buy this book for your kids, they’ll “eat” it all the time.)
For example, my wife and I have been reading the Harry Potter series out loud for the past seven months (I know, I know … geek alert!), And when we lose a few days, we actually start to miss Harry. , Ron and Hermione, the central characters. In fact, I know people who have become more emotionally attached to fictional characters than to the real people in their lives. I will have more to say about this connection between history and character development in a future article, but for now suffice to say that I believe that fictional characters can exert a great influence on our character, particularly if we identify with them and with them. We enjoy. .
Now, to be fair, Heffley is rarely rewarded for his attitudes and actions (although the reader is, hands down). Also, I think Kinney’s portrayal of Heffley is meant to make us see through Heffley’s negative bragging in high school and see the glimpses of a decent kid. For example, the title of the book alone tells us not to take Heffley at face value. Despite Heffley’s protests to the contrary, the title says that this IS a diary, and that he IS a cowardly child (he likes home economics class for crying out loud!). Also, it seems to be Kinney’s intention that we sometimes see Heffley produce good things – for example, he helps his little brother despite having a bad attitude about it, and he stumbles by giving Rowley a big Christmas present.
The problem is that producing good results despite horrible attitudes and intentions is not an ethic worth teaching; rather it is a twisted form of moral consequentialism. Heffley’s stinky attitude and his frequently stinky actions far outweigh his accidental kindness. I don’t require my fictional characters to be morally impeccable – my beloved Harry, Ron, and Hermione clearly misbehave frequently. In fact, we would never identify with fictional characters if they were perfect, since we are not perfect. However, with Heffley, the balance tips too much toward negativity and nastiness to recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This book will set children back.
Final Objection: “This book can help non-readers, especially children, to become readers.” While I agree that nonreaders can read The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the question is, what exactly does that accomplish? I am skeptical that such a book will help any child graduate to literature that is really worth reading. In my opinion, this book is no better than a funny but corrosive TV show in that sense (although it is considerably more creative than most TV shows). If we want to help nonreaders to become readers, an extremely valuable goal, we must do better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
In short, I do not recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid.