Then Again, Maybe I Won't - Judy Blume

Luckily, we have authors that write novels about the very issues we will be confronted with during our adolescent years. John Gough notes in School Librarian that, "Judy Blume is concerned to describe characters surviving, finding themselves, growing in understanding, coming to terms with life.” (School Librarian) She is best known for her novels about middle-class children, which discuss problems of young people from their point of view and in their own language. Published by Bradbury Press, Inc., Blume wrote Then Again, Maybe I Won’t in 1971. This novel adds to Blume’s extensive collection of literature for young adults. In Then Again, Maybe I Won’t, Blume asks herself what it would be like to be a twelve-year-old boy. Tony Miglione's father suddenly becomes a successful, rich businessman. The family moves from a working-class neighborhood into a well-to-do Long Island suburb. Tony faces moral problems: his mother's acquiesce

Tony’s family’s lifestyle also plays a major role in the setting of the novel. The Miglione family has had a total turn around in what kind of lifestyle they use to lead. This has grave effects on some members of the family. For one, Tony’s mother has totally changed since they moved into a richer neighborhood. Tony’s mother “bought out Newark, Jersey City, and half of New York fixing up the new house.” (Blume 29) Speaking about his mother to his psychiatrist, Tony says, “But the thing is…my mother wasn’t this bad in Jersey City. At least I don’t think so. Or maybe she was and I was just too dumb to know it. She’s really a phony. My mother is really a phony. I’d love to tell her I think so.” (Blume 141) This new lifestyle has driven a wedge between Tony and his mother. They aren’t as close as they use to be before they moved. This has also hurt the relationship Tony has with his brother. He no longer looks up to his big brother like he once did when he was younger. Tony thinks his brother is becoming just like his mother. The only member in Tony’s family who hasn’t let their new lifestyle go to his head is Tony’s father. Tony says, “My father’s really something. He’s a good one! He just goes along with everything. Nothing bothers him. He’s on top of the world.” (Blume 142) Tony feels this way about his father because he hasn’t let the money go to his head. He is still trying desperately to be the same man he was before they moved. Many of Tony’s family members, however, haven’t put much effort into maintaining some sort of normalcy.

nce to snobbish neighbors; his brother's choice of money over career; the self-imposed "exile" of his grandmother, who is supplanted by a hired cook; and his knowledge that Joel, the boy next door, is shoplifting. In addition to all of that, Tony wonders when he, too, will have wet dreams, how to prevent uncontrollable erections, and if he will be arrested for practicing voyeurism on Joel's sister, the girl next door. Tony is growing up but he feels like he doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it. He develops severe stomach pains which neither a medical doctor nor a psychiatrist can cure. Having all this money has turned Tony’s life upside down.

Moral judgments also play a role in the social setting Blume has created in the novel. Tony has to leave all of his childhood friends behind when he moves to Long Island. The only new friend Tony makes within the course of the novel is Joel, his next-door neighbor. Like many children in today’s world, Joel’s parents are hardly ever home. Because of his parents’ absenteeism, Joel is left to his own devices and must fend for himself. Joel has a tendency to steal things even though he has plenty of money to pay for them. This puts Tony between a rock and a hard place. He knew that if he told, “Joel would never speak to him again and other kids would call him a Snitch.” (Blume 72) These very pressures face young adolescents today. They are torn between making a choice between doing what is right or wrong and having to face the consequences that come with each of these actions. Blume "is a careful observer of the everyday details of children's lives and she has a feel for the little power struggles and shifting alliances of their social relationships", R. A. Siegal comments in The Lion and the Unicorn. (Lion and the Unicorn ) Tony is forced to consider what is morally right and risks his relationship with his only friend.

Blume’s work has frequen

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