By Gabriel Flores, 12th grade
My generation has a lot of childhood paraphernalia to be nostalgic over. The one that probably had the most impact on our small, not fully developed brains was a book series by cartoonist Jeff Kinney, called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. This book series started back in 2007 with the main character Greg Heffley in a coming-of-age story having to adapt to middle school life, while he describes his struggles to us with a diary he writes/illustrates during the school year.
This book was beyond popular to elementary school kids, it managed to depict middle school in a way that was unrealistic but still believable to kids who were nervous about the leap from 5th grade to 6th grade. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone I knew in school owned a copy of the first book. Now not everyone loves this book, some schools tried and succeeded in banning the book series due to Greg being “pessimistic”. I can only assume that that decision was due to many having Greg as a role model at such an early age because the writing style was aimed at 3rd or 4th graders but meant to be enjoyed by anyone.
Yet some people still consider Jeff Kinney a literary genius for creating such an influential book. Of course, after his book sold more than 250 Million copies and made it the 6th most successful book of all time he made sequels. And I mean a lot of sequels. There are currently 16 books in the series without including spin-offs and a 17th book is coming this November. Even though his newer books have been declining in quality, the books are still dearly loved by the masses and held up in high regard. Yet no one really acknowledges that poor Greg has been suffering through middle school for almost 15 years. Yeah, every book covers about 1 or 2 semesters, and some of them cover the summer vacation.
By that logic, Greg Heffley should be well over 27 now and is instead in a constant state of purgatory by being kept at 14 years of age and repeating the 8th grade with no one ever acknowledging it. Now let’s talk about Greg Heffley. Greg can be considered; in the words of a deleted Reddit user “lazy, petty, slightly narcissistic, sociopathic, egotistical, eccentric, egocentric, usually backstabbing, and sometimes even selfish and dishonest, and apparently lacks talent.” There are many instances of Greg being an asshole to everyone around him as long as everything goes his way. For example, in the first book, Greg and his best friend Rowley are in the school patrol (basically hallway police but on steroids) and one of their duties is to walk the elementary school kids home.
The issue was that Rowley had broken his arm due to Greg throwing a football to his front bike wheel, launching him in the air, and snapping his arm. One of the days it was raining and Rowley could not get his cast wet, so Greg had to go alone but borrowed Rowley’s raincoat. Greg then decided to terrorize the elementary school kids with worms and unbeknownst to him, a neighbor saw him and called the school reporting Rowley as Greg was wearing his coat. Ultimately Rowley gets fired from the school patrol team. Greg then reflects on whether he should come clean to the principal or keep quiet. After talking to his mom about “doing the right thing” Greg decides that the right thing to do is to let Rowley take one for the team. It’s this behavior that makes the books so interesting to read.
We are so used to a hero who can always fix his mistakes or have no mistakes at all. Yet Jeff Kinney decided to give us a character that is such an asshole, such a menace, such a SIMP that keeps constantly messing up and pushes the blame to other people. It is precisely that, that keeps us glued to the pages of the diary and keeps our eyes on the big screen….Oh God, the movies.
The movies were (and still are) some of the most influential pieces of media in the early 2010s. They had a worldwide gross of $75,700,498 on just the first movie. There are currently 3 movies (if anyone tells you there was a 4th one in 2017, they are lying to you) representing 4 books. The movies were a love letter to the books. They gave us a story that was just as good, they gave us some of the funniest moments, and they gave us Devon Bostick as Rodrick. These films were the pinnacle of Hollywood.
Unfortunately, there have been attempts to reboot the series with a new cast, which by the way went horribly. There was simply no replacing the original cast. The cast was a carbon copy of the stick figures depicted in the diaries. Those movies and books raised not only me but countless others, and I will say that as a kid they influenced my personality a lot. And I’m sure they influenced a lot more.
Thankfully the books won’t end anytime soon, in a Twitter post by Jeff Kinney, a user asked “How long are you going to make this kid suffer through an existence of perpetual middle school?? Lol” To which he responded “Forever.”