Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life

Nikki’s diary is both the framework for the book and an object in the story. Nikki receives the diary in Chapter 1 and fervently vows never to write in it again, a vow she immediately breaks in Chapter 2. The diary contains Nikki’s unfiltered thoughts about her life, school, and other people, but it isn’t necessarily always completely honest. The diary as a story framework explores the effect of our outlook on the world biasing us. Nikki frequently writes about how something MacKenzie does causes a problem while also subtly acknowledging that the problem was truly no fault of MacKenzie’s and actually came about because of something Nikki did or didn’t do. One example is entering the art contest. Nikki initially blames her choice not to enter on MacKenzie’s ridicule, but Nikki also dances around admitting that she doesn’t enter the contest because she’s embarrassed, which is not MacKenzie’s doing at all. Nikki writes events in her diary as she wants them to be, rather than as they are, which shows how we tend to twist events to make ourselves look better while placing blame on others.