The Deep End

“Whenever I feel sorry for myself living in Gramma’s basement with my family, I think about Noah and it makes me feel a little better.”

Greg references stories from the Bible and the Christian idea of God and miracles in his story. His family seems to constantly be in the midst of challenges and hardship, and having faith while also considering how hard things might have been for the people in the Bible makes Greg feel better about his own life and gives him patience to press forward.

“Mom said the whole point of being on a family vacation is to do things TOGETHER. She says that one day us kids are gonna go our separate ways, and time’s running out to make happy memories as a FAMILY. But believe me, for THIS family to make happy memories together, it’s gonna take a MIRACLE.”

Greg’s mother is an eternal optimist and always striving to keep her family together. Appreciating Family is something she tries to instill in her children as well. When Greg writes, he often capitalizes words for emphasis, occasionally to denote sarcasm or an emphasized tone as though he were speaking directly to the reader. The miracle that he foreshadows here turns out to take the form of a lightning storm that, through a series of unusual events, brings the family together.

“The LAST thing I’m planning on doing is any LEARNING.”

Greg has no desire to learn anything during summer vacation; he wants to take a break from school. This is ironically humorous because the readers of the series know that Greg doesn’t spend a lot of effort learning in school either. The joke here also references the reader’s expectation that narrative will show Greg doing a great deal of real-life learning as he overcomes various obstacles.

“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I seriously hope Uncle Gary has bought new underwear since he moved out.”

Greg occasionally uses suggestive humor, which a reader can piece together through Greg’s words, his tone, and the illustration that accompanies the statement. Kinney incorporates typical middle-school “toilet humor” while keeping the meaning implicit so as to remain suitable for readers of a range of ages and attitudes.

“Sometimes I wish I was born a little SOONER so I had a chance to actually DISCOVER something. Because when you find something new, they NAME it after you. But by now, everything worth finding has already been discovered.”

Greg imagines what it would be like to be an explorer who had the opportunity to chart new lands. He expresses his disillusionment at how dull today’s world can sometimes be now that “everything has been done.” This passage is an example of Greg’s limited perspective: Despite his strong imagination in other ways, he can’t see that his view of possibilities is framed by looking backwards, not forwards. Greg often uses disappointment at the world to mask his own sense of fear at life’s opportunities.

“We finally found a field that didn’t look like it belonged to anyone, so that’s where we stopped for the night.”

The irony of this statement comes the following morning when the family awakes and finds that, for the third time, they have parked somewhere they shouldn’t; this time, it’s a baseball field. Greg’s narrative is peppered with these moments of irony, created by his laconic turn of phrase. His family seems to encounter one disaster after another, part of the book’s absurdist and zany humor.

“The water was moving fast, so I pointed my feet downstream to make sure I didn’t crack my head open on a rock.”

Kinney uses this as a teachable moment for the reader, who may one day find themselves in a similar situation and remember Greg’s advice.

“I didn’t know if there were any wolves in this forest, but there were plenty of SQUIRRELS.”

Greg uses humor as a means of Handling Fear and Anxiety of his surroundings and the potential unexpected disasters that might occur. He similarly uses his imagination to picture situations that he could find himself in and dispel the mystery and panic behind them. Here, he imagines what life would be like if he became lost forever and had to live with squirrels in the forest.

“I wish I could say we stayed calm, but I’d be lying.”

When the family encounters a bear at the campground, they panic and hide in their camper. It is one of many moments during the vacation that causes Fear and Anxiety and, without the Heffleys knowing it, brings them closer to Appreciating Family.

“If it was ME, I wouldn’t have given up paradise for a piece of fruit. It would’ve had to have been for something GOOD, like a TWINKIE.”

After reading the name “Campers’ Eden” on the sign, Greg thinks about the story of the Garden of Eden and how Adam and Eve were banished after eating the forbidden fruit. Greg is a believer in Christianity but views the people and stories in the Bible in a humorously anachronistic way.

“Some of the rows had THEMES, and people went kind of crazy with the decorations.”

Greg points out the word “themes” with capitalization to emphasize its importance as a keyword in the sentence and to draw the reader’s attention to it so they may consider what it might mean. Using Greg’s illustrations along with the context of the sentence, they can discern the intended use of the word. Greg’s observation also points to a sense of community in the campground, but one that seems to only go as deep as the decorations. Gregs use of capitalization is scathing and is part of his middle-grade boy affectation of scorn for family fun.

“I guess God made up for it by giving us big BRAINS. But if it was up to me, I probably would have gone with QUILLS.”

Greg jokes about how humans’ big brains, while useful, are nowhere near as interesting as many other animals’ abilities. He follows these musings with an illustration of himself with quills on his back. The wish to have protection, like from quills, is also a sign of the bullying that Greg experiences regularly and an expression of how he Handles Fear and Anxiety.

“She brought her camera with her, and that always complicated things.”

Greg’s mother is desperate to build some happy memories with her family before her kids grow up and apart from one another. This desire is what fuels the entire trip and almost everything that the family does together. She has difficulty Managing Expectations and always seems to think the next activity is going to be the best one. No matter how much Greg’s mom pushes for this, however, it doesn’t work out until the family is given the space to relax.

“When you can only see a part of something, it could be ANYTHING.”

Greg has a strong imagination, and when he and his family go to the lake, he cannot help but imagine a gigantic sea serpent swimming below the water’s surface. Greg’s Fear and Anxiety around the unknown is related to his strong imagination and to his insecurity as he grows up and discovers the confident, assured side of himself. Also latent in this image is his possible desire that the sea serpent will eat all of the badly-behaved holidaymakers.

“I was planning on relaxing for once, but Mom had OTHER ideas.”

Every time Greg wants to stay at the camper and relax, his mom urges him to get out and do something, meet new people, and make memories. Greg usually goes along with his mother’s plans (he is only 11 after all) and usually finds himself enjoying himself or learning. Although this is his mom’s intention, Greg fails to see that his mom is being a responsible parent. He frames her insistence as an irritation and as an imposition on him as an individual.

“I told Mom it’s DIFFERENT from when she was growing up, and it’s a lot harder to make friends with strangers nowadays.”

Greg occasionally expresses disillusionment at the world and his place in it, such as when he wishes he was born early enough to be an explorer, and here when he notes the difficulty in meeting people in the modern, technology-filled world. Again, he makes excuses to hide his insecurities. Despite his doubts, however, Greg does manage to spend the day having fun with the other boys at the campground.

“I decided to go along with it, mostly because I didn’t want DooDoo putting me in a headlock.”

For the most part, Greg chooses to go along with things rather than fight against them. The private narrative of the journal is where Greg expresses his feelings. While it is a skill and a virtue to be patient and agreeable, for Greg it can sometimes go too far, leading him to situations where he is in danger or causing trouble.

“Somebody had greased the slide, so people were coming off that thing at a hundred miles an hour.”

The pool party is intended to be a night of fun and togetherness for the Heffley family, but it turns out to be the most hectic event so far. The campground itself seems largely unregulated and filled with people who care only about themselves, and having them all gathered in one place turns out to be a terrible idea. The book repeatedly shows the wider community as irresponsible, rude, and dangerous, creating a context for the Heffley family unit to be strengthened.

“Once we all got on, we found out why that thing was empty to BEGIN with.”

As is often the case, Greg’s family seems to dive into things and then find out the consequences of their rash decisions afterward. This is evident from the time they leave with the camper, as they go from site to site, parking in places they shouldn’t, diving into unknown waters, and throwing themselves into unpredictable situations.

“If there’s one thing I learned tonight, it’s that God has a sense of HUMOR.”

During the story’s climactic pool party night, everything go wrong. Tensions rise as danger and panic engulf the people at the campgrounds. Despite the real danger of the situation, Greg still finds humor in it, and believes that the storm was God’s way of helping him escape the camp director.

“Getting sprayed by a skunk is no laughing matter.”

The tone of The Deep End remains humorous throughout almost the entire novel, making this quote from one of the camping books ironic. Greg’s words seem to unconsciously correct the reader, who can be expected to laugh at the situation. The problems that the skunk causes are perhaps the worst that the family deals with throughout the trip, but the way Greg remembers the story allows it to maintain the novel’s humorous tone.

“So now quarters were like GOLD, and I heard about a woman who sold her wedding ring for seventy-five cents.”

This description of inflation is part of the story’s referencing of real-life crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when hoarding, price inflation, and even looting were experienced in response to disrupted supply chains.

“When it reached the bridge, the camper snapped into place like a puzzle piece.”

Simile is used here to describe the marvel of three-year-old Manny’s fantastical ability to steer the camper perfectly at the age of three. Greg’s summer is for the most part a realistic, if not highly chaotic experience, but when Manny has his moments, they usually verge on the unbelievable. He becomes the unexpected hero, allowing everyone to escape the camp and the Heffleys to have it to themselves.