Adolescent Growth in Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw

Adolescence is a time of development, both painful and joyous. It marks a transition from dependence to independence. The nature of this transition often only seems clear in retrospect, but its key characteristic is the assumption of power over one's own life. Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw portrays such a transition and all its turmoil and joy. Leigh Botts moves from confused and helpless adolescent to confident arbiter of his own life through the transfer of authority figures and the acceptance of his own ability to consciously examine his life.

The form of the book is epistolary, though not quite strictly so. Before examining the nuances of Cleary's effort, it is worth noting that the epistolary form in children's literature is "used for extremely subtle characterization, where character development is never stated explicitly, since the character is too young to judge himself."¹ The importance of this form here is that we see Botts beginning to examine his own feelings — he takes the inner world and commits it to writing. This is the beginning of Botts's maturation.

Botts first takes to writing letters for a homework assignment, obliged to communicate with an author — an authority figure, as we will later find. He displays indignation at having to complete the work. The questions Mr. Henshaw sends make Botts "really mad," and he declares he doesn't "think it's fair to make me do more work when I already wrote a report… I'm not going to answer them, and you can't make me."² At first, Botts is reluctant to reveal his feelings. He invokes the absent authority of his own father to ward Henshaw off. We soon find, however, that Botts transfers this authorial affection first to Henshaw, and finally to himself.

The epistolary form has so far been analyzed for its personal implications — someone taking the inner world of consciousness and revealing it to another. However, as Nikolajeva notes, "not all first-person narratives are concerned with the narrator's consciousness; instead they primarily render events and happenings around them."¹ This is important to note: Botts's early letters are only this — external observations, bereft of any understanding that an inner world of consciousness accompanies and informs outside events.

In her essay "Composing a Life: The Diary of Leigh Botts," Geraldine De Luca posits that in "children's literature, there is a strong pull toward resolution… the movement is usually toward finding some way back to a condition of understanding and regeneration."³ The very title of her essay suggests the movement of Cleary's protagonist. He is composing his life — life is not something that simply happens to you, but something you compose through conscious engagement with its events.

Returning to Botts's letters, his earlier reluctance to answer Mr. Henshaw's questions signifies a pivotal moment in the transition from helpless youth to commanding adult. Interestingly, Cleary aligns Botts with his father at this point. When his mother finds the unanswered letters, Botts laments that "she says I can't go through life expecting everyone to do everything for me. She used to say the same thing to Dad when he left his socks on the floor."² Botts once held his father as his ideal, not realizing that such idealization represented his own reluctance to assume any responsibility over himself and his life.