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* WeightWoe: Marcy is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.
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* WeightWoe: Marcy is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.fat.
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* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story. Classmate Joel has a bad relationship with his mother, as well.
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* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story. Classmate Joel has a bad relationship with his conservative mother, as well.
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* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story.
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* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story. Classmate Joel has a bad relationship with his mother, as well.
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* BittersweetEnding: Ms. Finney wins her case but declines to be reinstated and becomes a therapist. Marcy vows to continue her self-improvement and accepts her father will never change his ways. Marcy's mother tries to be more assertive, even going to night school for self-improvement.
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* TheGenerationGap: A big theme in the book. Marcy's father is psychologically stuck in TheFifties, the older teachers don't like Ms. Finney's approach to education and the principal himself is bitter after clashing with his own hippie daughter; in turn, they all clash with Marcy and the younger generation for their rebellion against the older ways.
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* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Marcy and Ms. Finney's other students organize a rebellion against the principal for firing her. They end up getting suspended but this leads Marcy's mother (head of the PTA) to intervene and a legal hearing is called to settle the case on Ms. Finney's firing.
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* FreudianExcuse: The principal hates non-conformists because his daughter dropped out of college and became a hippie living in a commune after meeting "some people with very radical ideas".
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Doesn't properly explain if/why we'd expect the rebellion to go ahead with no issue
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* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: When their teacher Barbara Finney gets fired, her students (Marcy included) [[LaResistance organize a student protest and rebellion]] against the school. The principal suspends all of them for their rebellion.
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* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: When their teacher Barbara Finney gets fired, her students (Marcy included) [[LaResistance organize a student protest and rebellion]] against the school. The principal suspends all of them for their rebellion.
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* WeightWoe: Mary is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.
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* WeightWoe: Mary Marcy is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.
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* StayInTheKitchen: Combined with StrawMisogynist, Marcy's father believes that women and girls are good for nothing else other than getting married, cooking, cleaning and being quiet and obedient. He always says that girl children should be born at age 18 and married off immediately.
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* AwfulWeddedLife: Marcy's father frequently yells at her mother, and she's become reliant on prescription tranquilizers as a way to cope with it.
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* GiftGivingGaffe: When shopping with Marcy, Joel is looking for a bad gift for his mother, who he hates. He ends up picking out a really ugly heart-shaped pin with red, green and orange rhinestones.
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* AbusiveParents: Marcy's father constantly berates her in nasty ways, calling her stupid, ugly, fat, a know-it-all and saying that he'll never get her married off. Her younger brother, [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Stuart]] (who's 4 years old, mind you), doesn't get off much lighter, as he's scolded for such [[FelonyMisdemeanor unmanly behaviors]] as sucking his thumb and having an attachment to Wolf, his teddy bear. It doesn't help that their mother is severely in denial, trying repeatedly to justify his actions to Marcy ("Daddy loves you very much, he just doesn't know how to show it"), and is heavily dependent on prescription tranquilizers. "I hate my father" are even the first words printed on the back of one edition of the book itself. (The book was written and is set in TheSeventies, which accounts for some of the ValuesDissonance between the characters; Marcy can see that her family's dynamic is messed up, but her father's mindset is mired so much in TheFifties that he genuinely doesn't realize he's the problem.) Towards the end of the book, Marcy’s mother GrewASpine and starts standing up to him and taking night classes, with the implications that she might eventually leave him. He gets slightly better, but doesn’t apologize for his actions or attempt to repair his relationships with his wife and kids. But he does at least stop verbally abusing Marcy.
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* AbusiveParents: Marcy's father Martin constantly berates her in nasty ways, calling her stupid, ugly, fat, a know-it-all and saying that he'll never get her married off. Her younger brother, [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Stuart]] (who's 4 years old, mind you), doesn't get off much lighter, as he's scolded for such [[FelonyMisdemeanor unmanly behaviors]] as sucking his thumb and having an attachment to Wolf, his teddy bear. It doesn't help that their mother is severely in denial, trying repeatedly to justify his actions to Marcy ("Daddy loves you very much, he just doesn't know how to show it"), and is heavily dependent on prescription tranquilizers. "I hate my father" are even the first words printed on the back of one edition of the book itself. (The book was written and is set in TheSeventies, which accounts for some of the ValuesDissonance between the characters; Marcy can see that her family's dynamic is messed up, but her father's mindset is mired so much in TheFifties that he genuinely doesn't realize he's the problem.) Towards the end of the book, Marcy’s mother GrewASpine and starts standing up to him and taking night classes, with the implications that she might eventually leave him. He gets slightly better, but doesn’t apologize for his actions or attempt to repair his relationships with his wife and kids. But he does at least stop verbally abusing Marcy.Marcy.
* ComfortFood: Marcy's mother Lily gives her ice cream whenever she's upset (and she has good reasons to be upset a lot of the time, given how her father treats her). It's implied that this is part of the reason for her weight problem.
* ComfortFood: Marcy's mother Lily gives her ice cream whenever she's upset (and she has good reasons to be upset a lot of the time, given how her father treats her). It's implied that this is part of the reason for her weight problem.
* HateSink: Martin is a terrible father and husband who constantly fights with his wife Lily to the point where she appears to be taking drugs to cope and is abusive to his two children, calling his teenage daughter fat, stupid, and ugly (leaving her with severe self-esteem issues as a result), and harshly scolding his four-year-old son for [[FelonyMisdemeanor sucking his thumb and playing with his teddy bear.]] It's quickly obvious to the reader that he doesn't even like, let alone love his family. Especially when Marcy tries to get her family to sit around the dinner table and discuss things like a normal family, her father's response is, "I work hard all day for this family, I don't have to talk to all of you too, do I?" as if talking to his wife and children without screaming at them is a strenuous chore. He also uses Marcy as a scapegoat for nearly everything that goes wrong in his life, including Lily spending less time with him and more with their children, his fighting with Lily [[NeverMyFault that he always initiates,]] and Marcy's attempt to initiate a simple family discussion going horribly wrong. One has to wonder why he decided to get married and have children in the first place if he hates having a family so much, outside of a possible ShotgunWedding. From start to finish, he has zero redeeming qualities and it's obvious that he's meant to be despised by the reader more than any other character. The only good thing that can be said about him is that by the end of the book, he's been convinced to more-or-less leave Marcy alone and has achieved an uneasy peace with her, but he's still far from being any kind of family man. The ending shows Lily is starting to stand up to him and making a life for herself, foreshadowing the possibility she may hopefully leave him and take Marcy and Stuart with her.
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* TeachersOutOfSchool: Marcy is surprised to learn her teacher has a first name.
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* TeachersOutOfSchool: Marcy is surprised to learn her teacher has a first name.name.
* WeightWoe: Mary is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.
* WeightWoe: Mary is heavily insecure about her weight and thinks of herself as a "blimp" because her father is always calling her fat.
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* AbusiveParents: Marcy's father constantly berates her in nasty ways, calling her stupid, ugly, fat, a know-it-all and saying that he'll never get her married off. Her younger brother, [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Stuart]] (who's 4 years old, mind you), doesn't get off much lighter, as he's scolded for such [[FelonyMisdemeanor unmanly behaviors]] as sucking his thumb and having an attachment to Wolf, his teddy bear. It doesn't help that their mother is severely in denial, trying repeatedly to justify his actions to Marcy ("Daddy loves you very much, he just doesn't know how to show it"), and is heavily dependent on prescription tranquilizers. "I hate my father" are even the first words printed on the back of one edition of the book itself. (The book was written and is set in TheSeventies, which accounts for some of the ValuesDissonance between the characters; Marcy can see that her family's dynamic is messed up, but her father's mindset is mired so much in TheFifties that he genuinely doesn't realize he's the problem.) Towards the end of the book, Marcy’s mother GrewASpine and starts standing up to him and taking night classes, with the implications that she might eventually leave him. He gets slightly better, but doesn’t apologize for his actions or attempt to repair his relationships with his wife and kids. But he does at least stop verbally abusing Marcy.
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[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_cat_ate_my_jumpsuit.jpg]]
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A 1974 young adult book by Creator/PaulaDanziger that follows a Ninth grader dealing with pressures at school and at home as she tries to do well in school and not draw attention to herself.
It was followed by ''Literature/TheresABatInBunkFive''.
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!Tropes for the novel:
* ADogAteMyHomework: Marcy uses the title statement as one of her excuses for not participating in PE class.
* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story.
* HippieTeacher: Barbara Finney is the first person to help insecure Marcy Lewis break out of her shell. Her controversial teaching methods has also caused an uproar from a large portion of the school faculty.
* TeachersOutOfSchool: Marcy is surprised to learn her teacher has a first name.
It was followed by ''Literature/TheresABatInBunkFive''.
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!Tropes for the novel:
* ADogAteMyHomework: Marcy uses the title statement as one of her excuses for not participating in PE class.
* HatesTheirParent: Marcy hates her father for reasons that very quickly become evident: he's an [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive waste of flesh]] that constantly belittles his entire family. This never changes throughout the story.
* HippieTeacher: Barbara Finney is the first person to help insecure Marcy Lewis break out of her shell. Her controversial teaching methods has also caused an uproar from a large portion of the school faculty.
* TeachersOutOfSchool: Marcy is surprised to learn her teacher has a first name.
