Greg Heffley, the author of the diary, has just started middle school. He is best friends with Rowley Jefferson , who is extremely unpopular and cares little about the middle school social hierarchy. Greg, however, is much more conscious of his social status and how others perceive him now that he’s in middle school. For example, although he writes in a notebook throughout his first year of middle school, he is adamant that it is not a “diary” because he is afraid his classmates would make fun of him for writing about his feelings. Despite his reluctance to admit that he has a diary, he is highly creative and sensitive, which his observations and comics about his family, friends, and teachers reflect. Greg constantly gets in trouble with his mom and dad , is wary of his bully of an older brother, Rodrick , and is jealous of his little brother Manny ’s ability to get away with anything. Greg is often selfish and prioritizes his own self-interest, like when he allows Rowley to take the blame for bullying local kindergartens. At other times, however, he shows loyalty to his friends and family, like when he protects Rowley from social isolation or feels bad for his grandmother when teenagers cover her house in toilet paper.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid quotes below are all either spoken by Greg Heffley or refer to Greg Heffley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
I try to explain all this popularity stuff to Rowley (who is probably hovering around the 150 mark, by the way), but I think it just goes in one ear and out the other with him.
Related Characters: Greg Heffley (speaker), Rowley Jefferson Related Themes:
I have told Rowley at least a billion times that now we’re in middle school, you’re supposed to say “hang out,” not “play.” But no matter how many noogies I give him, he always forgets the next time. I’ve been trying to be a lot more careful about my image since I got to middle school. But having Rowley around is definitely not helping.
