Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying.

Greg Heffley is the story’s protagonist and narrator, and the plot unfolds through a series of anecdotes in Greg’s diary. Greg is always depicted with the same three hairs, and his face displays a range of simplistic expressions. Greg’s entries incorporate memories of prior events with an overarching plot that is occurring in the present moment. He often muses on The Echoes of Past Experiences, making random connections between his current issues and previous lessons or missteps. Greg is a flawed character who struggles with Learning From Mistakes, and he constantly finds himself in all sorts of trouble that resembles scrapes that he got into in previous installments of the series. In Cabin Fever, he is particularly worried about the added parental surveillance that comes with the Christmas season, saying, “It’s too much pressure to be on your best behavior for a whole month. The most I can really handle is six or seven days in a row” (1). Most of the time, Greg’s mistakes or incidents of public humiliation are based on his poor decisions and lack of foresight.