"Am I Blue?" SPOILER ALERT

I have just finished an excerpt of the story " Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville. This story is about a 16-year-old boy Vincent who struggles in deciding on his sexuality. In the beginning of the story Vince is bathing in a dirty puddle he was recently pushed into by the town bully Butch Carrigan when he meets Melvin his new fairy godfather. At first Vince pushes him away as the antagonist to himself, but as the story evolves him and Melvin grow together and Vince starts to accept himself as “Blue”(or gay). The main theme of the book is acceptance not only acceptance of others but mainly of yourself.

             Through out the book Vince is faced with an important question of his sexuality. In a way he always knew he was gay but he couldn’t accept it. As the story goes on he realizes he shouldn’t be ashamed. In the story as Melvin explains all gays third wish that everyone would see gays as blue. He said, “They’d have to face the fact that there are gay cops and gay farmers, gay teachers and gay soldiers, gay parents and gay kids.  The hiding would finally have to stop.” Vince then asks if he could see that way for a while. When he does he is surprised to see that so many of the people in the café are gay. This one moment is very important for Vince’s change. He realizes that he is not the only person out there. I feel like I can relate to that at sometimes when I think I’m alone in the way I think or feel but then I realize other people feel the same way. This can be connected even further into the world. It reminds us that no matter whom we are or what we do there’s always someone who agrees with us. The authors almost telling us directly that we should never put our self’s or anyone else down because of how we think.

           

            In the end of the book Vince uses his last wish to make every gay person in the world blue so that no more straights could say they didn’t know any gays and no gays would have to hide. But then he realizes that some people might be treated bad by bullies Vince’s last wish is to make Butch Carrigan blue but to his surprise he already was. This small part wasn’t just a joke for the author he included it to remind us that we should never be put down by others calling you gay or stupid cause they might even be “gay” or “stupid”.