Am I Blue?

"Am I Blue" by Bruce Coville is a short story about a boy, Vincent who gets bullied at school for "supposedly" being gay. His eyes are opened to a whole new world when his fairy godfather, Melvin comes for a visit. There are a lot of real world issues in this story such as illusion, false information usage and reality.

Before Melvin opened Vincent's eyes to a whole new world,Vincent and his world was full of misconceptions. For example on page 12, it states, "You told me the theater crowd hangs in here...Groups like that tend to have a higher percentage of gay people, because we're so naturally artistic...Of course, some bozos take a fact like that and decide that everybody doing theater is gay." It id almost like saying all Asians are good at math. And also like popular people should date popular people. It creates an illusion with false information that sometimes gives others hard times.

After Melvin exposes the gaydar, an automatic sensing system that lets you spot people of the similar persuasion, to Vincent, he is shocked to see what he sees. For example on page 12, it states, "But Mr.Alwain, the fat guy  who ran the grocery store, looked like a giant blueberry-----which surprised me, because he was married and he had three kids. On the other hand, Ms.Thorndyke, the librarian, who everybody knew was a lesbian, didn't have a trace of blue on her." Mr.Alwain is married and has three kids, but he is blue all over. It seems to me that he is hiding and trying to live a normal life as possible. Ms.Thorndyke who apparently is a lesbian, she din't have any blue on her. This relates back to pgae12-13, "Can't tell without the spell...Straights are helpless at it. They're always assuming some is or isn't for all the wrong reasons."

When Vincent and Melvin declare Blueday, it means that all the gay people in the country turns blue. When the people figure out what it means, that's where reality comes in. on page 15, "The reaction ranged from panic to hysterical denial to dancing in the streets." This is where the illusion is all shattered. I wonder what is going to happen to people like Mr.Alwain. I mean, they have a family and then BAM! out of the blue(HAHA, get it blue...) they're blue. I know it is going to be chaos, but this is the day where people are going to recognize their true colors.

Melvin has exposed Vincent through new lens to a different real world. He saw himself and maybe you'll see yourself in a way you've never seen yourself before. I'm not saying you are gay, just saying you'll find your true self one day. :))