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. :))

The Ruby Key

I've recently over the summer finished a book called "The Ruby Key" by Holly Lisle. So this is part of my response but not entirely, so just like ignore this part.

In a world where humans and nightlings never encounter one and another, an evil human, Caer Banris has made a deal with the nightlings' kailord(who's like their king), Letrin Trikantis. With that, a journey is set out for Genna and Dan to seal their deal and save their people in the village before it's too late. Throughout the book, I see many issues that can be related to the real world.

One issue I see in the book is the relationship between communities. In the real world, a business relationship is developed between two countries. For example, the United States exports and imports to India. In return, India does the same. In the book, on a certain day of a year, humans would give offers to the nightlings, but they must do this by sunset. During the night, the nightlings would come out of their forest homes, take these offerings, and then leave the humans things in return. This is almost like a business relationship. The humans give the nightlings something and the nightlings give something back in return. 

Another issue is secruity and safety. In the book, when Genna and her friend begin their first offering of the life, the adults let them go first so that they can  return home first. They do this because they know that nightlings prefer children over adults, meaning that nightlings like to "kidnap" children. In the real world, parents would protect children first. They'd put their children first then their own life.

In addition, some people want to change their status. When I'm talking about status, I mean like either their wealth or the position in government. In the book, Caer Banris made a deal with Kailord, Letrin because he wants to live forever. In order to earn his eternity, he must do a list of things, which also include to marry and sacrifice the children( meaning Genna's mom is the woman he 'wishes' to marry). In real life, people are trying to become a higher status than they already are, are either becoming 'famous' or doing something really MIND-BLOWING!

Even though the book and the real world are completely different worlds, one which is where humankind is about to disappear, and one's reality, there are many similarities.  And I think I'm done.