Am I Blue?

I just finished reading "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville. This story is mainly about a boy named Vince who is being bullied because he is gay. One day after being pushed down into a puddle by a bully, suddenly his "fairy godfather" appears and tells him he is there to grant Vince 3 wishes. At first Vince thinks he's going crazy and must be imagining it, but when his fairy godfather gets water on his pants and  with the snap of his fingers it goes away, it's almost like magic. His fairy godfather tells him his name which is Melvin and soon enough we find out Melvin is also gay. Melvin teaches Vince many things about life and being gay in general. Melvin shows Vince things he hasn't seen before.

In this story and in life there are a lot of ideas about how being gay is a bad thing. Society has come up with these ideas that are so generic. A man and a woman fall in love and marry, not people of the same sex. In this story Melvin talks to Vince about how gay people are forced to hide because society has made it such a bad thing. For ex. he says "If gay people hadn't been forced to hide for so long if we could just openly identify ourselves there would be plenty of people you knew that you could ask for advice. Everybody knows gay people they just think they don't." This is a powerful statement because what he is saying in my opinion is true. I mean why do we as people feel the need to push others, who might I add, are just like us, into categories based on who they love, what they look like, or what religion they practice. In this world many people are in denial about knowing gay people when really tons of people out there are.

In this story Vince is still trying to figure out whether or not he's gay. I think Vince himself might also be in denial about it. If people in this world were more accepting of one another, maybe kids like Vince would have an easier time admitting to themselves that they are in fact gay. If people in this world just accepted the fact that yes there are gay people in the world, and yes it's okay it would be easier, instead of forcing people to hide their identities.  For ex in the text another thing Melvin says to Vince is "So all the straights would have to stop imagining that they didn't know know gay people. They would find out that there are gay cops,teachers,soldiers,parents, and kids. The hiding would finally have to stop." Melvin is also proving some of my points in the sense that once again people are putting gays into categories based on certain things about them when really we should be realizing and accepting they are just like the rest of us they do jobs just like the rest of us do. We are all flawed, not because of religion, or race, or who we love, but because we are human.

In the story Vince is being bullied because he is gay. In the beginning of the story one of the first lines is the bully saying to Vince "You little fruit I'll teach you to look at me!" This really makes me wonder about this bully. Is he bullying Vince because he actually feels threatened by Vince? Is he bullying him because he has other issues with himself and is finding any reason to bully him, or is it because going back to the idea that all this kid's life (meaning the bully who's name is butch(ironic right) ) he has probably been taught that being gay is bad, being gay is being a sissy, being gay is being different. In life lots of kids don't like to stand out. They don't to look different or say something that people might disagree with. I think because all the his life Butch has grown up in a society(just like the rest of us) where the idea of being gay is a bad thing. I think that this is maybe the reason he could be bullying Vince.

In the story at the end Melvin is talking to Vince about gay fantasies. He says one of the gay fantasies is turning every gay person in the world the color blue, this way the rest of the world would be able to see who is gay and then they would have to realize there are plenty of people who are gay. As one of his wishes Vince makes that fantasy become a reality. He asks Melvin to turn all the gay people in the world blue and Melvin does. As his next wish Vince wishes to turn Butch the bully blue as well. When Melvin goes to do it there's one problem-Butch is already blue as the night sky. I think this is a huge moment in the story because you really never know who is gay or not. I think this is proving my point earlier because Butch probably did grow up all his life thinking being gay was a bad thing and bullying others is his way of dealing with it. It's definitely not a good way of dealing with it. Especially because in the story we learn that actually Melvin was actually killed by bullies( we don't know if they were gay or not.) Which is pretty awful.

Finally my last point is that Melvin uses the word faggot very casually. For example Melvin says "Listen honey the world is crawling with faggots." Vince looks shocked. Melvin then says "Taking language back is one way to jam up the grinder my friends and I call each other Faggot and queer . People do that because to take the words back. Society has made that word so ugly terrible but they shouldn't have to be such hateful words because we have made them to be. Those words should be able to be claimed back.

This story is very powerful and there are a lot of messages to the reader and Vince. He learned that society yes has made being gay a bad thing but he learned that there are a lot of people out there just like him he didn't know about before. Now Vince learned to accept himself more as a person while realizing that he's not alone.