Am I Blue?

Am I blue? By Bruce Coville

“Am I blue?” by Bruce Coville is a short story about a high-school boy named Vince. Throughout the story Vince basically has many problems that link back to one major question-is he gay? Vince meets his ‘fairy Godfather’ Melvin after a bully named Butch Carrigan beats him, who helps him figuring out if Vince is gay or straight-something he has been trying to figure out for a year now. By helping him Melvin lets Vince make 3 wishes, tells him about being gay in the world, and shows him that Melvin isn’t afraid of being whom his is-being himself gay-and if the other gays in the world were like that, no one would get beat up for it. ‘I walk and talk the way I do because I’m not going to let anyone define me’ he says. Melvin is basically one of the few gays who aren’t afraid to show who they like, and he’s basically trying to teach Vince that throughout the story.

           

I feel like, though Melvin is not the main character of the story the author uses him to pass on a message to the readers-especially those who are gay. It’s okay to be gay; it’s okay to be ‘different.’ You just have to be brave enough to show it to the rest of the world. In the story, Melvin says to Vince, ‘“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.”’ If people just stopped being bad to each other when they realize a person they know is gay, then not many people are hurt. The author is trying to say this threw Melvin, letting him be like yeah, I’m gay, I talk and act like this-so what? The author is trying to say through Melvin, that people who are gay shouldn’t be like, I’m not gay! Don’t hurt me! But instead be like, yeah, I’m gay and proud of it-you have a problem with that?

And although Melvin is trying to help Vince, Vince can’t help but be worried, he’s been through a lot already trying to figure out if he’s gay or not, he doesn’t really need to be seen with the people that others think are wrong. When they meet Vince is like ‘”Are you making fun of me?” I asked. After Butch’s last attack I had about enough of people calling me a fruit.’ But Melvin is like: ‘”Listen, Honey, I have nothing but sympathy for you. I had to deal with my share of troglodytes when I was your age, and know it’s not fun. I’m here to help.”’ The author is showing through Melvin that people go through the same thing, weather they believe or not, all may not be the same, some are.  If people would just not be afraid to show who they are, what they’ve been through, and what they think then maybe, just maybe, others they know going through the same experience can help them. For Vince it would help if people who think they’re gay or felt like that before would just come out of their shell, stop being afraid of what people say, they could help them like Melvin said: ‘”You may be, you may not they point is, you’re getting picked on because people think you are.”’ All people have to do is think if they wanna hide from the world or be out there. ‘”If you live in a world that keeps trying to grind you down, you either start thumbing your nose at it or end up very, very short.”’ Melvin says this to Vince, trying to see if he’ll stand up to the people hurting him, or just let them hurt him.

Sure, people, react to things differently, like some people may be all delighted about a band-One Direction let’s say, and then others are just gonna be like, no! I hate One Direction! In this case, like Melvin says, ‘”If a guy asks a girl out for a date, about the worst that can happen is that she laughs at him. If he asks another guy, he might get his face pounded in.”’ Due to people’s reaction on things, others are afraid to say what they like. Like, in the One Direction case, a person likes One Direction, but their friends are like no! I hate them! If you like them…I swear…that’ll obviously make the person feel like they should hate along with them, though they like One Direction. It’s depending on how people react to if a person is gay, will the person go out-the author is using Melvin for this. If people just stop hating gay people and let them like what they like then people won’t be so afraid to let out what they like.

Melvin helps Vince see this by giving the ability of the gaydar. It would allow Vince to see people in shades of blue, and depending on if they’re gay, kinda gay, or straight they’re shade of blue will vary. If a person is a dark shade of blue, then they’re gay or very close to it, but if one person is a light shade of blue then they’re not really gay, they could be, but not like the ones with dark shading. It’s basically depending on how much experience they’ve had with it. Why would someone like something they don’t really know about? Vince, as he sees, many people are some shade of blue, some dark, some light, so he can easily see who’s gay and who’s not it-much. When Vince gets home, he sees in a mirror that he’s a light shade of blue-so basically somewhat gay, not completely committed but some. And because of that he feels very scared about it, he thinks if Butch finds out then he’ll certainly get a beating.  Seeing this, Vince gets an idea, a wish basically, to let others being able to have the gaydar in the vision. It happens and soon people are on about what they see-what shade people are and what it means. Because of this, Vince calls Melvin for his 3^rd wish-to make Butch blue so he won’t be able to hurt others again, since he’s gay himself. But to this utter shock, Vince finds out that Butch is already blue, so in the end, Vince wraps up the story saying he’s gonna save the wish, waiting till he meets the person of his dreams, and when he really needs it.

The story “Am I blue?” has really taught me a lot. It taught that people shouldn’t be afraid of what they do for a living, they should be proud of it-like Melvin-they shouldn’t be afraid of being hurt because they never know if the person hurting them is like them-just hiding too. Vince may have not used his last wish, but he did learn a lot of things, people are necessarily what they seem, like Butch, and some people are exactly what they seem. People shouldn’t be afraid of what they like, if they’re gay, then so be it. If they love One Direction secretly they should show it, not be afraid, if they’re friends still hung out with that person then they’re the true friends, and, hey, you never know, one of your friends may be exactly what like you, hiding and not sure if they should show it or not.