Am I Blue, by Bruce Caville, is a short story about a young boy who is troubled by the negative effects of being possibly gay. Vincent, the main character, is being constantly bullied by Butch Carrigan, who likes to pick on him because he might be gay. When I read this story, the first thing that came to mind was how strongly it focused on hypocrisy and prejudice.
One day, Vincent who had just got pushed by Butch, was laying on the ground. Melvin, Vincent's fairy god father, appears at his side and takes him on a walk. Though this is the first time Vincent has ever met Melvin, Melvin shows him many magical things. He shows Vincent a special radar that only few people can see, which turns all gay, possibly gay and bisexual people in the world blue. It turns out many people Vincent never thought would be gay, were. Many people he thought were gay, were also not. Many people in the school that Butch, and other kids had accused of being gay weren't. This showed Vincent a whole new perspective that he had never seen. The librarian, who everyone in the school "knew" was lesbian, didn't have a tint of blue on her. The butcher, who had a wife and kids, was as blue as the sky. The wronged accusations, showed me how much prejudice there was in this book. Prejudice, an opinion, not based on reason or experience, was definitely an issue for the people in this book. People obviousely had no reason to accuse the librarion, the butcher, and others, of being/not being gay, because most of those accusations were wrong.
While Vincent was exploring the wonders of discovering who was and was not gay with his radar, he discovered that Butch Carrigan was blue. When Vincent saw that Butch was blue, the whole story was suddenly put into place for me. I think Butch Carrigan's character showed a clear example of hypocrisy. He bullied other people that looked gay because it seemed believable, just to take the spot light off him. Hypocrisy, when someone is accused falsely, is a big issue in this book because so many people where judged falsely for looking or/and acting gay.
This book remindes me of another book I recently read called, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Harper Lee wrote this book in the 1960's, a time where racism was a big widespread and African Americans were not always treated equally to caucasion people. The character, Tom Robinson, was put on trial for being accused of raping the young, caucasion, Mayella Ewell. Though this claim was not true, most of the court is in favor for Mayella because of her skin tone. Prejudice in this book, favoring one skin color over the other, relates to prejudice in Am I Blue, where people are falsely accused and bullied because they are gay.
What this story made me realize was how much prejudice and hypocrisy was not only in the book, but possibly in the world. These accusations made in the book about who was and was not gay, were based off apperance and actions that people judged as 'gay'. Nobody took the time to actually figure out if it was true or not. People judged the book by the cover, which resulted in most of the judgments being completely wrong. I feel like the author is also trying to tell us through the book, that there is an issue in real life that relates to this books text. I know that prejudice is a real issue in this world for bullying and that being gay is one of the reasons people are bullied in this world. Maybe the author was trying to reach us through the book, trying to tell us what is happening in the world.
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