“Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville

In the story, “Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville, The protagonist named Vincent is a young boy who is questioning his own sexuality. While in a process of not knowing if he is gay or not, he is a getting bullied by Butch Carrigan for being gay. Vincent then finds himself talking to Melvin, his fairy godfather. I think by bringing Melvin in the story, Bruce Coville uses supernatural forces from a fairy tale , to put across a real-life message of sexual abuse. As Melvin is his fairy godfather, he gives him three wishes, and his first one was changing his coffee into mocha. His second wish was everyone to have gaydar for 24 hours. What this gaydar did, was it showed whether a person was gay or not, and it should how many people were gay. Whoever, was gay was blue, and it depended. According to the story ‘The dark blues are pretty much excluding queer, while the lighter ones are less committed—or maybe like you, trying to make up their minds. I set it up so that you’ll see at least a hint of blue on anyone who has had a gay experience”.  Just showing whether people believed in being gay or not.

The relationship between Melvin and Vincent was strong. In the story it says “They’re always assuming someone is or isn’t for all the wrong reasons”. When I read this this is when it came to my attention “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” . I think many people are guilty, of calling someone “ugly, or stupid”, and they don’t even get to know the person for who they are. In the story, Vincent it getting builded by the way he walks, “do you have to walk so swishy?”. This is a phrase that Melvin asked Vincent to maybe get to the facts to see if he is actually gay. Also according to the short story it says “I’m really here to watch over you, advise you, guide you, till we get things on track.” this is what Melvin says to Vincent. This makes me think that Melvin is their to support him, till he knows that he is comfortable in his skins, and knows that he is good on his own. But, until then Melvin is not going anywhere. There relationship between them is father to son almost, because it’s like Melvin is always their for Vincent, and wouldn’t let go until he knows that he is ‘ok’.

This story was definitely an ‘eye-opener’ to gay bullying. Towards the end of the story, Vince’s bully is ‘blue as a summer sky’ , which makes Vince comfortable with himself, knowing he won’t be bullied again. But Vince is still not sure what his own sexuality is. I loved this story because it shows how a little support can go along way. It can motivate you to trust and believe in yourself.