Drama


When we were discussing the first half of Drama last class, there was a lot of discussion about the twins and their role in the book. I remember someone talking about how its important that Justin and Jesse have two separate sexual identities because it emphasizes how they have different identities outside of their identities of being twins which they struggle with because they do not want to be the same person. However, at the end of the novel Jesse comes to terms with his own sexual identity and discovers that he is gay. I found this choice to make both of the twins gay particularly interesting given our previous discussion, and I had to think a lot about this choice.

I think the answer of why the author made this choice ultimately comes down to the fact that this book is supposed to be about middle school. It is not about being gay or being twins, but it is about the experience of middle school and those things are just things that might come with the middle school experience. On page. 211, when Jesse tells Callie that he is gay, even though he doesn’t even have to explicitly say it, you can see the hurt on Callie’s face in every image, and she says, “I know… I know. It still hurts though.” Callie is a character who does not care about one’s sexuality as displayed throughout the book, so she is not saying she’s hurt because he is gay but because she has suffered from yet another crush who does not like her back, and that in itself is the epitome of the middle school experience. Rejection and redirection, as she exhibits when she reconnects with Greg whom she then (PLOT TWIST!!) rejects. 

I found our discussion of the role of gay characters in this book extremely insightful and helped me to better understand that this book is simply about characters navigating the middle school world and trying to find themselves, that begins with Callie’s slightly boy crazy attitude and ends in her personal transformation as she rejects Greg. I think the fact that this book is banned for children in schools due to its gay characters is the ultimate irony because as times change I believe my generation and all the generations below me have become the most accepting of all sexual identities, yet the generations above us are the ones who fear it the most and that is why they are banning it. I even notice this gap with my parents, when I was out to dinner in Baltimore with my dad a few months ago he saw my two gay friends kiss, and he said, “Wow, I’ve never seen two dudes kiss before.” And I responded, “Well you clearly need to get outside more!” Older generations see LGBTQ+ identities as something out of the ordinary, and I think what I love about this book and what is of utmost importance in its message is that it is normal. And the fact that it is banned for spreading that awareness is a huge failure on a societal level.

My last thought is I also think it’s important to bear in mind that Jesse and Justin always wanted to have separate identities and not be the twins that had the same identities. However, Jesse coming to terms with his gay identity demonstrates the fact that sexual identity is not a choice like many people think it is. It is something that just is and cannot be fought off no matter what people who believe in conversion camps or other methods might think, and this book and its characters do another great job of showing that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Let Them Define You

     The book  George , by Alex Gino explores the struggle of gender and identity within the main character, George. One of the themes that I found prevalent in this book that I believe relates to the entirety of the course is the idea of defining things. Throughout many of the works we have read throughout this course there has been an underlying notion of society trying to define certain people. Such as Starr, for example, who was defined by both her white friends at school and by her black community as different things for different reasons. Or in  Lysistrata  where the women were defined by their sexuality and pleasure that they could provide to their husbands. Throughout society in the real world and in many of the books we have read, definitions and labels are always being imposed on people. And as we can see through the practice of banning books, society does not like when people try to expound upon or reject these labels. They have a need to be stra...
Read more

Ringel

     While reading Ringel’s article, “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children,” a quote really struck me: “More broadly, keeping books about certain types of children or experiences out of libraries or putting them on separate shelves perpetuates a troubling vision of a sheltered American childhood that in fact has rarely existed” (Ringel 4-5). By telling American children that their experiences and lives are not valid or appropriate, we run the risk of making them even more excluded than they already feel. Keeping the books that deal with relevant life experiences out of libraries and on separate shelves is troubling. Even as a twenty-year-old, when I look in the LGBTQ+ section of Barnes and Noble, I barely feel safe around my family. They question why I am even looking in that section to begin with, telling me that it is a sin to read these types of books and that they will "turn me gay." The fact that it is separated allows for more marginalization and could possibly o...
Read more

Ringel and Mullally

In the articles "How Banning Books Marginalizes Children" and "Banned Books," Paul Ringel and Claire Mullally provide a compelling discourse on the banning of books. Specifically, the authors explore the implications these decisions have on young students.  One aspect of Mullally's article that I found especially interesting was her discussion of book banning today compared to book banning in the past. In its earliest days, book banning was often associated with the destruction of texts. If a book was deemed unsuitable for the public, it was common for the book to be burned and destroyed. At this point, this decision was controlled by secular and religious authorities rather than the individual beliefs held by people. Because this was prominent in Europe, it unsurprisingly spread to the Americas. Initially, book banning continued in the United States as a unified system. This is seen most prominently through the development of the Comstock laws, enacted by the...
Read more