Am I Blue?

Most adults tell me over and over again that “It’s okay to be wrong,” or “you learn from your mistakes”.  It usually drives me crazy but this story helped me realize how important they are in everyday life. 

In the story Am I Blue? By Bruce Coville, these statements are both true and untrue for different characters. It is a short story about Vince who is picked on because he is thought to be gay. But when his fairy godfather shows up, he helps Vince realize just how many people are like him in the world. He learns from his mistake. But Butch, his  main predator, is only assuming that he is gay and even though he learns from this mistake in the end, it is not understandable. He is wrong but he has no excuse.

Vince did not know how many people were gay at the beginning of the book. He made the error of thinking that there are only a miniscule amount of people who are gay. This is an understandable mistake because many people hide it, and he only knows what he can see. Vince says in the passage, “are you telling me all those people are gay?” This quote is when he has just received blue vision from Melvin, his fairy godfather. Blue vision shows Vince which people are gay that he sees because they turn blue. He is surprised by the fact that so many people are gay, saying that he never knew that so many people are like that. This is an honest mistake because in his community, a lot of people keep the fact that they are gay hidden and feel embarrassed about themselves. With blue vision, he learned from his wrongdoing, and as he says in the passage, “things are never going to be the same now that it happened.” 

Butch Carrigan opens up the story by bullying Vince. He bullies Vince a lot as described in the story. The only reason why he gives Vince a beating is because he THINKS that Vince is gay. Melvin says in the story, “you’re getting picked on because people think you are.” This is a mistake, but to me it is inexcusable. It was disrespectful of Butch to assume what he did not know. The first reason being that people should not judge each other no matter what, even if their assumption is true. It is not fair to the other person. The other reason is that even if someone is doing something wrong, and in the story Vince did nothing of the sort, it is never a cause to bully or hurt someone else. It is mean and it often backfires. Butch made a terrible mistake that he learned from, but it was no excuse to hurt Vince in any way.

In the story Am I Blue?, many people were wrong. In some cases it was good and they can now do better in the future. But in other cases, the person had no right to hurt anybody. As a teacher might say, “it is unacceptable!” I think that it takes a really good person to be able to tell the difference of what makes it okay to be wrong. But you can change a person's life forever when you are wrong. The bad way.