English 485: Expedition Adolescence

      While I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and its inclusivity, I struggle to see how it truly brings awareness. Obviously it is great to see this big beautiful world where everyone is so accepting of LGBTQ relationships and things like transgender football players, but that is unfortunately just not the world we live in. I do believe that we are entering a world that is more accepting of the LGBTQ community, but we are far from a world that does not even bat an eye at two boys being in a relationship. I think that the storyline really lacks true interest and is completely riding on the fact that it is about a homosexual relationship. While I understand the reasoning behind this, in my opinion, if this novel was about a heterosexual relationship with the same plot, it would be quite possibly the most boring story ever. I think this novel could have brought more awareness and thrived more if it showed the actual lives that LGBTQ people live and what they really go through...

          I think this book does a great job at bringing awareness to the subject of relationships in school  environments. I'm not sure that the delivery of the matter is very realistic though. The depiction of heterosexuality and homosexuality is very extreme. I think the world is evolving and beginning to become more accepting of homosexuality which the book tends to focus on. Honestly love is love, me personally i was never really understanding on why other people care so much about what others do and who they love. In all of my experience of school I've only met one person who was openly homosexual. This was in middle school by the way, where students really don't understand and are less mature. From the outside looking in it seemed as though he was an outcast, yet he was a very strong individual, he endured a lot.  A lot of individuals tend to not reveal their sexuality until they graduate which happens often but he did at an early age. Some...

     In the novel, Boy Meets Boy , Levithan compares reality to an unrealistic perspective of homosexuality in an attempt to describe how the world should really be. In a perfect world, everyone would be like Paul, and they would have accepting parents and be “lucky.” As Tony says, “ ‘I honestly couldn’t believe that someone like you could exist, or even a town like yours could entirely exist… I thought I would get up every morning with a secret and go to sleep every night with the same secret.’ ” (Levithan, 150). Although in the novel Paul struggles through some obstacles, he never really has to struggle to find himself, unlike other characters. The character that struggles the most in the novel is Tony because his parents are unaccepting of him being gay, and Tony struggles internally on how to show them that it’s okay. The other characters such as Kyle and Tony are not really lost, but they struggle in finding out how they can really be themselves. While through the ey...

In "the Hate you Give" a relevant connection that was made between Tupac and a theme in this novel was the idea that once a black man is in the system he belongs to the system. Growing up I was often reminded this ideal. From the Eyes of the hood selling drugs are a means to quick and fast money. Like Khalil these are the tales of  growing up in the hood, family struggling, funds are low, you turn to something quick and easy. Since Khalil was arrested for selling drugs the connection that the system always has a hold of a person arrives. He was killed unjustly but the killing was justified due to the fact that he was previously arrested for selling drugs. To explain we see this when maverick says, " When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system desi...

      Boy Meets Boy was such an eye opening book.  I never really realized how un-inclusive of a world we live in.      Through the book, we see insight into the main characters and their struggles through the course of the novel. We also see the normalization of LGBTQ people within a community. Me seeing this story play out and how normal it was for everyone really opens my eyes to how much people are still not okay with people of the LGBTQ community. The thing is, it is not going to hurt anyone for this to be normalized. Why is it even a problem? I don't see why we can't just let people live and love who they want. Even though people might not agree with this, it isn't really going to hurt them or affect them in any way because they can still love who they please, that will not change. If anything, being more accepting will only make more rounded people and bring more love into communities.

 As I started reading the first few paragraphs of Levithan's Boy Meets Boy, I stopped and started scanning through the proceeding pages, because I thought the narrator, Paul, was dreaming of the world he was describing.  I do not think this book is a realistic portrayal of how LBGTQ teens lived, especially during the time this novel was written.  I do think that how Paul, the narrator, navigates teenage issues, and the issues brought up in the novel are realistic.  The way that Paul's relationships with Noah and Kyle were depicted did make myself, as a reader, think of the relationship's as "normal" heterosexual teenage relationships.  The rumors and gossiping were definitely realistic as well.   Tony struck a cord with me and really caused me to start to think about everyone that I know, and have known since I was younger that are part of the LBGTQ community.  His character did make me think back to all of my friend's in high school that were LBG...

  The short novel, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan had introduced many realistic aspects of life within the LGBTQ community and the differences between reality. I believe even though the author gives an unrealistic viewpoint of school life in my opinion, I strongly feel that Levithan had done an amazing job with giving insight on sexuality since where I am from, it is known as a ‘taboo’ subject. Yes, there was a very stereotypical love triangle, but it was as if seemed as if the author was throwing other problems in the mix. An example is Tony and his family having a hard time accepting his sexuality because of their religion and then Noah’s parents being absent in a lot of things in their children’s life. I would strongly recommend this novel for those who struggle to understand the LGBTQ community only because even though Paul was the main character of this book, I found more interest in Tony’s. I have experienced where religion shapes people’s opinions on certain things in lif...