"Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville

In the short story, "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville, the character of Vince changes drastically. Vince is very confused as to if he is gay or not. Throughout the story Vince changes his perception on if he wants to be out and proud if he is gay. "Am I Blue?" relies on change though because if Vince didn't change then the message of the story would be to not be proud of who you are. Ray Bradbury wanted Vince to be proud of who he is so he made Vince change over the course of the story.

At the beginning of the story, Vince is beat up by a bully named Butch Carrigan since he doesn't like Vince since he may be gay. Vince is vulnerable to Butch and he would stand up for himself but he is scared that he may be beat up or that he might actually turn out to be homosexual. I know what it feels like to be vulnerable to bullies and most of the time a bully can be insecure about themselves and, use their strength or words to hurt other people to make themselves feel better. Suddenly, Melvin a fairy godfather appears and tells Vince that he has three wishes. Melvin has a very feminine attitude as well as walking "swishy". Vince doesn't like being seen with feminine Melvin since he is scared to be beaten up for everyone thinking that the two of them may not be straight. To make Vince feel stronger and more confident Melvin says, "the world is crawling with faggots. But most of them are in hiding because they're afraid they'll get treated the way you did". All over the world, people are beat up for being thought of as gay but Vince is strong enough to deal with the hate.

Vince wishes to have "gaydar" which is the ability to see who is gay or not. Using gaydar Vince is able to see people turn a different shade of blue based on how certain they are of their own homosexuality. Vince begins to understand many people all around him are gay and that no one realizes certain people you may suspect to be heterosexual might be gay. Vince begins to see many celebrities that are gay on magazines and on television. There is one man that truly inspired Vince to truly change his perspective. In the story, Vince sees a homophobic politician who is bright blue. Vince grows angry that people cannot see the cowards who abuse the people who share their own sexuality. Vince wants everyone to be able to share his ability of gaydar with him for one day.

Vince then wishes for the people who are gay to all turn blue for one day so everyone in the world will know who they are. Vince is brave since he will even go to school on "blue day" even though he has a slight blue pallor to his skin. Vince is proud to go to school just to see the people all around him who may be bi-curious as well as Vince. Still, Vince feels slightly vulnerable and uses his last wish to ask Melvin to turn Butch Carrigan blue. Melvin then returns and tells Vince, "Butch Carrigan was already as blue as a summer sky when I got there". This statement gives Vince confidence since he knows that the only reason that Butch used to beat Vince was because Butch was uncertain if he was gay or not and wanted to hide his sexuality.

Vince feels ready to go to school even if people see that he is bi-curious. This shows that Vince is brave and he is proud of who he is. Still, not everyone in the world would be as brave as Vince and come out to the entire community. Vince changed from not wanting to be seen with anyone who may be mistaken for being gay, to walking out in public with his blue skin. I believe this is how Vince changed throughout the story of, "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville.