Tanner Zeolia
“I wake up.
Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It's not just the body--opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I'm fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you're used to waking up in a new one each morning. It's the life, the context of the body that can be hard to grasp.
Every day I am someone else. I am myself--I know I am myself--but I am also someone else.”
Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It's not just the body--opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I'm fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you're used to waking up in a new one each morning. It's the life, the context of the body that can be hard to grasp.
Every day I am someone else. I am myself--I know I am myself--but I am also someone else.”
This is an excerpt from Everyday
by David Levithan, and I know I said this in class but this book I could not
put down. It was so interesting and bizarre, I mean imagine waking up in a
different body every day, different race, gender, age I mean it would be scary
to me.
This paragraph I pulled from
the book is something in my opinion that sums up the whole book in a simple
paragraph. I looked at this excerpt in a way that I understand what the main
character is talking about, he saying that he gotten used to the fact that he
simply has gotten numb to the fact of changing bodies every night. And for me I’ve
never experienced it obviously but I can relate in a sense of every day I wake
up and every day I feel different whether I’m happy or I’m mad or I feel sad
because I’m wired different and he has to deal with a different person a
different way and in a small way I’m the same way because sometimes it’s
defeating not knowing how the next day is going to feel like and I think that’s
and important part of his struggle.
I read this book summer before last and found some interesting things there, too. It came up again for me this past winter when my grandfather died and I had to watch my dad say goodbye to his dad:
ReplyDelete"It's my father who looks diminished now. As if when someone close to us dies, we momentarily trade places with them, in the moment right before. And as we get over it, we're really living their life in reverse, from death to life, from sickness to health."
"Such a strange ritual, to send the body into the ground. I am there as they lower him. I am there as we say our prayers. I take my place in line as the dirt is shoveled onto the coffin. He will never again have this many people thinking of him at a single time...I wish he was here to see it."
Every Day by David Levithian p. 268
I read this book about a year ago, and i fell in love with it. I love how even though we don't really know what sex A is, there can still be a bit of romance. "I looked at this excerpt in a way that I understand what the main character is talking about, he saying that he gotten used to the fact that he simply has gotten numb to the fact of changing bodies every night." I love the way you worded this. Has simply gone numb to the fact, is really cool sounding.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Tanner! This book sounds extremely interesting! The idea of waking up in a different body each day does sound extraordinarily terrifying. Not knowing if you would be a boy or girl in the morning, or if your skin was going to be light or dark… I cannot comprehend how someone would be able to go through this each day without going insane. I really like your perspective on the excerpt, and the story in general. Each day is different, or a new “struggle.” Not knowing what you are going to face on the coming day can be compared to not knowing what body type you could be transformed into next. Thank you so much for recommending Everyday, and looking into a quote that could easily be lost among all the other words on a page. I would never have thought to relate changing bodies each day to such a normal event as waking up with new challenges each morning, as you did.
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