Gomez 1

Yailet Gomez
Jennifer Rodrick
English 114B
5/7/16
Every Day Struggles

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Identity is one of the most controversial topics in this day and age. Mainly because its
judgmental people who are always trying to involve themselves in things that have nothing to do
with them such as what someones gender is or who theyre into and If theyre going to hell or
not. I feel like there are
other people
preoccupied with who
is what and what
people feel and
because of that we
forget who we really
are as people and what
we identify ourselves
with. Backtrack to our first essay, we as people are majorly influenced by what we see and worry
more about others. In Everyday we meet a teenager with really big identity issues. We as the
readers have made many assumptions because hey if we dont know anything about this person
lets just assume right? For all we know, A could be an alien. An assumption about A is that A
does have an identity as a person would or is A just floating through time and space. In my
opinion, A does have an identity and has feelings just like any other person does. Although A
doesnt live in the body of a teenager, he is one and it shows he has an identity throughout his
actions and what we see from him. He has feelings of despair, affection towards people
especially Rhiannon. He also feels hopeless for things he cannot handle nor change and even
though its not his own body he has gone through hardships that we can all relate to.

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In my most humble opinion, A does have an identity and that is because when it comes
identity, he understands that there are some things that he will never be able to have. A explains,
I am not part of this, and I will never be a part of something like this (Levithan 268). A
reminds me of a child who has been through many homes and grew up in foster care. Not having
a stable family. It is heart breaking because things like this can cause depression and anxiety.
Mom.me mentions Depression, poor social skills and negative behaviors like anger and
aggression all occur more commonly in children who have spent time in the foster-care system.
I can speak about this on a personal experience because I didnt grow up with my
biological parents and when I lived with my aunt and uncle they constantly kicked me out of
their house and I didnt have a stable home and I had depression for a long time. A knows that he
wont wake up tomorrow and grieve for the rest of the grandfather like that rest of the family
does in this chapter. What he does know is that he will wake up in a different body. He wants to
stay, not just in this body but in various, especially in Justins but A cant. In this certain day A
also recognizes that if he were to die, no one would know. Its like the saying if a tree falls in a
forest and no one is around go hear it, does it really make a sound. If A dies, is he really dead?
No one knows of all the good things A has done while hes been there and thats what is the
hardest for A to understand. A does have a gender, its been stated in the book but besides that we
dont know his real name or where hes from. Of course those are not the main things we should
focus on but most of the time we do and its a mistake we as humans make. We make
assumptions and ideas based off on previous knowledge about gender. No one knows anything
about A, if he has parents, friends, family members, just Rhiannon. An identity is what makes a
person who they are, where they are from and what struggles they have fought through to get to
where they are today. A has certainly gone through a lot of them. Maybe in another life A had a

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stable family, and someone who was there for him 24/7 and he had a life for him to call his own.
Us as the readers are only given information from the now and we get to see what As life is like
at the moment. A has gone through a lot, too much actually. If A was asked who are you and
why are you like that they probably wouldnt even know where to begin. Us as people put up
with a lot of crap from others and even ourselves to get to where we are today.
We are introduced to As feelings the moment he meets Rhiannon. A even compares it to a
previous love s/he had and saying that s/he thought it was love until A met Rhiannon. I am
surprised by how good this feels Levithan 6. Like when something so wrong feels right, A was
flirting with someone elses girlfriend even though he should not have been doing so but A went
for it anyway. If A thought what s/he before Rhiannon was love, this whole new experience must
have been a roller coaster then. A has a soul because he clearly has feelings and it is showed
throughout the whole book. We are given various examples that give us a glimpse into As
feelings and what its like for A to go from body to body. Not only does A have soft feelings but
A has also felt harsh feelings. For example, the first time he tried to stay in the same body, A
explains it as being ripped apart from the body and he feels it down to the core, with every
single nerve experiencing the pain of the break, and then the pain of being fused into someone
new. Thats a very difficult thing to bear through. Being ripped at the entrails of a body and
morphing onto another one is something very difficult for a 16 year old to go through. Things
like this could emotionally scar him and cause him to have triggers whenever midnight comes
around. The feelings A show are very strong ones are feelings that everyone has felt at least once
in their life time.
A to me seems lost but he is capable of always finding his way back to Rhiannon.
Everyone who read this book including myself saw A as over bearing and a bit of a stalker

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because he was always on top of Rhiannon and on her throat about her whereabouts. He is like
having a rash that just wont go away no matter how much you treat it. If we look at page 317 of
the story we see that he describes love as something that people have and they know that if being
with that person doesnt work out, better things are yet to come. Not for A though, Love is not
through with them. It will never be the same as the first, but it will be better in different ways. I
have no such consolation. This is why I cling so
hard. When Rhiannon broke up with A, it hit him
like a truck especially because there is literally no
one there for A. He didnt have any commitment
issues, there was nothing to commit to. He had
the opposite, A committed too much and too hard
because he didnt want to let go of the only thing
he had. When A is in Amy Trans body, he went to see Rhiannon instead of everything else Amy
had to do. I apologize to Amy Tran as I drive away from her house, a half hour after waking
up, A knows he shouldnt be doing that I guess thats why he apologizes. In a way hes
hijacking her body and driving to Rhiannons school even though he shouldnt. Every day he
woke up he would say I am so and so time away from Rhiannon which to us normal people
seems a bit creepy but like I once read in an article about murderers, only they know why they do
those things. And thats how it is for A, only he knows why hes so clingy and smothers her.
A wanted to be a person so badly. And I know I have mentioned this various times but I
feel like he wanted to stay in Alexanders body. I feel like the writer was tricking the reader into
thinking that A was going to stay in his body, mainly because s/he and Rhiannon fell in love with
Alexander right away. I feel like that was his way of giving us and Rhiannon closure. S/he found

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it in their heart to find someone for Rhiannon who was going to give her what she wanted.
Obviously the way he did it could have been better because in a way he was giving her away to
Alexander as if they were going to get married. I read in a previous book that pain demands to
be felt and I believe thats true. I feel like one of things that would be the hardest for A to
repress is that s/he will never be able to stay in someones body. When A wakes up in Danas
body s/he has to catch up with their surroundings very quickly and shortly after that we find out
who Dana is and what she has done to herself and everyone around her. Dana is told to write
down her feelings, what I feel is helplessness, I write. But then I stop. Because Im not writing
as Dana. Im writing as
me. A in Danas body
barely remembers anything
and its clear that Dana has a
drinking and driving
problem and she never
really learned her lesson
from her brother who died due to her drunk driving. A wishes he could help her just like he did
with Kelsea but he cant. I feel like this is a think we could relate to with A. its a hardship that
some of us have either gone through or witnessed and its a sad one. Being able to identify with
someone on similar things shows empathy and it shows how A as a person has an identity
because he has gone through things no 16 year old should.
When I first read this I did not think that A had an identity but on my way to school I
changed my mind, not only because it was easier to write about A having an identity than rather
A not, but because everybody that A has been in has gone through something very realistic and

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he has connected with those emotions in one way or another. You dont need to have a favorite
color or a favorite liking for you to be who you are as a person. Things like that barely scratches
the surface. What really does matter is the people you have fought to be who you are, including
ourselves. People who have broken your heart, who have walked out of your life when they were
needed the most. Things that have made us stronger is what really matters because we have
learned from it. We are our worst enemies at times, we tell our selves there are certain things we
cant do, that we dont look good in certain clothes. My cousin once told me that I have already
paid my dues to the world and I will never suffer as much as I did growing up. Being abandoned
and neglected by both parents and self-harmed. Those things that I went through are what makes
my identity. Thats the same way for A, although we as the reader dont know much about them
or anything genetically we know what they do every day and how he handles it. Although A
doesnt have a body or a family, we understand that A goes through similar things normal16 year
olds go through but for him they happen all at once. Throughout the book we watch A go through
many emotions such as despair, and affection towards people especially Rhiannon. A also feels
hopeless for things he cannot handle nor change and even though its not his own body he has
gone through hardships that we can all relate to.

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Works Cited
N.d. CBS News. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Levithan, David. Every Day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Print.
N.d. PBS. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
N.d. Tumblr.com. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
"How Can Foster Care Affect the Mind of a Child?" Mom.me. Suzanne Robin, 11 Feb. 2013.
Web. 26 Apr. 2016.