Everyday
By David Levithan
Character Analysis
In the book Everyday, the main protagonist, A, faces many hardships throughout the story. One big hardship that A faces is that he isn't even technically human. He is actually more like a spirit who wakes up in a different human's body and lives their life for a full day until he has to go to sleep and then wakes up again, repeating the same routine each day. It wasn't really too much of a problem for A. I mean at first when he realized what was going on, he was pretty confused and didn't understand why something like this was happening to him. In the first chapter of the book, A states on the second page saying "From what I can tell, every person I inhabit is the same age as me. I don't hop from being sixteen to being sixty. Right now, it's only sixteen. I don't know how this works. Or why. I stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago. I'm never going to figure it out, any more than a normal person will figure out his or her own existence. After a while, you have to be at peace with the fact that you simply are. There is no way to know why. You can have theories, but there will never be prof." This quote in the beginning of the book shows how A feels about all of this. You can tell that he cares but he's been in this situation for so long that he knows nothing will change and knows that no matter how hard, he keeps trying to figure it out, he never will. Although that may seem like a big hardship that A faces, that isn't the biggest one. In the beginning of the book, A starts out in the body of a kid named Justin. While he is Justin and is living Justin's life, he meets a girl named Rhiannon who is Justin's girlfriend. Throughout the day, A hangs out with Rhiannon and before he knows it, is falling in love with her all in one day. There are two problems with this though. One, Rhiannon has no idea that A is A; she just thinks that A is her boyfriend Justin, the guy he's always been. And the second problem is before A can do anything about it, the day ends and again he is switched into another body. This is a key part of the story because it shows some of the hardships that he has to endure throughout this life. Much information isn't really given personally about A either because he doesn't even know much about himself or his origin. For example, the whole reason why A is called A is because he was making an effort to try and create some continuity in his life. We also know that A has an email account that he created so he literally keep in touch with himself. He uses it to make notes and send himself information he wants to retain. So throughout the book, we really see how A can be the main protagonist and why he is so important to this story.
Plot Development
In Everyday, the plot of the story is developed mainly through the setting and the theme. The setting of the story isn't really determined by a specific time period, but you can tell that it is based off of around the 21st century. The place of the setting also moves around as well. For example, throughout the whole story, there isn't one specific place or area that stays the same and is mentioned a lot throughout the story. Again in the first chapter of the story, A states "Yesterday I was a girl in a town I'd guess to be two hours away. The day before, I was a boy in a town three hours farther than that. I am already forgetting their details. I have to, or else I will never remember who I really am." So the setting of the story keeps developing and moving forward as the story continues. This is very important to the plot development because it shows how the book moves forward and how each new body A is in, the farther away he gets from the last body he was in. Theme is also a very important factor to the plot development in the story. One of the themes that stuck out in the book was appearance. A is in a different body everyday. Because of this, he has had to accept what his appearance in each different body will be. One example of this is when A is in the body of an obese teenage boy named Finn. Finn seems to have apparently accepted his appearance and seems to have "retreated from the world", which seems to be his way of actually coping with the reactions of other people. For example, when A is walking down the school hallways as Finn, he notices the way in which people treat him. He notes how people step to the side or move over and he also notices the many glances and stares he gets as well. Some are disgusted by his appearance, but most are afraid of becoming someone like that. So this why appearance seems to play such a huge role in both the theme and the reason for plot development throughout the story.
Praise or pan?
Over the summer I had read many different books in which Every day was requested to be one of them considering it was on the summer reading list for school. There were a few other options for books I could read, but I wasn't sure which book would be best suitable for me. I ended up looking up different reviews on each book and seeing what they had to offer, but each review really only gave me a summary on the book instead. Because of this, I decided to turn to my friends instead to see which books they were reading. A few of them chose different books, bu the majority of them chose Every day. Since I thought that they were reading it, I thought that I should too, considering we all have common interests. When I got to Barnes N Noble, I easily found the book because it was actually on the popular reads table. Since I saw it on the popular reads table, I also figured that it ,must be a good reads. All in all, I actually did really enjoy reading the book even though it was not my favorite. One thing that I did enjoy about the book was the setting. Personally to me, when there is only one setting throughout a whole entire story, it kind of makes me feel bored by the book because there isn't too much moving around action going on. In Every day though, the setting keeps moving from place to place and I feel like it keeps me on the edge of my seat more often. All in all, I did really enjoy the whole story line and how the book was set up. I thought it was a very unique story line and had an intriguing plot which is always a good hing. I do very well recommend this book to others and would call it a praise instead of a pan!