How Supporting Characters Affect the Main Character within "Everyday" by David Levithan

2/9/15 (Blogpost due Thursday, 2/12/15)

            The book “Everyday” by David Levithan is about a character named A, not identified as a boy or girl, who changes bodies everyday at 12:00 AM. A, as we learn, has been switching bodies his whole life, and has no idea who his real mother and father are, what he truly looks like, and how his life came to be the way it was. Though accepting his differences is extremely difficult, A looks at the positives of his situation. Not only does he change location and schools and homes every day, he sees the world through the perspective and personality of someone new. Who A is has come from bits and pieces of other people’s traits, so it is no mystery that supporting characters play a large influence of A and his personality.

            When entering the body of a character with a difficult life and family situation, A’s personality turns cold and introverted. He immediately shies away from the ordeal, in fear that he will cause further disruption in that person’s life. For example, when A spends a day in the body of Kelsea, a depressed teenage girl with extremely hazardous thoughts, A shuts down his natural tendencies and does the best he can to blend in with the body. His thoughts become influenced by the negative energy from the body he is staying in, and this causes him to hide away. Secondly, earlier in the story, A enters a body of a drug addict and mentally ill man. He shuts off his mind, and tries to dissolve into the body in attempts of staying above the negativity. “They body is alive with electric barbed wire. The body is telling me there is only one way to fix this, only one way to end the pain, only one way to feel better. The body will kill me if I don’t listen to it.”(Page 62) This shows the uncontrollable force supporting character’s put onto the main character. Who they are affects who he is in every way, even if the time spent with them is only temporary. This lets us know how A is affected by traveling from body to body in more ways than a change in physical state.

            Although A has adapted his personality to shy away within the body of individual’s facing harsh situations, the opposite can be said for characters that have easy-going lives. Upon these occasions, A can actually become self-motivated, in that he doesn’t think about how the decisions he’s making in the temporary body will affect the person he’s staying in on the long run. For example, when A enters the body of Nathan Daldry, he knows he can take advantage of the situation. Blindsided by unconditional love for another character named Rhiannon, A abuses Nathan’s life by doing things without thinking about the long term consequences for the character. He ends up going to a party, pretending to be someone he’s not, and ending up on the side of the road at 12:00 AM, all in Nathan’s body. To no surprise, Nathan, once free of A’s custody, notices the next morning that a chain of events lead him to be where he was, but that he could remember having no control of his actions. This shows A’s selfishness in taking unfair advantage of the situation he was in. In his mind, he only calculated the problems that would arise for him, not for the person whose body he was staying in. Additionally, when awakening in the body of Amy Tran, a girl an hour away from Rhiannon, he abuses the situation to the extreme in order to meet up with the girl that he loves. “I apologize to Amy Tran as I drive away from her house, a half hour after waking up. What I’m doing is, no doubt, a strange form of kidnapping.” (Page 31) This shows that A is conscious of when he is making an unfair decision. He knows there will be consequences; however, in these free situations, the only priority he has is doing what he wants and needs for the day. This shows that A can be self-motivated and selfish when staying in the body of others who have easier lives.

            In conclusion, A is both positively and negatively influenced by supporting characters within the story. On some occasions he can become illusive within the body, and on others, the body can become illusive within him. This shows how certain traits come with certain supporting characters. Connecting this to the world, I have learned a large amount about how your friends and family really do play a part in shaping who you are. I’ve realized that you are influenced, whether you’re aware of it or not, on a day to day basis by important people surrounding you. However, in the end, I believe the only person who can control what you do, the decisions you make, and who you are, is you.