When Everything Feels

1686 Words7 Pages

The young adult novel When Everything Feels like the Movies by Raziel Reid defines the struggles of the main protagonist, Jude Rothesay, to find personal identity. Reid’s plot is categorically structured around the world of filmmaking, which requires certain people to be known as “actors”, “crew members”, and “extras” as a type of fantasy-based story of life in high school. In this manner, Jude is a gay teen that has no place in these rigid characterizations of adolescence, which he confronts by rebelling against his peers through a very adult level type of realism. Jude’s view of his peers in high school define a mature and developed sense of sexuality and youth culture that force him to view the “pop culture” sexuality of his heterosexual peers through the context of the gay experience: Alexis came out of the bathroom with a couple of girls acting more coked out than they really were. They started dirty dancing. Alexis threw her head back and forth like she was filming a music video on YouTube that would ask you to prove your age before you view it. She gave me a dirty look and laughed with her friends (Reid 78). This personal narrative defines …show more content…

Of course, Aslan is behind these tests of courage, but it allows the adolescents in the story to wield great powers. For instance, Eustace succumbs to the temptation of using one of the seven swords to change a rock pit into gold. The sword was only meant to be placed on Aslan’s table with the other six swords), yet Eustace has given into greed and fear. For his punishment, Eustace is turned into a dragon. During the voyage, Eustace feels the pain of no longer being a human being, but eventually, Aslan changes him back into a human. After this physical re-transformation, Edmund asks Eustace about the process of physical change from a dragon to a human