Reading Response: Everyday

The book, Everyday, by David Levithan is about somebody who is in a different body every day. (For the purposes of this essay I will refer to the main character, A, as “he” even though he switches genders.) Then he meets a girl named Rhiannon and he falls in love with her. Falling in love with her gave him something that made him feel like himself and not somebody else.

On page 2 of Everyday, A states that he has to respect other people’s lives because he acts as if he were only a guest in their body, and usually if he doesn’t it comes back to haunt him. He has to also access the body’s memories and act like the person whose body he’s in. On page 7 A talks about how when he was little he used to make connections with the people in his life but since he switches bodies every day it became to sad and painful for those connections to break. He stopped trying to make friends. He just isolated himself and acted like the body would every day. Although he isolates himself he also says that it’s remarkably freeing. He never feels peer pressure and he never has to define himself by anyone’s terms. He will never feel parental expectation.

When A first meets Rhiannon he suggests to skip the second half of the school day. A, lists a bunch of different things that if she says he will disconnect and isolate himself again. Then she says she wants to go to the beach, which was not on the list and he starts to feel himself connecting. After the day that he met Rhiannon and fell in love with her all of the chapters begin with how far away he is from Rhiannon in the different bodies. A also goes out of his way to find her posing as a student touring the school. After a while he feels like he should tell her that he switches body’s everyday. When he does she surprisingly takes it well, but not super well she still pretty shocked.

In the end he and Rhiannon end their relationship because they know it won’t work. Alexander is a kid who’s body A’s in and A really likes this guy and thinks he’s a good guy. On page 318 it says out of love A wants Rhiannon to be with Alexander because Alexander is like A but without always switching bodies. A doesn’t want Rhiannon to have that many complications in her life like him switching bodies every day. At the end of the book it talks about how for the first time in his life he runs. I think what the author is trying to say is that for the first time in his life he’s running away from something that is his own, his heartbreak.

In conclusion I think the author was trying to say that no matter what gender or race you are, love is universal.  The love between A and Rhiannon demonstrates a person of any race could love another person of any race, like any gender can love any gender.