Class Blog

David Levithan’s Boy meets boy and Julie Anne Peters’ Luna are two novels that are just as different as they are similar. While there is certainly plenty of overlap between the novels with connections between character roles and situational occurrences, the differences between these two stories presented a greater interest to me. This semester we have spent a significant amount of time exploring the concept of the coming out novel as it has emerged as a theme in nearly every piece of literature that we’ve read this semester. To me, a coming out novel is something resembling an underdog story, where a character is able to succeed despite all odds. This is not the case in Boy meets boy. Though there are plethora of examples to demonstrate the differences with this overarching theme, I found the role of the adults in each novel to be particularly telling.

Boy meets boy paints the setting of a society where the idea of heteronormativity is a minority opinion. In this utopian world, people are free to be open about their sexual orientation without any fear of persecution. This reality is perfectly exemplified early in the novel when Paul reveals is sexual identity to his parents who are open and accepting to whatever makes him happy. This instance, however, is not where I saw the greatest difference with the situation detailed in Luna. Rather, the story of the supporting character Tony presented the greatest contrast. Tony’s parents are very religious and represent the sect of people most opposed to the widespread views of sexuality in the utopia. Throughout the novel, Tony’s parents find it difficult to accept their son for who he truly is due to the precepts of their religion. Despite this, they don’t express much hostility or disdain for him, as some similarly situated parents in contemporary society unfortunately do. I would thus call their stance more apprehensive than unsympathetic. This becomes more evident as the story comes to a close, as they appear more and more willing to make an attempt at understanding. Although it would be wrong to say that Tony’s parents are fully accepting of him in the end, their willingness, despite the relatively extreme opposition they represent, to try and be more understanding leaves a strong message.

Quite the contrast the world portrayed in Luna is one of more regrettably realistic societal opinions. Unlike Boy meets boy, the theme of near universal acceptance is non existent. In fact, the concept of parental acceptance is not even present. Though loving towards their children, the parents of Reagan and Luna are far from accepting when it comes to the sexual orientation of Luna. Unlike, Tony’s parents, the father in Luna doesn’t even represent the most extreme opposition of those found in our society (perhaps the grandfather is a more accurate representation). When Luna finally reveals her true self there is no attempt at understanding. Luna’s father essentially persecutes her and makes the home unwelcome for her. Realizing that this acceptance will never come, Luna is forced to take her happiness into her own hands and leaves for good.

This vast difference in parental behavior and the groups of people they represent says a lot about the role of environment in the coming out story. Despite the level of relative opposition that Tony’s parents represent, the precedent set forth by the society eventually minimizes the struggle felt by Tony in coming out to his parents. With the help of alternative support systems, Tony is able to not only live with but make progress with his parents. In this way, I wouldn’t really classify Tony as an underdog. A stark contrast, the viewpoint of Luna and Reagan’s father is not seen as uncommon by societal norms, causing Luna to struggle tremendously in an effort to be herself. Reagan represents the only alternate support Luna has and thus Luna often finds her situation unbearable. Because of the necessary perseverance and endurance of Luna, Levithan’s piece is much more resembling of a coming out narrative.

At first glance, I think David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy and Julie Anne Peters’ Luna are two very different texts. Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy is a utopian young adult novel. We see the idealistic world in which Levithan’s characters live through the eyes of our protagonist Paul, an exceptionally self-assured gay teenager, growing up in a town where, as Paul recalls in a memory of his coming out to his parents, coming out as gay is equivalent to just adding a word to your vocabulary. In Paul’s world, there is no coming out narrative, at least not like what we’ve come to expect, where coming out is preceded and followed by years of self-doubt and internal as well as external struggle. However, despite this utopian setting, through Paul’s words and thoughts we are still able to catch glimpses of the struggles caracters in young adult novels typically face—Tony struggles to gain acceptance from his strict religious parents, who find it abhorrent to have a son interested in the same sex. Joni struggles through navigating the landscape of the adolescent world of dating. Julie Anne Peters’ Luna brings these archetypal struggles to the forefront. The book’s namesake, Luna, is a transgender woman (biologically male, with the given name Liam), whose parents—particularly the father—would not accepting of Luna’s eschewing of gender roles or the gender binary. Luna must hide her true identity and is limited in freedom of expression to literally one small area of her house. In this way there are clear discrepancies between Luna and Boy Meets Boy.

However, like Boy Meets Boy, we again see the struggle faced by those in the LGBTQ community not through the eyes of those experiencing it, but through the eyes of our main character, Regan. In Luna, we are witnessing a coming out story from a third person observer, as we see with Tony in Boy Meets Boy. This tactic allows the reader to analyze these character’s struggles from a more objective (although not impartial) perspective. The reader witnesses the coming out narrative from the outside-looking-in. I think both novels thus offer an important alternative perspective from which we can analyze the role of environment and society on the personal experiences of members of the LGBTQ community during the incredibly formative period of adolescence.

Except for the common theme about queer teenagers, the two young adult novels “Luna” by Julie Anne Peters and “Boy meets boy” by David Levithan are obviously different in terms of settings – that is, how supportive of LGBTQ community the people in the two societies are. Boy meets boy take place in a utopian town where people do not question gender identities of the characters, and that is why the romance between gay teens happens as natural as any relationship between straight couple can. On the other hand, the gender norm is a constraint in Luna’s world and even her parents suppress her gender expression to the point that she has to live a double life and has suicidal thought.

If we take a closer look at the two novels, we can see some unexpected similarities between the two. The common ground is the unconditional love exists among characters – they express sympathy for one another and help the queer individual overcome disapproval of parents. Though Regan has never been through what Liam/Luna has, plus Luna has caused so many troubles for Regan, she stands by Luna side – cover her secret, share her girly hobbies, and lend Luna her room for dressing up at night.”Yeah, I loved her. I couldn’t help it. She was my brother (p3)” The sibling love that Regan give Luna is the hope and the shelter for Luna whenever she is in crisis and feel like she cannot continue to live on. Thanks to the time Regan stops the suicidal attempt of Luna, Luna knows that she is not alone and finally finds strength go against parents’ expectation and reveal her identity as a female. Similarly, we can see how much Tony’s friends love him when they all come to his house and persuade his parents to let him go to the dance party. Unlike others whose parents do not question their gender identities, Tony is unfortunate to have religious parents who are unsupportive of his, but his friends always have him in mind and are willing to set aside their business to all come to make sure that he is not left at home that night. Regan and Tony’s friends represent individuals wholeheartedly care for queer individuals who struggle to fight the discrimination of the society. They do not endure the same pain, but their empathy gives strength to those who do and assure them that they are not alone in the battle.

Those caregivers support people in need so that they can be patient for the silver lining to come after the rain – which means that if they do not give up on their life when facing oppression, one day they can find a way to let their identity shine and change the mindset of conservative people. Each novel provides distinct perspectives on the LGBTQ+ community. Luna is a real picture about how it feels like to be a trans in the society where people try to persuade transgender individuals to live as what their anatomy describe them instead of dressing up or using the pronoun they want. The audience of this novel can be either people of within the community or people yet to have a thorough understanding of the group. Trans people can relate to what Liam has to cope with, but they will also see that there are people who they can count on apart from the unsupportive majority. For people who are not familiar with queer terms and stories, the narration raises awareness and promotes empathy toward transgender. If people have never read a story of this sort, there is a possibility that they can adopt the gender-binary mindset due to the lack of information. It is likely that Luna’s narration serves as a lens through which readers can be more sensitive on how they treat people of LQBTQ+ community in real life, and to know infinite reasons why people in this community deserve to live how they want.

Boy meets boy, though having idealized setting, plays no less important role in supporting the LQBTQ+ community because it represents the voice of the community while there are not many projects about this subject on the media at the time of publication. It does not paint a false picture – it instead takes a revolutionary step to sketch what future can look like. “There isn’t really a gay scene or a straight scene in our town. They got all mixed up a while back, which I think is for the best (p1)”. It is more like a miraculous realism than a fiction because such supporting place can exist if people are willing to. The point of this novel is not to remind LGBTQ+ what they already know happen in their lives, but rather to use a delighted narrative to ease the pain, to suggest an optimal solution to the problem, and to focus on pure affection. Through multiple pieces of romantic stories that everyone can relate to (the feeling and the thing that we do when we have a crush on someone, dating, and relationship), Levithan shows us that regardless of sexual orientation, human feelings are very much alike. When people open their mind and do not make a big deal of gender identity and labels, life is much easier for everyone and only love remains in the picture frame. So why not?

‘Boy Meets Boy’ and ‘Luna’ are more obviously different because of the varying level of acceptance for both main characters’ prospective sexualities and genders. In ‘Boy Meets Boy’, Paul lives in a world that functions similarly to a utopia because of its acceptance of queer characters. Paul has always known he was gay, and his friends and family support him and treat him with respect. Even though he was assaulted outside a movie theater in middle school for being gay, his community still widely accepts him as well as other queer people. Infinite Darlene is in a similar position as Paul, as a drag queen; “few of us can remember what Daryl Heisenberg was like, since Infinite Darlene consumed him so completely. He was a decent football player, but nowhere near as good as when he started wearing false eyelashes” (Leviathan 16). Despite the initial setbacks of queer characters in ‘Boy Meets Boy’, the characters are faced with an unprecedented amount of acceptance.
Unlike ‘Boy Meets Boy’, ‘Luna’ takes a much more negative, yet more realistic, point of view surrounding the inclusion of queer characters. Although Regan’s sister Luna. formerly known as Liam, is accepted by her, he has trouble being honest with the rest of his family and the community as a whole. He longs to transition and present as female, but his negative father and judgmental classmates make his life very difficult. Despite the initial subject of Paul and his ease at being gay within his community, Liam is relegated to dressing and being the person he wishes at night in a small basement room. Regan has issues confronting her father and his guess that Liam is gay or secretively involved in unhealthy activities, but is wrong, “I wanted to scream in his face, no! He likes guys, we both do. That doesn’t make him gay. That makes him as straight as me because inside he’s a girl, Dad. Just like me” (Peters 123). Regan not only has to deal with keeping Liam’s secret, but trying to reconcile her own knowledge of trans people and Liam’s position while both Liam and her have to learn to navigate the world and educate themselves about hormones and other options for Liam.
Both novels focus on the similarities between coming out and the life that people comfortable in their sexualities lead. They both focus on how the norms of society change and develop queer identities through the lenses they are viewed from by the rest of the community.

[I apologize if my choice of pronouns when talking about the characters in this novel seems inconsiderate.]

Julie Anne Peters’ novel, Luna (2004), falls under the general literary category of young adult fiction. Young adult novels are characterized by their dealing with identity struggles linked with coming-of-age. Luna is representative of that genre, as it tells about the struggles of two siblings, Liam and Regan, who are brought up in a family and evolve in an environment that are not tolerant of their respective identities. Even though the issues Regan faces—such as not getting along with her parents, being rejected at school, coping with a high-school crush—can be considered as common to most teenage narratives, Liam’s struggles set him apart and give the novel a much deeper meaning and purpose. Liam struggles with the unveiling and acceptance of his trans identity. Despite belonging to a genre considered as “light” and lacking seriousness, because it is destined for a young and unexperienced readership, Peters’ novel uses the assets of this genre to raise awareness towards LGBTQ issues. It makes us realize the difficulties queer adolescents can encounter in this most difficult period in life, through a vivid depiction of Liam’s experience.

The most pivotal stage in Liam’s experience is his transitioning, and it thus seems important to observe how the novel stylistically stages Liam’s transitioning process. This device is particularly clear at the end of Chapter 3, where, after a domestic fight over breakfast, during which Liam is deeply hurt because he feels disfavored by his father, Liam makes Regan ditch school and takes her to a café instead. While sipping their coffees, the siblings have an interesting conversation about Liam’s transitioning, and Peters manages to make this transitioning process tangible through concrete elements in the text. Through the shift in pronouns, the reader experiences the shift in Liam’s identity. From the beginning of the chapter, the narrator, Regan, uses the masculine pronoun “he” when referring to Liam. That is, up until the end of page 21, when Liam starts talking about the women’s clothes and accessorize he was trying on earlier, in Regan’s room. Noticing Liam’s lightening mood, Regan observes: “he brightened a little” (21). Then, after Liam is finished with his speech about clothing and hairstyle, the narrator noticeably transitions to the feminine pronoun, “she,” at the beginning of the next paragraph: “once she started talking hair and clothes, we’d be here forever” (21). It is interesting to see how transition is linked with physical attributes. Even by simply talking about women’s clothes and accessorize, Liam starts transforming, and becoming his (or her) true self. This echoes the fact that, throughout the novel, Liam is only himself/herself in the confined space of Regan’s room, when he can dress as the woman he is.

There are, of course, two different approaches in comparing theses texts; mostly similar with some differences, or mostly different with some similarities. At first I thought these two novels were obviously very different, the main issue being that Boy meets Boy was about the sexual orientation of the protagonist, and Luna is about gender identity, two very different things, thus making it difficult to compare their experiences. The stories differ further in that Paul is already ‘out’ to all his friends and family and it’s not really a coming out narrative for Paul, whereas Luna is in nearly the exact opposite situation.  For a while during the free write i couldn’t get past the fact that i couldn’t find nearly any substantial similarities between Paul and Luna, so i moved on to thinking about comparing the stories in other ways.

Though it wasn’t quite as present in the plot of Boy meets Boy, Tony’s parents don’t understand or approve of who he is, similarly to the way Liam and Reagan’s dad can’t grasp what is going on with Liam, though each character deals with their parents in different ways, the concept is still there. Another similarity I think is noteworthy, is the parallel between Reagan and Paul as the narrators. Though Reagan is a young, straight girl and Paul is a gay boy, they are both comfortable and confident in their sexualities. In both stories, the narrators are both pursuing someone and there is drama surrounding that, but more importantly, each narrator is helping people close to them with their coming out process.

I also see similarities in the relationship between Reagan and Liam, and Paul and Tony; Reagan is what Liam wants to be- a girl. Similarly, Tony is jealous of Paul’s life in which he gets to live as himself and have his boyfriends over to his house. Paul and Reagan both have something that Tony and Liam desire, and Paul and Reagan are helping them to achieve it.

In my opinion, “Boy Meets Boy” and “Luna” are more obviously different. I think one main struggle that Luna must face in his coming out story that Paul does not face is self-struggle. Paul does not struggle with who he is or letting everyone know that he is gay, whereas Luna has a very hard time allowing herself to be her true self around and in front of others. I think this has part to do with the type of household and neighborhood they were raised in. Paul was raised in a majorly populated homosexual community and by parents who understood his sexuality; whereas Luna could not even tell her parents nonetheless her community what her true identity was. Paul’s experiences with being gay were more personal struggles that many heterosexual’s face. In my opinion, this is because Paul is very secure with him and knows who he is and isn’t persecuted for it from those around him. Luna, on the other hand, had to face internal and external hardships throughout her coming out story. For example, Luna is discriminated by her family, especially her father. Her father who questions if Luna is gay but does not even thinks that Luna would be transgender.

Another main difference between the two is the story line of the two characters. Paul shows us the hardships of love and romance. Because Boy Meets Boy is a utopian novel, he is living in a world where he is accepted for who he is. Paul does not have to face any type of discrimination from others about his sexuality. In Luna, the readers see more rustic and truthful struggles that come along with coming out.

I think these two different types of views are very important for readers. They show that no two stories are the same and everyone will have different struggles. Some, like Paul, will be easily accepted and face challenges that heterosexual couples also face. Others, like Luna, will have to endure the discrimination from many angles of life, such as family and society. I think reading the two have made me realize that there is not one set of struggles that people who are coming out have to deal with, struggles come in many different ways.

Boy Meets Boy and Luna are more obviously different because in one text, difference is normalized and in the other, the setting is a society where difference is looked down upon by a predominantly heteronormative culture. In Boy Meets Boy, a majority of the characters are LGBTQ, or are allies of this group, thus making heteronormativity obsolete. In addition, they are members of an idyllic, utopian world that applauds and accepts this seeming difference. Those that are opposed to LGBTQ rights (Tony’s parents) are looked down upon and are villainized, when it is typically the person going through the coming-out story that is seen as outside of the heteronormative framework (i.e. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit). It is interesting to note that Tony’s parents do find some level of acceptance at the end of the novel.

In Luna, this difference is ostracized by heteronormative figures. Luna/Liam’s father is very much representative of the forces that hold Liam back as he is trying to transition. The father also is resentful of the fact that Liam and Regan’s mother is working again and has established her own successful wedding business – further showing that the father does not approve of any forces that go against heteronormativity, similar to Tony’s parents or Jeanette Winterson’s mother. It is important to note that despite his seeming position of power (heterosexual, patriarch), the father thinks he does not exhibit this because he is not the breadwinner of the family and is working a job that he does not enjoy, and is trying to wield control over the only thing that he can, which is the sexuality of his son. The father needs to be open-minded about his son’s attempted transition, when in reality he has no idea about it/ can’t even process it.

A similarity of that I found between the two books is the outrageousness of the two “trans” characters, Infinite Darlene and Luna. Infinite Darlene does exhibit more confidence because of the utopian society that they live in, while Luna struggles more because of the more realistic one that is depicted in Luna. We definitely see a stark difference, a juxtaposition of reality and utopia in the two novels.

I think that Boy Meets Boy and Luna are obviously different because of the narrator. The narrator of Boy Meets Boy, Paul, is a gay boy, whereas, the narrator in Luna, Regan, is a straight girl. Also in the case of Boy Meets Boy, there seems to be more acceptance of LGBT individuals, even though their is the narrative of Tony. Even within Tony’s narrative, we see a positive ending. Boy Meets Boy normalizes LGBT narratives and there isn’t a struggle with the narrator’s identity. In Luna, however, there isn’t much acceptance of LGBT people, and for this reason, she keeps Luna’s life a secret from her parents.

What is similar in both of these texts, is that the narrator deals with the struggles and drama of people close to them. With Paul, he deals with Tony’s struggle with his parents and Kyle’s questioning bisexuality. In Luna, she deals with her sibling, Liam/Luna, as they decide to transition to a woman. In both cases, regardless of the protagonist’s, sexuality or gender, they are affected by the people closest to them.

Boy Meets Boy as we have said in class, one could argue, is a utopian novel. Within the dynamics of our society to be comfortable is to be straight. Boy Meets Boy creates a society where people have the ability to be fully accepted based upon their gender expression and sexuality. Luna, however, brings the reader to reality, showing the painful and tumultuous coming out story, especially in a society with preconceived identity roles. That is not to say that these young adult novels are dissimilar, I want to make the claim that these novels are similar in respect to the way in which the main characters create a world for themselves to exist in.

Paul, the narrator and self-assured character in Boy Meets Boy, tells the reader about the world he goes to, called “elsewhere” (Levithan, 113). “Elsewhere” (Levithan, 113), Paul describes as if “it’s almost like meditation, but instead of blanking myself out, I try to color myself in” (113, Levithan), and so going to this elsewhere, Paul knowingly creates a world for himself where he sees his friend Tony happy, where things with Noah aren’t complicated. He creates a world where everyone is able to be the person they want to be even though Paul has the luxury of that for himself. Liam, a transgender girl who is actually Luna, has a similar world to that of Paul, but Luna is in a conscious state. Liam, as his sister Regan (the narrator) describes, emerges at night as Luna and I don’t mean to discredit Luna as this alter ego, Luna is the true Liam, and Luna is the rawest form of a person. However, Luna can only be truly herself at night when no one but Regan is able to appreciate her true self. Throughout the day, though, Liam creates a covert world, the only place where he can think. Regan says here while talking about her mother and Liam “she found her escape by looking outside herself, while Liam escaped within” (Peters, 137), the “within” is the covert state in which Liam exists in every day until night inevitably comes, and Luna prospers.

The difference, though, with these two stories is that Boy Meets Boy is so ingrained and cemented in a town that is extremely accepting of all identities and even though Paul goes to “elsewhere” in times where he does not know how to interrupt his feelings or experiences, he still has the comfortability and familiarity to be himself outside of his mind. Liam lives in the reality of this world, he has a continual struggle to be her­­­­­­­­–Luna–and that is the difference between the hope of one society as to the actuality of the other.