Every Day

Fiction | Novel | YA

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Character Analysis

A

A is 16 and lives every day in a different body: sometimes male, sometimes female; sometimes gay, sometimes straight; sometimes Spanish-speaking; sometimes beautiful; sometimes drug-addicted; sometimes athletic; and sometimes suicidal. The one thing that stays the same is that A is always A, no matter what s/he looks like. A has adapted to living this life of body after body for sixteen years without family and friends, without one single personal belonging. The only things s/he can hang on to as s/he travels from body to body are emails; the books A loves, which s/he can often find in the library; and the understanding that his/her diverse experiences and outsider status have taught him: that people are basically the same, despite superficial differences. A knows not everyone feels this way, and often in the book A remarks on the ways that people are blinded by their limited experience.

When A meets Rhiannon, he is not happy with merely surviving and merely observing. S/he has a sudden urge to be recognized by another, to love and be loved. A begins to change, no longer staying within the rules that they have set up. Previously, A had always respected the person whose body s/he inhabited, living the day the way that s/he expects they would. But A is no longer content to follow the host person’s day and life. S/he rebels against having such little control. In addition, A starts to sense their own mortality, and this makes them want their life to mean something. A wants a chance for his/her own happiness, and sees happiness as being with Rhiannon.

When the menacing Poole offers A a way to be with Rhiannon forever, A knows s/he can’t take the opportunity. There is no way that s/he can take a person’s life, as Poole suggests. A instead gives up Rhiannon, finding a person who is most like A, Alexander, and whose life is marked by kindness, sensitivity, and devotion to others, and hoping that she will find happiness with him. As for A, s/he must give up the idea of happiness forever.

Rhiannon

Rhiannon appears in A’s life as “someone hovering on the periphery,” an experience that A clearly can identify with, since s/he hovers on the peripheries of all the lives that s/he has lived in (4). A thinks of her as a kindred spirit, especially when she suggests that they go to the ocean.

A knows that Justin does not treat Rhiannon well, and as a result, she has retreated into herself, a diminished and passive person with constant fear of losing Justin. It’s clearly not a healthy relationship, at least in A’s eyes. Once Rhiannon spends more time with A, she starts to express her personality more. She is no longer so scared and shy, but instead she becomes more assertive and surer of herself. It is clear she is kind and loving, seen when she helps out the stranger, Amy Tran, who is really A, or when the situation is much more serious, such as when Rhiannon urges A to save Kelsea’s life.

As caring and sensitive as she is, she is still limited to the experience of having lived in just one body. She does not have A’s broad view of the world, and it’s harder for her to accept A’s fluid, constantly-changing identity. When A shows up as a girl, it’s hard for Rhiannon to feel physically attracted to A. A is aware of this but doesn’t judge her too much, as it’s clear she is heterosexual. When Rhiannon and A kiss, it’s when A is a boy. A does not force his/her perspective on her, and Rhiannon sometimes wishes she had the ability to accept A for who A is, the way Dawn accepts Vic.

Rhiannon does love A, and is attracted to his kindness and creativity. When she finally meets A, while A is Alexander Lin, both she and A recognize they have found someone very similar to A. However, Alexander has advantages A never had: the power to stay and the power to create connections.

Nathan

Nathan is a person who is very much in control of his life until A becomes Nathan for the day. A does not follow the strict boundaries that Nathan has set out for his life. When Nathan wakes up on the side of the road, where A has left him, he is completely baffled as to what has happened.

Nathan aggressively seeks answers, wanting to gain control. He won’t just passively move on. The only explanation he can come up with for what happened is that the devil took over his body. When he meets Reverend Poole, he quickly gravitates to his support, especially since no one else is willing to help him.

Despite being mocked for his story and becoming a social outcast, Nathan holds firm to his account. He is not easily swayed by peer pressure, but instead truly believes that he was possessed by the devil. Only when he finally meets A, after emailing A repeatedly, and alternately begging and threatening A to respond, does Nathan finally seem to understand what really happened on that fateful day. Although he still betrays A by bringing Reverend Poole to his house, to confront A about A’s story, Nathan does the right thing in the end. When A yells that Reverend Poole is attacking him, Nathan jumps in to help A escape. Nathan, who has built his life around predictability and sameness, defends A, whose life is all about unpredictability and constant change.

Justin

The reader learns of Justin through A’s eyes, and A is not impressed with Justin at all. When A first wakes up as Justin and sees the disheveled room, tastes the cigarettes, hears the obnoxious music, and sees how Justin treats his parents, A is sure it’s not going to be a good day.

But Rhiannon found something in Justin to love, as hard as it is for A to admit. A accesses a memory of the two of them reading The Outsiders, and Justin was so powerfully affected by it that Justin is stunned, especially by the quote, “Nothing gold can stay”(194).Justin calls Rhiannon “Silver,” implying their relationship can stay, unlike the gold. Rhiannon also reminds Justin (who is really A in Chapter 1) of their first date, when Justin seemed to really appreciate her.

But aside from this memory, the reader is not given anything else redemptive about Justin. His bigoted and narrow view of life is in direct contrast to A’s generous, open view of the world.

Reverend Poole

Poole is a flat character, evil in his desire for power at the expense of life. When A meets Poole, A immediately senses danger and has a great desire to escape from Poole. Poole’s offer can be interpreted as a variation of the Faustian legend, giving us a modern version of selling one’s soul to the devil. This archetype raises the question of how far A will go to get what he wants. Poole offers A a tempting deal: the chance to have a normal life with family and friends, and no more traveling from body to body. But there is always a cost, a cost which requires A to betray his beliefs. A rejects the offer. Ironically, it is Poole who urges Nathan to refer to A as the devil, letting that powerful label mislead Nathan into not recognizing where true evil resides.