Briceno 1

Daniel Briceno
Jon Beadle
English 113B
11 March 2016

As Suffering
In the book called Every by David Levithan, A, the protagonist, is a soul that wakes up in
a different body everyday. He falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon and suffers by trying to
make the relationship work while he switches bodies everyday. Due to his nature of switching
bodies everyday, it makes it merely impossible for Rhiannon to fall in love with him because
although, he may have the same personality, A changes his appearance everyday which, is why A
suffers. The reason why A tries to make this relationship work, find love, and form a connection
with Rhiannon is because he is tired of not having any intimate relationships. No one knows who
A is because he changes his appearance everyday which means that he could not have any
intimate relationships. A loves Rhiannon and suffers shows this by suffering to make an intimate
relationship with her, despite the difficulties of his nature.
A wants to find true love with Rhiannon because he wants to have a connection with
somebody. Since A switches bodies everyday he says that "it was hard to go through each day
without making any lasting connections. It was too heart breaking to live with so many
separations" (Levithan 7). Everytime he switches bodies, he loses people he connected to. Due to
this reason he decided not to have any connections with people that way he doesn't feel sad every
time he goes to another body. That changed after meeting Rhiannon. A feels a strong connection

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with her and immediately falls in love with her. He starts thinking about how he doesn't have any
lasting relationships and says "I am tired of not feeling. I am tired of not connecting. I want to be
here with her. I want to be the one who lives up to her hopes, if only for the time I'm given"
(Levithan 11). This is important because since he never had any relationships and connections
with people, he finally wants to have a true connection with Rhiannon and tries to by wanting to
be with her all the time.
A wants to find true love with Rhiannon and suffers as he tries to seek it with her.
Throughout the book you can see that A goes through a lot of pain as he tries to find true love
with Rhiannon. After spending a day of romance with Rhiannon, he then says "I have gotten so
used to what I am, and how my life works. I never want to stay. I'm always ready to leave. But
not today" (Levithan 18). This is important because it shows how he always accepted himself as
who he is but after meeting Rhiannon he couldn't accept the fact that his romance with her would
be for only a day. He shows this by saying that he was always ready to leave but, after meeting
her he is not ready to leave at all. He wants to stay. This shows suffering because after years of
accepting who he is, he found someone he can connect to and then hates how he changes from
and into another body everyday. This is important because it shows how his nature of switching
bodies everyday takes away his opportunity of having a connection with someone which, makes
A suffer.The next day after his romance with her, he remembers everything that he did with her
and says" The joy is in remembering, the pain is knowing it was yesterday" (Levithan 19). This
is important because it shows how he loves that girl and gets happy every time she thinks of her
but, suffers so much because he realizes that even though he had an amazing time with
Rhiannon, he will never get a connection with her. A suffers because he really does think that
Rhiannon and him should be together but as Spike Lee says on his book Framing Love: When it

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hurts to think we were made for each other that It may be romantic for lovers to think they were
made for each other, but it backfires when conflicts arise and reality pokes the bubble of perfect
unity (Lee 10). This shows how although A is in love with Rhiannon, he has to do so many
things just to see her throughout the book. For example on day 5997 A was a girl named Amy
Tran and A said I apologize to Amy Tran as I drive away from her house, a half hour after
waking up. What Im doing is, no doubt, a strange form of kidnapping (Levithan 31). He does
this just to see Rhiannon. This is important because you can see that A loves Rhiannon and wants
to make things work between them but, reality pokes him in the face as he has to interfere with
other people's life in order to fulfill what he wants in his personal life. Furthermore, he suffers as
he does this because he needs to fight in order to get into Rhiannons heart. When he confronts
Rhiannon with Amys body they had a conversation about the ocean which Rhiannon says We
had such a great time, Rhiannon goes on. And its making her happy the memory is making her
happy. Which only makes me sadder (Levithan 35). This shows how A suffers because as he
thinks that they belong together, conflicts approach and he sees that Rhiannon memories are
actually with Justin and not A which, shows that there was a lack of connection. That makes him
suffer because Rhiannon does not know that she was actually with A at the beach and because
Rhiannon keeps her hopes up with Justin when in reality, she should do the opposite. A suffers as
he tries to find true love with Rhiannon because he does not accept his nature of switching
bodies everyday, of the memories he had with Rhiannon that he could never have again, and of
the conflicts as he tries to have a mindset of them belonging together all because he lacks an
intimate connection with Rhiannon.

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Another way that A shows that he suffers is having no hope that he can have a future with
Rhiannon but still tries because he really wants to be with her. A says "I know I shouldn't be
doing this. I know I'm poking a wound, not healing it. I know there's no way to have a future
with Rhiannon" (Levithan 31). This is important because although A loves Rhiannon and tries to
do anything he can to make things between the both of them work, he suffers because he already
knows that he can't make it work due to his nature. He shows this by saying that he is poking a
hole not healing it. That means that seeing her does not mean that things are working out for him.
Instead it is making him suffer because he is pursuing something he can never get. He keeps
pursuing to have a relationship with her because he loves Rhiannon and does not accept the fact
that he will never have an intimate connection with anybody. A suffers so much as he tries to find
true love with Rhiannon. A loves Rhiannon and tries his best to find true love between the both
of them. As A sees Rhiannon, he tries to find true love by making Rhiannon love him for his
personality and how she remembers him by. When A was Justin, they were at the beach and
Rhiannon asked him what was a happy memory of his and instead of A going to Justin's memory
to tell him his favorite memory, he instead give her his own favorite happy memory. He says "I
could try to find one of Justin's memories to share, but I don't want to do that. I want to give
Rhiannon something of my own" (Levithan 14). This is important because it shows how A wants
to give a part of his memory so that Rhiannon can start loving his memory instead of Justin's. In
an article by Emily Rose she says Personality is extremely important. Especially for long-term
relationships (Rose 1). This is important because you can see that A wants to give Rhiannon A
piece of his experience instead of Justin so that she could slowly fall in love with his personality
and experiences instead of Justin himself. The reason why this is also important is because to
have an intimate connection with somebody is to have an effective personality. A demonstrates

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this by giving his memory to Rhiannon which, made Rhiannon feel a stronger connection.
Although A does give a part of himself to Rhiannon, A suffers because she thinks that Justin was
the one that said all those things instead of A. A suffers because he continues trying to have a
relationship with Rhiannon knowing it is not possible because of his nature but, pursues it
because he does not accept the fact that he will never have an intimate relationship with anybody.
He also suffers because even though he made a stronger connection with Rhiannon by giving her
a piece of his memory, Rhiannon takes that connection with Justin.
Although some people may say that A does not know what true love is, he does because
of his behaviors throughout the book. In an article called Self Identity and Culture by Ronald
Jackson, Cerise Glenn, and Kesha Williams they stated people socially construct reality
(Jackson, Glenn, Williams 122). This shows how society builds our reality. This is important
because our society does create our reality and we as a community make things either something
in the norms or abnormal. Despite the fact that A switches bodies everyday, he still has feelings
and obviously loves Rhiannon. Society may construct love in a certain way but, it does not
change the fact that A has similar feelings to what society portray love as. Just as society
constructs a reality of love, there are also different ways to show love. In the article My Hips, My
Caderas by Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez she demonstrates how different people show her different
ways of loving her. She says When I want to be loved for my body, I am a latina (ValdezRodriguez 75). Also she says When I want to be loved for my mind, I flock to liberal
intellectuals, usually whites (Valdez-Rodriguez 75). This is an example of how people show
different ways of who to love, what to love, and how to love. There is not only one way of loving
which means that A too can also have an idea of what love is. In Everyday, although A is a totally
different type of person, he does have feelings and loves Rhiannon. His feelings and actions are

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somewhat similar to another individual who is madly in love. The only difference is how A
shows and demonstrates his love towards Rhiannon, because although most people can be direct
when showing love and affection to someone, A has to approach Rhiannon in a different way. In
a way where it is appropriate for both of them. Although A is a unique individual, he does
understand what love is and shows his love in a different way.
A, a person who switches bodies everyday, loves Rhiannon and suffers as he tries to find
a connection with her because of his nature of switching bodies everyday, the conflicts that arrive
during his journey of finding love, and trying to find ways to make Rhiannon love A back. A
does this because he is tired of feeling separate with everyone and wants to have a deep
connection with another individual. Despite all the obstacles that go throughout his journey, A
chases for love and has a deep understanding of what love is. If A did not go through any of these
experiences throughout the book, he would not know what love is or what it is to love another
individual.

Works Cited
Levithan, David. Everyday. New York: Knopf, 2012. Print.
Lee, Spike. Framing Love: When It Hurts to Think We Were Made for Each Other. Providence:
Elsevier, 2014. Print.
Rose, Emily. Does Personality Matter? A Good key to Love is More Than Just Looks. Edith
Cornwell, 2008. Web. 1 April 2016.

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Jackson, Ronald, Cerise Glenn, and Kesha Williams. Self-Identity and Culture. Los Angeles:
Sage Publications, 2013. Print
Valdez-Rodriguez, Alisa. My Hips, My Caderas. Underwire. 2000. Print.