Bianca Harkless
Editor-In-Chief
Books hold a special place in my heart but I am pretty sure that is obvious. Afterall I have a column dedicated to reviewing and talking about themes in books. A book that holds a special place in my heart is Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.
The book follows the coming out/coming of age of a senior in high school named Simon Spier as he tries to navigate being blackmailed by another student in order to keep a secret relationship in the shadows.
Simon has a life that any person would want. He has two parents who love each other with all their hearts, a little sister who means the world to him and best friends who have been by his side for years. Everything in his life is normal until another closeted gay kid makes a post to a Tumblr page deciated to the school’s drama. Simon creates an email account under ‘hourtohour.notetonote@gmail.com’ where he writes to the other closested gay kid who uses the email ‘bluegreen118@gmail.com.’ As the two grow close, another student, Martin, finds a school computer where the email, hourtohour.notetonote@gmail.com, is still logged in and decides to take screenshots of the emails between the two in a desperate hope that he can blackmail Simon into getting him and one of his best friends together.
If the plot sounds familiar, you may have watched the movie, Love, Simon, which is based on the book by Becky Albertalli. Though there are slight changes from the book to the film, they both carry the same themes between the two. Some of the major themes are identity, heteronormativity, and acceptance.
Someone’s identity is extremely personal and people should not feel obligated to share it with everyone. Although Simon knows who he is and where he fits in the current spot in his life, he does not know if people will accept him for being gay. Identity is a complex issue that many people, and protagonists, struggle with. For LGBTQ+ people, I can assume that finding your identity is even more difficult for them because you do not fit the stereotype that is so often pushed in the media, books and movies. Although the representation issues are getting better, and you can find a queer character in some of the most popular teen shows, there are still stereotypes within the gay community that can make it more challenging to find who you are.
Simon vs The Homosapiens Agenda directly talks about heteronormativity. For those who do not know what heteronormative means, it means something that promotes heterosexuality as the ‘normal’ or preferred sexual orientation. Some examples of heteronormative activy is every movie having a straight couple or assuming that everyone is straight. I am not saying that if you assume people are straight you are homophobic (dispite common belief), I am just saying that you might need to expand your thinking. Simon vs The Homosapiens Agenda directly questions “Why is straight the default?” Simon even goes as far as questioning why LGBTQ+ people are the only ones who have to come out, then imagines his friends coming out to their parents as straight, even having some of them start crying or making slightly shady comments towards them.
The final theme I was to talk about is acceptance. In this book, acceptance might be the most apparent. Early in the book, when Simon first finds out that Martin has screenshotted his very personal emails, the two get into an slightly argument where Simon avoids saying the word ‘gay’ or even close to saying that he is indeed gay. With that in mind, I do not think that Simon has fully accepted himself. I know it’s weird to think about reading a book where the main character is gay and the main conflict revolves around him not trying to be outed to say that the main character is not full out to himself. All of my friends who are part of the LGBTQ+ and have come out to me say that you can be semi out to yourself and not in the way that you are figuring out your sexuality but in the way that you have accepted yourself internally but not externally. I think that is what happened to Simon. As Simon talks to Blue, the boy from the emails, he grows more comfortable with himself and the idea of coming out to the people around him.
I could go on and on about Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda but I will stop here. If you have only watched the movie, I totally recommend reading the book. It gives a significantly better idea of the characters and their motivations. If you are trying to figure who you are, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda might help with that. It deals with big, heavy topics like heteronormativity and self acceptance. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who will give it even half a chance.
Image Credit: Glen Noble on Unsplash
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