Love is a complicated thing. People don’t get to choose who they fall for; it is one of those things in life that people have no control over. In the novel I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, one of the characters, Diana Sweetwine says, “You can’t help who you love, can you?” This idea that love cannot be controlled runs throughout the pages of the novel. The couples Noah and Brian, Diana and Guillermo, and Jude and Oscar all demonstrate that people can not help who they love. Two people who demonstrate the idea of uncontrollable love are Noah Sweetwine and Brian Connelly. After Noah and Brian kiss for the first time in a forest, Brian becomes very worried and ashamed about his love for Noah, even though his feelings are real and strong. Right after the kiss, Noah is shocked by Brian’s response,
“‘No one can know,’ he says. …show more content…
In an instant, he’s turned into a siren… He says more calmly, ‘It’d be the end. Of everything. My athletic scholarship at Forrester. I’m the assistant captain of the varsity team as a sophomore and⎯’” (273)
Brian is expressing the fear he has concerning his feelings for Noah. Brian believes that if he were to share the relationship he has with Noah to the world, thus coming out as gay, people would react poorly. It is clear that Brian really loves Noah which is shown through his actions within the story and the fact that he is the one who initiated the kiss in the forest, but he is still afraid and embarrassed of his love and does not want to lose everything he has worked hard for in his life. Like any common person, Brian does not want to experience hate or risk losing opportunities in his life just for loving a boy, but he has no control
“‘No one can know,’ he says. …show more content…
In an instant, he’s turned into a siren… He says more calmly, ‘It’d be the end. Of everything. My athletic scholarship at Forrester. I’m the assistant captain of the varsity team as a sophomore and⎯’” (273)
Brian is expressing the fear he has concerning his feelings for Noah. Brian believes that if he were to share the relationship he has with Noah to the world, thus coming out as gay, people would react poorly. It is clear that Brian really loves Noah which is shown through his actions within the story and the fact that he is the one who initiated the kiss in the forest, but he is still afraid and embarrassed of his love and does not want to lose everything he has worked hard for in his life. Like any common person, Brian does not want to experience hate or risk losing opportunities in his life just for loving a boy, but he has no control