"Blue Pills" - Ryan Stevens

1. Analyze: Idea - Primary
First off let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel. It was really entertaining and funny for a story that is about such a serious subject matter. Just the way the characters interact with each other is so friendly and loving and real. This was probably my favorite book of all the reading in the class. Now down to business. I believe that the idea is primary to this story. But it may not be the idea you think I am going to say. You probably think the idea through this book is dealing with living with aids in a intimate relationship, which it does for sure. But I think it goes even deeper then that. I believe the idea throughout this novel is about dealing with our daily lives and enjoying life all while knowing inevitably we must all die. Yes, mortality is the idea of this book. When people get HIV or an other life threatening disease they are forced to deal with their mortality on a much more immediate basis. But if we are honest with ourselves, we are all living with our mortality everyday. Just like someone with HIV, we could die at any minute. Today, tomorrow, in a accident or a heart attack. We will all die, but if we don't have something to remind us everyday that were are cursed to this fate, we can let it go and just enjoy the time we do have. I this is a true blessing of being mortal. This book was very successful in exploring this idea and communicating it to me as the reader.

2. Rating: R
Sexual content is a major theme in the book because of HIV and Aids being what the book is centered around. Sexual themes, full frontal male and female nudity, and adult language. Mature audiences only.

3. Springboard:
To successfully help the readers understand the characters and their relationships the author must have had to do a lot of research on HIV and the AIDS virus. He would have to know what it is like for the people that live with the disease everyday, their struggles and joys,. He would also have to know about the treatments and medication that is available to help treat the virus and what the medical community was learned while dealing with these diseases. I was interested about the blue pills in the story that the novel gets its name from. So I did some research and this is what I found. The little blue pills are called Truvada. It is made by a company called Gilead Sciences, Inc. It has GILEAD stamped on one side of the pill and 701 stamped on the other side. In the United States a years prescription can cost from $5,000 to $14,000 or more.

4: Apply:
I have learned that in order to fully understand the characters that you are wanting to write about you have to be able to get into them. Get into them personally and intimately. If you don't know your characters this well then you will not be able to know how they would react or what they would do in a certain situation. But if I take the time to truly flesh out my characters and understand them, then that knowledge becomes a huge asset to me as a writer. Characters will almost write themselves in certain situations.