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Anthony Rivera
Professor Beadle
English 113B
27 March 2016
Every Day Physical Appearance
Through society, teenagers grow up with different meanings of love and what it means to
look past someone's physical appearance. Physical appearance is a huge plot in the book Every
Day by David Levithan when the main character A falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon, who
later develops feelings for him as well. There is one flaw in A that even Rhiannons love cannot
surpass, A unfortunately becomes a host in a new body everyday. On day 5994, he meets
Rhiannon, his hosts significant other. She then recognizes that its not her boyfriend, ands learns
that its A switching bodies every day. As the story develops, she realizes that she could only love
one person, one body, and one life at a time. Although A believes that physical appearance is not
as important as the internal, Rhiannon disagrees affecting the rest of the storyline. Physical
appearance is what stopping Rhiannon from loving A, by basing love off society's views and how
love can only be shared between two bodies.
A has a hard time developing relationships with others due to the fact that he wakes up in
a different persons body every day. The book Every Day starts on day 5994 of As life, as a
teenager in the body of Jason. Day 5994 is significant, because it is the day A meets Rhiannon
for the first time. From there we follow A and his struggles of experiencing love and figuring
out, and realizes that no matter now much he tries to make it work. reality proves that it is just

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impossible for them to be together. However A and Rhiannon views are complete opposites they
both want it to work but realizes how much of a change Rhiannon would have to do.
Although A believes his love for Rhiannon is genuine, and his love goes as far as finding
her in different bodies everyday, Rhiannon believes that their love can not survive societies
social view of them together. A believes that being there physically present is important for a
relationship but also caring for the person is what keeps them together. Society would view A
and Rhiannons relationship as abnormal, not a relationship. Rhiannon thinks that she would be
seen differently in society and teens today biggest fear is to be seen as someone different. We can
see Rhiannon as an example of today's high school teens and their dramatic change of fitting in
with the crowd. With the choice of choosing to change for someone you love or to live how
society thinks you should. I think A is right about how he feels towards Rhiannon and how he
still wants to stay together but Rhiannon has the best point, that even though how much they love
each other society, won't let them be together. The reason why Rhiannon cares what people
would think of her being in a relationship with A is because she has grown up viewing love in
school and as a teen she is mixed with all these emotions that she dont know what she sees is
love is true or not.
Age plays a huge factor in the characters relationship in the story. Throughout the story,
Rhiannon proves that one values appearance heavily, and requires a love interest that is able to
stay consistent with their appearance. At sixteen, teens go through a lot of emotions and physical
changes, finding it difficult to fit in while trying to impress one another. Teenagers find
acceptance, love, and happiness easier to achieve from others through physical appearance. The
article "Coming Home to Van Nuys" by Sandra Tsing Loh support these ideas, by explaining her
teen experience and her struggles with fitting in as an American Latina. Sandras experience can

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relate to what Rhiannon is facing in the story, for example, one quote states, "My best friend
Stacy and I set out dieting right away that summer, to lose our new hips so boys from the heights,
like the nearly albino Tom Fairfield with the orange soccer socks, would like us(Loh 12).
Sandra explains her struggles of living with a physical appearance of a Latina trying to impress
non hispanic boys. She would try dieting, so she could be more appealing to the boys who were
not hispanic who she believed found her hips unattractive. Just like Sandra, Rhiannon faced a
similar situation where physical appearance is what keeps her from developing a stronger
relationship with A. Rhiannon states that I want us to be in each others lives, But life cant keep
derailing mine. Needs to be with friends, A I need to go to school and go to prom and do all the
things supposed to do(Levithan 280). Rhiannon symbolizes most girls who wouldn't be able to
stay in a relationship with an ever changing body, allowing her to recognize that she needs to
move on.
A recognizes that the way he loves Rhiannon is unlike anything he has ever felt. He for
once, is able to look past his physical appearance, unlike all the days before. When A first meets
Rhiannon he notices that she is unhappy and unsatisfied with their relationship. As he gets to
know her better throughout the day he knows how to make her feel better, and somehow she
knows deep down it somehow it is not Justin. A described Rhiannon as so lost in her sadness
that she has no idea how visible it is(Levithan 5). A helped her through her difficult time and
like him felt happy that they had been in each other's presence. Little did Rhiannon realize that it
was As personality that had been more significant to her than his physical appearance. A comes
to a conclusion that Rhiannon had fallen in love with him and that she recognize that he was an
actual person. I do believe A is truly in love with Rhiannon. An article by Gala gives A support
on his love and states finding a soul mate or life partner, somebody whom one can count on,

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somebody who makes one feel special and also somebody who is so special that one is ready to
make a commitment,(Gala 116). The article focuses on issues of love, marriage and
commitment during emerging adulthood. Which A is almost at the stage of adulthood so he's
starting to see love more as an emotional feeling than a physical feeling. However, he struggles
to push this feeling to Rhiannon who feels that physical appearance is what she needs to love A.
A feels that their relationship has nothing to lose, and that letting his feelings get the best of him
was worth the pain. Unfortunately, Rhiannon lets societys views get the best of her, and makes
her decision based off of what others will think. However we can learn from Rhiannon on how
today's society is and how physical appearance affect everyone.
Today's society has different views and expectation on love. In the book Every day, we
are exposed to completely different looking teens every chapter that A is in control of. I notice
that every teen I see A in, is in high school and with completely different personalities. Rhiannon
is no different than these bodies A is in control of and believe that society judges oneself by
appearance. We can see Rhiannon's point when she says And I just cant love every single
person you are equally... never hang out with my friends, I can't even talk about you to my
friends, You'll never meet my parents(levithan 278). Rhiannon gives A her reasons why they can
not be together and each reason involves A being there physically. Rhiannon wants to show As
appearance to everyone that's in her life but she cant, because A is not capable of that. We can
see Rhiannons quote as an example to society and today's high school relationships. Teens in
highschool today can go through many relationships in one year but from there point of view
they judge oneself by physical appearance and if they find their appearance attractive. Compared
to students in college they view relationships differently. From an article by Kevin E. Hegi I
learned about a study the author did with students in college from ages 18-25 and asked the

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question what it means to be in a relationship. For example, one student stated The lover
takes an interest in the other as a person, and not merely as a commodity . . . He bestows
importance on her needs and her desires, even when they do not further the satisfaction of his
own . In relation to the lover, the other has become valuable for her own sake( Hegi 624).
Students at the age of 18-25 view love and relationships as a emotion and based on the person's
personality rather than appearance. I can now see how Rhiannon based her relationship with A
with and more on physical appearance rather than personality on the inside. We have to see that,
just like society today, Rhiannon is just your average teen and should see her as a teen whos
going through mixed emotions at a young age. So its normal to see why she wanted to stop her
relationship with A. We can relate Rhiannon to today's society and cultures, because Rhiannon is
exposed to the high school culture so her personality can relate to other teens she communicates
to in school. The article Culture and communication by Kurylo supports this, states You engage
in cultural communication, which focuses on the way in which communication enables people to
create and cultural identities (Kurylo 6). This statement explains how each person is based off
the people they interact with daily. Rhiannon is based off today's teen society and how any other
teens would react to her scenario. I can relate to Rhiannon more because it's hard to judge
someone by their personality because you're exposed to their looks before meeting someone.
Concluding that A believes that nothing can stop him from loving Rhiannon even though
he switches bodies everyday but from Rhiannon point of view, she can't say the same at the least.
Physical appearance is a huge plot in the book Every day, as Rhiannon realizes that she could
only love one person, one body, and one body at a time. Although A learns that physical
appearance is not all there is to a person, Rhiannon cannot look past and focus internally.
Rhiannon disagrees, which affects the rest of the storyline. Acceptance is what we can learn from

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the book and relate with today's society. I came to the conclusion that the biggest factor in the
main characters relationship with Rhiannon is affected by As physical appearance and society's
views of love between two people.

Works Cited
Gala, Jigisha, and Shagufa Kapadia. "Romantic Love, Commitment and Marriage
in Emerging Adulthood in an Indian Context: Views of Emerging Adults and Middle
Adults." Psychology and Developing Societies, 26.1 (2014): 115-141.
Hegi, Kevin, and Raymond Bergner. "What is Love? an Empirically-based Essentialist Account."
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27.5 (2010): 620-636.
Kurylo, Anastacia. Inter/Cultural Communication. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2013. Print.

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Sandra Tsing Loh - Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology - New York, NY - The
Library of America - 2002