43 pages • 1 hour read
Flamer
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Themes
Self-Acceptance
From the opening pages of the text, it is clear that Aiden is uncomfortable with a lot of things about himself: He feels like he’s overweight and not tall enough, he doesn’t like his high-pitched voice or its feminine inflection, he hates being reminded he’s biracial, and most of call, he’s self-conscious about being perceived as gay. His insecurities stem from the fact that everyone around him is constantly reminding him of his differences. At school and camp, he is bullied for nearly every aspect of his identity; the culture of the 1990s is so fundamentally anti-gay that it is impossible for him to avoid the pervasive hatred. At camp, anti-gay slurs and jokes are thrown around as casually as common greetings, and at church he’s reminded that his very existence is a sin.
This causes Aiden to deny core aspects of who he is and focus on what he isn’t: He isn’t tall and athletic, he doesn’t look or sound like the other boys, and he isn’t straight enough. He bases his self-worth on comparisons to other people. By constantly comparing himself to impossible standards, he falls into a pattern of self-hatred and feeling inadequate. His first attempts to remedy this involve looking outwards for ways to better fit in. He considers that he could reinvent himself in high school by dressing differently, playing sports, and having a girlfriend.
While he knows this idea is doomed to fail, that doesn’t stop him from trying to emulate Ted. In Ted, he recognizes someone who is different in the ways he is different, but he also sees that Ted is confident and “cool.” His attempt not only fails, but leads to Aiden snapping and yelling a series of slurs for the first time–evidence of how frustrated he has become with the impossibility of being a version of himself that pleases everyone around him.
His attempts failed for two specific reasons: They represent superficial changes that still avoid inward examination, and they misunderstand that the root of the problem is not how Aiden appears to other people, but the denial of his true self. In the end, what saves Aiden’s life is the realization that his happiness and self-worth cannot be contingent on other people. Instead, it needs to come from accepting and embracing who he is. The final sequence of the novel in which he is confronted by his soul metaphorically depicts this. His soul—the true essence of who he is—appears to him as a flaming archer. This not only evokes flame imagery and what it represents; it also suggests his soul has the strength and knowledge to survive future struggles. The confrontation, which ends with his soul taking him by the hand so they can merge, represents the self-acceptance he has been struggling toward. The use of phoenix imagery conveys how significant of a change this is for Aiden. Embracing his true self is akin to being reborn, and while it won’t suddenly make his life perfect, he has emerged from the flames stronger and ready to face the challenges ahead.
Growing Up as Someone Deemed “Other”
The novel shows how transitioning between middle school and high school is a challenging time—it comes with an inherent amount of uncertainty as characters deal with the physical and emotional changes of puberty, navigate increasingly complex social relationships, and generally try to figure out who they want to be. David, and even Elias—who from a distance appears to be perfectly primed for high school—express anxiety. For Aiden, there is the added challenge of navigating a culture that is hostile to his very existence on top of the issues that everyone else is dealing with.
For example, after being called a racist and anti-gay slur during an orienteering class, Aiden struggles to focus on the lesson; he is angry that people constantly remind him that he is different: “I’m always checking the other box. And I’m so over it” (105). This is not an isolated experience for Aiden, who suffers a constant barrage of direct and indirect abuse over his identity—particularly, the fact he is biracial and gay. This not only leaves Aiden feeling inadequate, isolated and excluded; it often makes it impossible for him to give his full effort and attention to what he is doing. When explaining how much he hates his voice, he reveals that he doesn’t talk much at school because it attracts unwanted attention. Aiden is robbed of a healthy school experience because he spends most of his time focusing on making himself invisible.
Flamer illustrates how susceptible Aiden is to the hatred and abuse he faces through the way he internalizes everything he hears about himself. Moreover, because he is a minority, he has very few role models to look to for support, guidance, or inspiration. It is evident how important having a role model is when Ted steps in to help him during an orienteering class. It is also devastating when Ted is fired and Aiden loses him.
All of these elements combine to create a minefield of disadvantages for children and adolescents who don’t fit the dominant norms of society.
Systemic Discrimination
As a closeted teenage boy, Aiden has difficult experiences in the Boy Scouts because of normalized anti-gay and the intolerant culture of the 1990s. Anti-gay jokes and slurs are commonplace, and Aiden is victim to bullying on numerous occasions. There is only one instance where a Scout leader, Ted, challenges one of the boys for using a slur. The rest of the time, it is allowed to happen. Prejudice against gay individuals is a systemic issue that runs deeper than a group of individuals. One way that Mike Curato exposes this idea is through the character of Ted and his eventual firing after being outed as gay.
Ted’s firing demonstrates the pervasive and harmful nature of prejudice. After Ted’s firing, one of the other leaders reveals that the Boy Scouts has a bylaw that prevents anyone who is gay from being employed as a Scout Leader. This top-down anti-gay policy illuminates why prejudice is so prevalent at the camp. It is a fundamental tenet of the organization’s beliefs; by ensuring that there are no gay Scout leaders, the camp insulates itself from perspectives and ideas that might challenge and change their values.
This is harmful and makes the Boy Scouts extremely hostile to children like Aiden, who struggles to feel a sense of community and belonging. While Ted is still at the camp, he understands what Aiden is going through and is able to step in and provide him with support. In Ted, Aiden had a leader and mentor that he identified with, which makes the camp feel slightly more inclusive for people like him. If Ted could navigate all the hatred and become a leader, it opens the possibility that Aiden could as well. However, once Ted is fired, there is no one left to support Aiden and recognize that he is experiencing a mental health crisis.
Scout Leader Jacob even manages to make things worse by suggesting Aiden needs to “start thinking about all the good things [he has] in [his] life” (257). His miscalculation comes from his position of privilege—as a straight, white male he has never faced the kinds of barriers and hatred Aiden is experiencing, and telling him to focus on good simply alienates Aiden even more. This lack of awareness—created by systemic discrimination—nearly costs Aiden his life. It highlights that anti-gay policies like the bylaw that led to Ted’s firing have consequences beyond the obvious and immediate discrimination they represent.
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