Essay: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

While I finish up Courtney Summer’s Sadie, here’s a short essay I wrote on Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and its film adaptation, Love, Simon. I wrote this for a class in which I studied the adaptation of children’s/young adult literature into different media. Also, this essay contains spoilers for the book and movie!

The Effect of Changing the Ferris Wheel Scene

In both Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and the 2018 film adaptation of the novel, Love, Simon, the plotline culminates with Simon and his mystery love interest meeting at the fairground to reveal their identities to each other. Or, at least, for Blue to reveal his identity to Simon, as Simon’s had already been addressed. The “Ferris wheel scene,” as I tend to call it, is portrayed very differently in the movie than in the book. In fact, the portrayal of this scene is so different that it may change the way audiences view Simon and Bram’s relationship.

The original novel details how Simon emails Blue one last time and gives him instructions to meet up at the fairground. Simon then proceeds to wander the fairground all night, waiting for Blue to show up, and eventually decides to ride the Ferris wheel. His friends have left at this point, and he is all alone until Bram comes to sit next to him, revealing himself to be Blue. The boys hold hands while the Ferris wheel takes them around, and it’s a sweet, intimate moment with the two of them, all alone (Albertalli 265-270). This interaction reflects the way Simon and Bram built their relationship: in private. They didn’t need anyone else around for it to be meaningful, it simply was.

The film adaptation, however, saw a very different version of the Ferris wheel scene. In the movie, Blue’s email has, at this point in the plot, been deactivated. Thus, Simon has no other method of contacting Blue apart from posting on CreekSecrets. This means his invitation to the fairground is public and everyone at school knows about it. When Simon shows up that night, he is surrounded by his friends, who cheer him on enthusiastically as he rides the Ferris wheel over and over again. During his many rides, a crowd gathers, and a girl even tries to record Simon with her phone, a stunt that Leah promptly shuts down. Even Martin is there, claiming to be Blue in order to shield Simon from the fact that Blue might not have shown up. Finally, Bram runs over, the two have a short conversation on the Ferris wheel before they kiss, and the crowd erupts into celebration (Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti). It all feels very Hallmark-movie-esque, and while the moment is still cute, it’s much less intimate and special.

Clearly, a very separate tone is set by the film’s Ferris wheel scene as opposed to the one depicted in the book. It almost feels like Simon and Bram kiss for the sake of the crowd that has gathered, especially when compared to the shy, hopeful, “I want to hold your hand,” that Simon offers Bram in the novel’s version of events (Albertalli 270). Although I suspect that the filmmakers had nothing but good intentions when writing this scene, I couldn’t help but feel that Simon and Bram were a bit of a spectacle, and not in a good way. This feeling was caused by several small details of that scene, including a girl calling her friend who she thinks would love to see this go down, Nick muttering to his friends, “This is brutal,” and Martin paying to give Simon one more ride on the Ferris wheel (Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti).

All of this to say, these two different depictions of the Ferris wheel scene would give audiences (or readers) very different outlooks on Simon and Bram’s relationship. Those who only saw the movie would not pick up on the nuances of Simon and Bram’s individual coming out journeys because the film does not portray that as an issue. The book, however, gives readers the insight that to what degree Bram is ‘out’ is something Simon constantly remembers. The two of them don’t share much PDA because Simon is worried about outing Bram. The movie doesn’t really delve into that issue at all, instead depicting Simon and Bram’s Ferris wheel scene as some sort of fairytale ending. Those who haven’t read the book would be missing out on an important aspect of their relationship, ultimately changing how audiences view them.

Works Cited

Albertalli, Becky. Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. Balzer Bray, 2018.

Berlanti, Greg, director. Love, Simon. 20th Century Fox, 2018.