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For Simon, one of the major indicators that he and his family are changing in fundamental ways is that holidays don't feel the way that they used to. On Halloween, Simon muses at length that his costume (a dementor from Harry Potter) is nothing like what he wore every year as a child (girls' dresses)—and while he's uncomfortable now with the fact that he loved wearing dresses, the fact that he's spending Halloween drinking beer instead of trick-or-treating throws his growing maturity into sharp relief. On Christmas Eve, he notes that even though his family "hits all the traditions" such as making truffles and singing the Chipmunks theme song, the day still manages to feel different and uncomfortable. Holidays then become a symbolic representation of the changes that the Spier family is grappling with, while also underscoring the inevitability of those changes.
Holidays Quotes in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
The Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda quotes below all refer to the symbol of Holidays. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“I completely see the appeal of being someone else for the evening (or in general). Actually, I was a bit of a one-trick pony myself when I was little. I was always a superhero. I guess I liked to imagine myself having this complicated secret identity. Maybe I still do. Maybe that's the whole point of these emails.”
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Chapter 19
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It's Christmas Eve day, and something feels a little bit off.
Not bad, just off. I don't know how to explain it. We're hitting everyone of the Spier traditions.
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In this moment, all I want is for things to feel like Christmas again. I want it to feel how it used to feel.
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Holidays Symbol Timeline in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
The timeline below shows where the symbol Holidays appears in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...have to do this. Simon asks Martin, who's sitting nearby, if he's going to Garrett's Halloween party the next day. In his excitement to accept, Martin trips over his shoelace and...
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Chapter 4
Simon emails Blue and tells him that he's never worn a scary costume for Halloween before; his family only does funny ones. He wore girls' dresses until fourth grade when...
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Chapter 5
Simon feels as though the energy at school on Halloween, which is conveniently on a Friday, is infectious. He wears cat ears and a tail,...
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Chapter 6
Blue emails Simon that his Halloween was very quiet and he ate a bunch of candy. He admits that he's excited...
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Chapter 7
...tells the reader that he used to love dressing like a girl. He'd dream about Halloween starting in April and try his costumes on multiple times before Halloween. Now, he's just...
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Chapter 11
The day after Thanksgiving, the entire Spier family sits outside playing a game. Alice is home from college, and...
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...He assures her that she'll be fine to have them memorized by the end of Christmas break, but she insists that he doesn't have any lines so it's easy for him...
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Chapter 17
Simon spends the first Saturday of Christmas break at school for an all-day rehearsal. He feels far away as he eats donuts...
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Chapter 18
A few days before Christmas, Blue writes that he came home from school to find both his parents at Blue's...
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Chapter 19
On Christmas Eve, Simon feels as though things are off despite the fact that his family has...
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...like this. Nick touches Simon's arm, which he never does, and wishes him a good Christmas before heading back to his house.
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Simon's family has French toast for Christmas Eve dinner on nice china, per tradition. Simon still feels as though things aren't the...
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On Christmas morning, Simon wakes up relatively early. He sits with Bieber on the couch until everyone...
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Chapter 20
Simon emails Blue and says he had a weird and awful Christmas in which he came out to his family and will soon be out to everyone...
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Chapter 21
The Saturday after Christmas, Simon, Alice, and Nora go to Waffle House for breakfast. Alice smiles at a guy...
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On New Year's Eve , Simon and Mom argue about Simon needing to clean the basement before having a...
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Chapter 22
Blue emails Simon and writes that his New Year's was pretty slow. His stepmom and the wife of Mr. Sexual Awakening compared ultrasound photos,...
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