https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/DearEvanHansen Evan can whip up this entire tale about him and Connor despite knowing next to nothing about him! To put it simply, Evan is afraid. The following … Psychology Today identifies with high-functioning anxiety: cannot hold weight when competing for attention, 13-Year-Old Brayden Harrington Just Shattered The Stuttering Stigma. Well, up until he comes clean. It's not like I had any friends who wanted to see me. Hachette Book Group, 2018. It really helps explain some of the story that is on the more easy to miss side. Those with high-functioning anxiety get anxious and feel they are not doing enough to succeed if they are not constantly active.-She has trouble making friends or feeling she has friends; rather, she throughout the plays refers to her many “close acquaintances.” It is tough for many with mental illness to accept or make friends.-She is pent up with energy she doesn’t know what do with, leading her to interrupt fellow characters throughout. He cares for Zoe so much as to take extra strides to reassure her that her brother did care for her in the end, but doing so only plunged him deeper into this whole fabricated truth that he created. They’re supposed to keep my glass half full, and occasionally they do brighten my outlook, but they also remind me that I’m not like everyone else. After initiating a conversation, the person eventually messes up somewhere along the lines. Evan's coping mechanism is one that we all know and love; self-deception. There are too many people going through their childhood, their lives, suffering and in indescribable pain, with not nearly enough people fighting for them. It wasn't revealed until much, much later that him falling out of the tree wasn't an accident. They highlight the immorality of the lie that Evan has caught himself in, as he was never friends with Connor, and Connor was. How and why did Evan manage to make himself heard? Which brings me to my final point, relationship wise: Heidi Hansen. He says it raises questions about gatekeepers for musical theatre and the disconnect between fans and the handful of critics who offer “judgment on something that it seemed like a whole demographic were finding resonance in”. After that event, Evan mentally repeated his denial of that accident's purpose until, eventually, he believed it. Luck was on his side for some of it (ex. With that, we finally move on to the events of the musical itself. From this, Evan is kind-hearted, when one looks past his social anxiety that renders him unable to properly communicate with other people. Jared was the closest he had to a genuine friend and, frankly, did seem like one in the end. Alana Beck, in fact, epitomizes what is wrong with how mental illness is viewed. Desperately wanting answers, Connor’s parents turn to Evan to learn about the life of the son they hardly knew. That makes so much sense to me now. This guide refers to … It started out with a short run at the modest Two River theatre in New Jersey in 2015. Evan didn’t create the lie. Christine Canigula loves school-play rehearsals, she sings, “because you are equipped with directions and text – you follow a script so you know what comes next”. Before the show was marketed with its own slick, shareable promos, fans’ homemade videos had already spread the word for them. That’s what you’re going through: emotions are so big at school. But the thinner lines serve a purpose: they inform us on the possible good intentions of lies, as telling the truth sometimes can do more harm than good. This actually reoccurs in You Will Be Found; Evan, after awkwardly dropping all of his cue cards, just speaks honestly from his heart. He tries to explain that Connor didn’t write the letter that they thought was the suicide note, but he’s pulled back into it. This runs directly contrary to what the statistics say should get our attention most. The challenge: Evan must contend with this role thrust upon him while battling his depression and crushing social anxiety, an illness so powerful that Evan would sooner lie in bed starving through the night than have to interact with the pizza delivery man. The proof of this cross-generational appeal? While defending her interest in the Connor Project as more than just an item for the extracurricular checklist, she bursts out, “I know what it’s like to feel invisible. When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. the whole thing with the apples and Connor's family normally going to the apple orchard in the past) but for the most part, he seemed to be able to disregard the wallowing self doubt and cautiousness. Like so: Because of this breach in the chain, Evan just falls into the pit of Error. And having to make a story right then and there would not be easy, but it was at that point where we really saw Evan's skill with words prevail; through his storytelling (For Forever). I'm sorry you feel that way. Evan is a high school kid believed to have been the best and only friend of classmate Connor Murphy, who loses his life to suicide early in the play. Dear Evan Hansen. Inspiration for Dear Evan Hansen came from a real-life episode that occurred at Benj Pasek’s high school. Don’t take my word that she is struggling; take her words. Evan's mother who's been with him since the very first song, and she's also a major pillar in Evan's character development. When you thoroughly examine the attire that our eponymous protagonist wears throughout Dear Evan Hansen, all of them hold a sense of meaning in each scene.