On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

by

Ocean Vuong

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous makes teaching easy.

Trevor Character Analysis

Buford’s grandson and Little Dog’s friend and lover. Trevor lives with his father in a trailer behind the interstate in Hartford, and he meets Little Dog when he begins working on Buford’s tobacco farm. Trevor is boyishly handsome and, according to Little Dog, “impossibly American.” Trevor is “raised in the fabric and muscle of American masculinity” by his father, an alcoholic who abuses Trevor and shoots him with a nail gun. When Trevor meets Little Dog in the tobacco field, it isn’t long before their friendship turns sexual. After their first time together, Trevor turns to his back to Little Dog and cries “skillfully in the dark.” Trevor is “all-American beef but no veal”—meaning he is tough, not soft—and he is clearly ashamed of his sexuality and what it says about his masculinity. Trevor embodies stereotypical American masculinity and the effect this narrow ideal of gender and manhood has on the queer community. Trevor’s story also reflects the novel’s thematic ideas about drug addiction. As a teenager, he becomes addicted to opioid pain medication after being prescribed OxyContin for a broken ankle. For Little Dog, it is impossible to describe Trevor without also describing “the Oxy and coke,” the laced joints, and the fentanyl patches. Trevor is constantly high, and he is high when he crashes his father’s Chevy into a tree. By the time Trevor is 22, he is dead from an overdose of fentanyl and heroin. With Trevor, Vuong draws a direct parallel between drug addiction and the pharmaceutical and medical industries and underscores the reality of the opioid crisis in 21st-century American society.

Trevor Quotes in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

The On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous quotes below are all either spoken by Trevor or refer to Trevor. 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:
War, Trauma, and Abuse  Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

Afterward, lying next to me with his face turned away, he cried skillfully in the dark. The way boys do. The first time we fucked, we didn’t fuck at all.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:

“I can’t. I just—I mean…” He spoke into the wall. “I dunno. I don’t wanna feel like a girl. Like a bitch. I can’t man. I’m sorry, it’s not for me—“He paused, wiped his nose. “It’s for you. Right?”

Related Characters: Trevor (speaker), Little Dog
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t wanna, he said. His panting. His shaking hair. The blur of it. Please tell me I am not, he said through the sound of his knuckles as he popped them like the word But But But. And you take a step back. Please tell me I am not, he said, I am not

a faggot. Am I? Am I? Are you?

Trevor the hunter. Trevor the carnivore, the redneck, not

A pansy, shotgunner, sharpshooter, not fruit or fairy. Trevor meateater but not

veal. Never veal. Fuck that, never again after his daddy told him the story when he was seven, at the table, veal roasted with rosemary. How they were made. How the difference between veal and beef is the children. The veal are children.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker), Trevor’s Father
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3 Quotes

Trevor was into The Shawshank Redemption and Jolly Ranchers, Call of Duty and his one-eyed border collie, Mandy. Trevor who, after an asthma attack, said, hunched over and gasping, "I think I just deep-throated an invisible cock," and we both cracked up like it wasn't December and we weren't under an overpass waiting out the rain on the way home from the needle exchange. Trevor was a boy who had a name, who wanted to go to community college to study physical therapy. Trevor was alone in his room when he died, surrounded by posters of Led Zeppelin. Trevor was twenty-two. Trevor was.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:

One afternoon, while watching TV with Lan, we saw a herd of buffalo run, single file, off a cliff, a whole steaming row of them thundering off the mountain in Technicolor. "Why they die themselves like that?" she asked, mouth open. Like usual, I made something up on the spot: "They don’t mean to, Grandma. They’re just following their family. That's all. They don’t know it's a cliff,"

"Maybe they should have a stop sign then."

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker), Lan (speaker), Kyle (speaker), Kevin (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Buffalo
Page Number: 179-180
Explanation and Analysis:

I never did heroin because I’m chicken about needles. When I declined his offer to shoot it, Trevor, tightening the cell phone charger around his arm with his teeth, nodded toward my feet. "Looks like you dropped your tampon." Then he winked, smiled—and faded back into the dream he made of himself.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:

"Is it true though?" His swing kept creaking. "You think you'll be really gay, like, forever? I mean," the swing stopped, "I think me . . . I’ll be good in a few years, you know?"

I couldn't tell if by "really" he meant very gay or truly gay.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker)
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous LitChart as a printable PDF.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous PDF

Trevor Quotes in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

The On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous quotes below are all either spoken by Trevor or refer to Trevor. 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:
War, Trauma, and Abuse  Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

Afterward, lying next to me with his face turned away, he cried skillfully in the dark. The way boys do. The first time we fucked, we didn’t fuck at all.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:

“I can’t. I just—I mean…” He spoke into the wall. “I dunno. I don’t wanna feel like a girl. Like a bitch. I can’t man. I’m sorry, it’s not for me—“He paused, wiped his nose. “It’s for you. Right?”

Related Characters: Trevor (speaker), Little Dog
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t wanna, he said. His panting. His shaking hair. The blur of it. Please tell me I am not, he said through the sound of his knuckles as he popped them like the word But But But. And you take a step back. Please tell me I am not, he said, I am not

a faggot. Am I? Am I? Are you?

Trevor the hunter. Trevor the carnivore, the redneck, not

A pansy, shotgunner, sharpshooter, not fruit or fairy. Trevor meateater but not

veal. Never veal. Fuck that, never again after his daddy told him the story when he was seven, at the table, veal roasted with rosemary. How they were made. How the difference between veal and beef is the children. The veal are children.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker), Trevor’s Father
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3 Quotes

Trevor was into The Shawshank Redemption and Jolly Ranchers, Call of Duty and his one-eyed border collie, Mandy. Trevor who, after an asthma attack, said, hunched over and gasping, "I think I just deep-throated an invisible cock," and we both cracked up like it wasn't December and we weren't under an overpass waiting out the rain on the way home from the needle exchange. Trevor was a boy who had a name, who wanted to go to community college to study physical therapy. Trevor was alone in his room when he died, surrounded by posters of Led Zeppelin. Trevor was twenty-two. Trevor was.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:

One afternoon, while watching TV with Lan, we saw a herd of buffalo run, single file, off a cliff, a whole steaming row of them thundering off the mountain in Technicolor. "Why they die themselves like that?" she asked, mouth open. Like usual, I made something up on the spot: "They don’t mean to, Grandma. They’re just following their family. That's all. They don’t know it's a cliff,"

"Maybe they should have a stop sign then."

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker), Lan (speaker), Kyle (speaker), Kevin (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Buffalo
Page Number: 179-180
Explanation and Analysis:

I never did heroin because I’m chicken about needles. When I declined his offer to shoot it, Trevor, tightening the cell phone charger around his arm with his teeth, nodded toward my feet. "Looks like you dropped your tampon." Then he winked, smiled—and faded back into the dream he made of himself.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:

"Is it true though?" His swing kept creaking. "You think you'll be really gay, like, forever? I mean," the swing stopped, "I think me . . . I’ll be good in a few years, you know?"

I couldn't tell if by "really" he meant very gay or truly gay.

Related Characters: Little Dog (speaker), Trevor (speaker)
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis: