Hallucinations and Reason in Angels in America In Tony Kushner’s celebrated play, Angels in America, he addresses a modern social issue through a magical realist narrative. His invocation of magical realist elements into the ordinary, such as Angels and paralleled hallucinations, allows the reader to observe the dynamics shared between characters that would otherwise be unassociated with one another. During the mid 1980’s an increased presence of the gay community in mainstream society was poorly timed with the outbreak of AIDS, drawing many to come to the conclusion that the gay community was the sole contributor of the problem. The play serves as a response to this time in America. A conservative regime controlled the government, contrasting
In Angels in America this covers the taboos of sexual identity. There were two couples in this story. One was a man and a woman. The other was man and a man. In the man and the woman, the woman named Harper was having doubts about her partner’s sexual identity.
Sullivan tests the limits with his use of one of the three appeals. Basing a majority of his essay off of Pathos, he makes you sympathize with homosexuals young and old –as old as they get –alike. He emphasizes growing up homosexual, the lonely, shaded path many young homosexuals take dodging back and forth between masks, masking the light of their true, internal selves. The more in depth he goes into his writing, the more his tone shifts from sad and reminiscent of the trials he faced to more accepting and empowering for who he really is. He uses a beautifully twisted symbolism to discuss the short life span of homosexuals.
• Elegy is also considered an epic poem: ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events • In the elegy, mention of Mercutio was left out and positive comments of Romeo’s behaviour, believed that Benvolio was homosexual. • Situation: Mercutio and Tybalt verbally and physically fight, resulting in the deaths. • Importance of passage: scene is considered the turning point of the play because it is where Romeo becomes exiled and the plan created by the Friar and the deaths come into play. • Structure: Component of elegy: dactylic hexameter followed by dactylic pentameter, with iambic pentameter for the second stanza/paragraph (from line 165) • Dactylic hexameter: meter used in an elegy, for the first line. Follows this pattern: — U | — U | — U | — U | — u u | — X (note that — is a long syllable, u a short syllable and U either one long or two shorts and X is an ancep (long) syllable).
The characters represent the jaded American dream, and the kind of lives, standards and tensions within which the immigrant population found themselves living. Whilst not explicitly about race, Williams has developed a setting, culture and characters affected by racial prejudice. Williams believed that people are doomed to suffer from despair and mistrust. He said that 'we are all savages at heart' (Williams, T. (1959), Foreword to A Streetcar Named Desire, Penguin), and he certainly presents this notion through his characters, whose sexual instincts plays large part in their flawed identities and their personal downfalls. Sexuality plays a key role throughout: Williams' homosexuality perhaps influenced his interpretation of these characters.
For Gay Marriage Andrew Sullivan’s article “For Gay Marriage” is an excerpted from Sullivan’s 1995 book, Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality, and reprinted by Behrens and Rosen (404 – 407). This paper provides a summary of Sullivan’s controversial article on this timely and long-fought civil rights issue. “For Gay Marriage” highlights the moral, philosophical and legal arguments surrounding the issue of denying marriage to homosexual and lesbian Americans. More importantly, it highlights the moral, philosophical and legal arguments in favor of gay marriage, which Sullivan clearly supports. Although Sullivan clearly supports gay marriage, his article is an insightful piece that provides a respectful look at various views of this philosophically and emotionally-charged subject, while providing a sound intellectual argument in favor of gay marriage.
History Boys Essay – Second Draft ‘Heterosexuality and homosexuality are a type of psychosis and the truth is somewhere in the middle’ Evaluate Bennett’s comic and philosophical approaches to sexuality in The History Boys It can be argued that homosexuality is a state of mind which implies either the temporariness of it or it being a conscious decision, however sexuality could also be central to the way you behave; an unconscious aspect of your identity that acts as a clear indication to others to how you are sexually inclined. In the History Boys, sexuality is a running theme that is seen more prominently in the characters of Dakin, Irwin and Posner, the latter being the only one who is ‘open’ with his sexuality, whereas there is a great deal of ambiguity when it comes to deciphering the sexuality of the others. This could be intended by Bennett to show that sexuality is not a fixed state but in fact quite fluid depending on the people you meet as you grow as a person. Through the analysis of Dakin we see the representation of most heterosexual teenage boys in the way he talks about Fiona in his conceit calling her his ‘western front’ indicating she is a territory to be taken over. This clearly presents his heterosexual lust for her; he also refers to her as ‘the Hun’ indicating that she is the enemy so as to speak, and is standing in between his ‘further deployments’ portraying how superficial his love for Fiona is, as he is obviously disappointed with her not allowing him to advance and is more concerned for his own needs.
Milk, Gus Van Sant 1a) The film Milk portrays an important political history in America against the homosexuals in the 1970’s, seeing this film and the struggles that homosexuals had to fight for their human rights and political equality makes myself, who’s not sensitive about the issue, change my political sensibilities. 2a) -1 The ignorance about homosexuality has become more exposed as they described that being gay could get them fired, beaten up, or even killed. -2 To plan on having to root out every homosexual, simply describes a person who is insecure and cannot accept homosexuality. -3 A debate regarding the Proposition 6 between Supervisor Harvey Milk and Senator John Briggs indicates that Proposition 6 is more on hating the gays, rather than the concern for the children they are “trying” to protect. 3a) -1 When the homosexuals along with the heterosexuals were rioting for their social and political view.
However, the debate still rages throughout the world on the legitimacy of gay marriage, particularly in the United States of America where there is a large conservative and religiously fundamental community. In his essay, “For Gay Marriage,” Andrew Sullivan believes that marriage is a “public contract between...two people,” (266) no matter what each person’s sexual orientation happens to be. He considers legalizing gay marriage a step towards equality among all people. Conversely, William J. Bennett, in “Against Gay Marriage”, argues that sanctioning gay marriage would harm the tradition of marriage, and bring chaos to humanity. This essay will attempt to establish that, compared to Bennett, Sullivan provides the reader with the more complete and sincere argument backed with valid assumptions and an effective use of literary devices.
What causes people to fear or loath homosexuals? Do they fear inner feelings that they hide from the rest of the world, or is it simply the case that society has warped their fragile minds into believing that gays are a threat? Michael Kimmel starts off his article “Masculinity as Homophobia” by stating “The great secret of American manhood is: we are afraid of other men.” Men always try to be better then other men, tougher then other men, it gives them a sense of superiority. To me, all this ties into the society version of the “Alpha male”. Even in ancient times, the men that were the strongest got the best of everything.