Because we spent last Monday talking about particular relationships, we wanted this time to focus on individual characters. For your comment, please focus on a singular person You can choose someone you find most interesting, someone you most identify with, or maybe someone you strongly dislike. Once you've settled on someone, answer this question in your post: What is queer about this character?
Please consider both the literal and metaphorical ways you can answer this question. For instance, it's obvious that characters like Louis and Prior might be identified as queer because of their sexuality, but in what other ways do they exceed -- somehow -- the bounds of the conventional ways of living? Do they transcend gender stereotypes? Do they resist heterosexist oppression? Is there something in how they dress, speak, or interact with others? Be creative and take us to a specific place in our reading to support your response! Maybe think about including what Jagose would say of your character if you find it particularly relevant.
See you all on Monday!
A+G
Throughout the book, I took interest in Louis. He seems to be certain, but he does not seem to be able to express how he feels. In scene four, when Louis and Joe are having sex, Louis decides not to continue the act. Louis states "I'm afraid, now, maybe for the first time, really... um, scared. Because I don't want to be sick. I want to live now. Maybe for the first time ever" (Kushner, 206). As the reader, interpret it as him wanting to reveal his identity so he could be more content in his life. This seems to be one of the climatic events in the story. Louis then goes to Prior. Louis was not straight forward and Prior claiming his prophetic title was able to sense his relationship with another man. Louis admits to his relationship, but only when Prior is able to discover it. It shows how Louis is uncomfortable coming out wanting to hide the truth, but ends up revealing it because he cannot hide his true feelings.
ReplyDeleteArguably, Louis is queer because he struggles to come out in the face of heterosexual oppression. We know through Queer Theory that the term itself can refer to gay movements for equality, although not always proven to be successful. Even with certain people left out, it still does not take away from the fact that those people still struggled with a sense of belonging in the face of heterosexual oppression. In the same way, Louis struggles to find out his true identity, despite him discovering who he truly is. I believe he wants to fight oppression, that people in gay communities face, but he is trying to find a sense of belonging so he can relate. This could explain why he is so jumbled most of time, trying to fit in with traditional values or uprising prominent cultures. In a society where there is the idea of an ideal person, people often forget how they truly feel. I see this in Louis.
ReplyDeleteWhat is so queer about Roy? On paper, he’s the perfect American man, a lawyer, “the high priests of America”. Of course, we know, and a selected few characters know, that Roy's orientation is indeed, queer. Roy himself if interesting in that, like Joe, he is inherently homophobic. He hates how he is dying, and he is so ashamed of it he lies to himself and the entire American public about AIDS taking his life. One particular scene between Belize and Roy shows Roy’s disgust of himself and everything he views in life as “queer”. He can’t accept his queerness even on his deathbed. Roy becomes irate when Belize asks for his AZT meds that keep him alive, ones that he has too much of, he has shown how greedy he stays even in death.
Belize brings in Roy later, while she is talking to Louis, she says, “I’ll show you America. Terminal, crazy, and mean”. Isn’t that what he stands for? He has made queer his definition of America however, as he is now everything he doesn’t believe America should be.
Shockingly, he can’t accept the people in his life who are queer either. Joe, a man he called his son, admits that he was with a man. What does Roy do? He tells him he should go back to his wife, he lets his infected blood run and he hits Joe, taking one of the last people who actually cares about him out of his life. What I cant answer about this, however, is if this was done with love for Joe by Roy, or if it was done out of hate for what being with a man has done to Roy.
One thing I’d also like to discuss later is how Roy comes in with “hold” and he leaves with “hold”. His character and how we view him has changed dramatically however, from the image of the perfect American lawyer to a man living and dying with hate and a lie.
I decided to talk about Harper because I feel she lives a very unconventional life in light of her Mormon roots. I see a lot of purposelessness and lack of motivation to move on or try to face her problems, and in a way I can relate. She interacts with characters in the play in a very strange manner; when she speaks to strangers, she communicates with as much openness and honesty as she would with people she knows. She wears her “emotional problems” on her sleeves and doesn’t mind what others think of her. Harper doesn’t seem to know how to take care of herself, even though she’s already an adult. It’s evident she’s always been like this when Joe’s opening up to Harper about being homosexual; he says, “I think I believed when I met you I could save you.” It’s not only the people close to her that find her to be a bit strange; upon their second meeting in the screening room, Prior is shocked and doubts Harper’s religion. Though speaking with her for a few moments, he realizes she is an anomaly to her ancestors of Utah.
ReplyDeleteWhile Harper is within her gender stereotypes and does not (to my knowledge) stray from heterosexuality, she lives a nonconventional, if not self-destructive, lifestyle. Harper harbors some serious issues from her family history and her relationship was just as damaging for her as her counterpart. I don’t know what Jagose has to say about people who dabble with addiction or emotional distress/disorders, but Harper comes off as a dependent and dysfunctional character, and I find her comforting and likable.
After reading the next few sections in Angels in America I struggled with picking just one character that was queer in their ways of living and how they essentially are queer from more than just a sexuality stance. However, in this section the one character that interested me the most was Belize. I feel that Belize is the most genuine compared to the others yet his role in society also creates this odd separation between who he is and how he perceives notions of being an American citizen.
ReplyDeleteBelize is much more prevalent in this section and is there for Prior when he feels alone but, in a way, is there also for Roy Cohn despite Roy’s verbal abuse and rude demeanor. Belize is very queer in the fact that he is a homosexual ex-drag queen turned into male nurse; this in and of itself breaks all sorts of societal norms to begin with. What I think though that is exceptionally different about Belize is his ability to be outspoken on his American ideals and opinions on what America as a country is like. He explains this to Louis when they are having a discussion on love. He explains, “Well I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. It’s just big ideas, stories, and people dying, and people like you…You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I’ll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean” (Kushner 230). Belize is always extremely political and takes on an opposing viewpoint to American exceptionalism using AIDS as a platform to argue how it is not the greatest country in the world. He ultimately is using the example of Roy Cohn as a symbol of true American identity. He argues that if individuals would open their eyes and see the disasters of AIDS and what is happening to American citizens they too would feel the same way. This political viewpoint is different and important to Kushner’s commentary on AIDS, justice, and sexuality in American culture.
I wanted to focus on the character of Roy Cohn because I think his character resembles the examples Jagose gave in her chapter about “Theorising Same-Sex Desire.” She points out that there is “a crucial distinction between homosexual behavior, which is ubiquitous, and homosexual identity. A lot of queer theory considers notions of labeling, especially when it comes to sexuality. Roy Cohn is an interesting character in that he completely rejects labels society would try and place on him. In Act 1 scene 9 he shouts at his doctor, “Roy Cohn is not a homosexual. Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man, Henry, who fucks around with guys.” In a way, this line of thinking follows queer theory’s resistance to narrowly defined labels around sexuality.
ReplyDeleteI also see a link to queer theory and labeling with what Roy says to his doctor in the same scene, “like all labels, they tell you one thing and one thing only: where does an individual fit in the food chain, in the pecking order?” While Jagose never mentioned anything about labels telling us where a person was in the social pecking order, in her book on Queer Theory she does point out that labels around sexuality only tell us one thing: the gender of the person someone desires. These labels tell us nothing about the kind of sex a person has, if it is monogamous or promiscuous, or what type of a person they are.
While I think Roy’s main reason for resisting labels is that he seeks power above all else, he makes a very “queer” point in his argument about labels. Society puts labels on people and those labels tell you next to nothing about the person they are labeling. While Roy clearly embraces heterosexuality as his outer label, I think in some ways he also resists binaries of what it means to be hetero/homosexual by refusing to belong fully to either category. I think this kind of resistance to sexual binaries is what ultimately makes Roy Cohn’s character very queer.
So way back in August at the start of this class, we talked about how we perceive the definition of queer. One of the things mentioned was that AIDS activism played a large role in reclaiming the word. I thought this connection was interesting while reading Angels in America. While reflecting on how the play is queer in any sense of the term that has been discussed in class or from Jagose’s theory book, I would say in a lot of ways the whole play is queer in reexamining identities and language at the start of the rise of AIDS. During our class discussion of post-structuralism we talked about how there is a structure of understanding of culture and language and that universal structure doesn’t work, so the term queer evolved and a new concept surrounding it emerged. I can see this for Prior’s character in the play. He and Louis identify as a certain way, but this starts to change at the funeral in the beginning as they listen to the story of Louis’s grandmother, and Prior admits to being sick. Prior is queer in the literal sense of the word, but also he evolves into a queering of his identity as his illness progresses, his life is changing, and he becomes a Prophet. There are no longer stereotypes or labels that explain him or his life, no neat identity because he doesn’t even understand why he is a prophet. He becomes a key player in the writing of the history of his community and his illness, or at least I think that’s what he symbolizes and how he queers them both. In scene 8 Hannah tells Prior "An angel is a belief. With wings and arms that can carry you. If it let's you down, reject it." This could apply to many beliefs in Prior's life that are changing.
ReplyDeleteThe character I find most interesting is Roy. Roy seems to be the villain of the play and is constantly cursing and being racist towards others. At times Roy even seems very homophobic and in general angry at the world. He claims that he works harder than everyone and is very arrogant and cocky towards others even despite his illness and hospitalization. What interests me about Roy and what I think is “queer” about Roy’s character is that despite his homophobia and anti-Semitism he is a homosexual and he is Jewish. I am not sure if Roy has serious self hate, or has a thick protective layer around him at all times, or is he simply a grumpy old dying bastard? He also receives joy from killing Ethel and constantly bullies his protégé Joe and is very racist towards Belize yet oddly enough Ethel is constantly watching him, Belize still helps to take care of him and Joe still visits him. Roy is definitely a villain without any sentiment, however he is still very complex and interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character would have to be Joe. He is just so complicated. First of all he is a Mormon. Mormon's believe that being gay is wrong and that if you have feelings for the same gender you are suppose to suppress it. That is what Joe has been doing until he is confronted about and he finally says that he is homosexual. He leaves his wife and then starts a relationship with Louis. This relationship is complicated because Louis still loves Prior but Joe believes he is in love with Louis. I think Joe is Queer because he is living in this limbo of being a homosexual, a mormon, and married. He believes in being happy but also accepting that the world is not always as easy as we think it is, "By being thoroughly in the world but not in it". He is Queer in the way of his thinking. In using this term it encompasses everything that Joe is. He also encompasses the way of his thinking he believes in being happy and apart of the world but also living for ones self. He is so complex and Queer.
ReplyDeleteHarper is an interesting character. I believe she is queer. She may no bet queer in the sense that she does not identify as lesbian. But she is queer in the way that she eccentric. She is constantly struggling to stay in reality. She is one of the characters who spends a lot of time in her hallucinations. However, i think she is content to stay in those hallucinations. Her life is not what she wants it to be. But in her hallucinations she knows everything that she needs to know. She is stronger in her hallucinations than in her life.
ReplyDeleteI have not had a very fond view of Roy throughout the book. He comes off as a person that cannot be trusted and who is only interested in himself. His character is portrayed as the typical power hungry big city wealthy white man. When he is diagnosed with AIDS, his façade of the intimidating and all powerful is put in danger of being uncovered. In the early stages of the diagnosis Roy is comfortable with using his power to ensure that the news of his illness will not make it out to anyone. Belize realizes that Roy has managed to obtain an extremely limited medication, and he has more than he would ever need even if he could live with the illness for a decade more. Though as Roy’s condition continues to deteriorate, we are seeing a change in his character as he is forced to come to terms with his own mortality. With the deterioration of his condition, I think that Roy will expose himself to hold queer values.
ReplyDeleteAs a class we have struggled with the definition of queer and we have all come to our own understanding of the term queer. There have been many strong feelings towards the appropriation of the term queer as a fear of it being distanced from communities that have been oppressed by in our homophobic society and gender binary structures. I do not think that Roy’s identity could ever be defined as “queer” because he has obtained too much power throughout his life by closeting up his love affairs and manipulating relationships. On the other hand I do think that Kushner is trying to complicate Roy’s character to show that even those with immense privilege and power are oppressed by the gender binary and homophobia. Roy’s conscious is taunted by his past and the wrongs that he did as a lawyer. Though he believes himself to hold a strong sense of reality, he is regularly visited by the ghost of Ethel. She is his only remaining companion even though he committed serious crimes as a lawyer when he was prosecuting her. He also continues to show his fatherly love and affection for Joe, but he doesn’t know how to respond when Joe comes out to him. It seems to me that Roy is the bridge that connects homophobic and oppressive power players who represent a large part of the US and those fighting for the acceptance of queer politics and the LGBTQ community.
I identify the most with Belize and his own relationship with the concept of queerness. Belize’s exhibition of queerness does not stop with his adoption of the “gay male” identity. In fact, Belize’s choice to identify as a black gay male queers him even further.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between blackness and gayness is often reminiscent of oil and water; both do not mix well. Belize’s black queer discourse diverges from the white gay male discourses that dominate gay/queer identity. However, this analysis is merely surface level. The queering of Belize’s racial identity becomes more clear and apparent in the racially-charged relationships that Belize shares with both Roy—who does not refrain from calling him racial slurs—and Louis—who refuses to acknowledge the societal impact of Belize’s choice to (re)claim his ethnicity.
Belize’s tumultuous association with Roy exemplifies Belize’s tendency to stray away from what is expected of him. In Scene Six, Belize gives crucial advice to Roy, who refuses to listen to him. Based on the racial epithets that Roy has thrown at Belize throughout the book, the reader may expect Belize to avenge his own dignity by getting even with Roy; however, he ignores Roy’s desperate anger and says, “Consider it solidarity. One faggot to another” (Kushner 154-155).
His dysfunctional friendship with Louis further indicates Belize’s queerness. Although he challenges the construct of gender by referring to Louis as “Girlfriend,” Louis refuses to transcend racial barriers with him. For example, after being told that “it’s not really about race,” Belize mocks Louis’ homonationalism by saying, “‘America’ is what Louis loves…I hate this country…The white cracker who wrote the National Anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word “free” to a note so high nobody can reach it…Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me” (Kushner 96, 130).
From my personal perspective, I can easily identify with Belize due to the fact that we are both black individuals who do not identify as straight. Consequently, we diverge from the “norms” that are perpetuated within American society and emulated by gay discourse. The queering of Belize in Angels in America is crucial to both the character development within the play and the development of my relationship with queerness.