Angels In America Themes

The narrator is caught between his freedom and success in Paris and his past, marred by racism, which he is again about to confront. Using the flashback episode as an example of what he expects on his return, the narrator details the horrible feelings of helplessness and hatred generated by racist behavior. His family in the United States experienced prejudice firsthand and it damaged them forever. His father 's and sister 's lives were destroyed by racism, and the narrator escaped to France to avoid the same fate. Now famous, he must come to terms with his expatriate status, and find a way for his son to live without the same scars of racism.

This gives the audience many altered ways that they, personally, can interpret the play from. Allowing for many different opinions on a single passage whether they may be relevant or not. Out of many different perspectives, Marxist, has an important part within the play, separating the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ classes, creating a divide between the stereotype white people and the archetypal black culture. This perspective plays a vital role, beginning at the very start of the play right through till the closing stages. It sets the scene, making the divide between the two ‘different’ cultures, in which over the course of the play, slowly gets bridged with the uncovering of the forgotten stories, told by the Aboriginal Ex-servicemen. Bringing men closer together through the hard times that they had endured together. As the text starts, it begins with an easy to spot, element of Marxism, pushed by the white Vs Black component in the early stages of the book, with name calling and bullying. As the text continues, the element of Marxism is still present but less obvious, with the uncovering of lost and untold stories which bring the segregation between the two cultures of white and black, stereotype and archetype to an

The play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, takes issue with those in America who place too much stress upon material gain, at the expense of other, more admirable human values. Miller uses flashbacks to provide exposition, to foreshadow the upcoming tragedy, and most importantly to reveal character traits. An analysis of the main character, Willy Loman, illustrates the underlying theme that the concern over material success breaks down the bonds between men that form the basis of a smooth-functioning society.

     “Fallen Angels”, written by Walter Dean Myers, is a novel that tells about the story of young boys going into battle during the Vietnam War. There are many themes in “Fallen Angels” but the main theme is the loss of innocence. The title makes reference to these themes. And the boys in the book have dreams of losing their virginity and drinking alcohol for the first time. They are thrown into a harsh reality when they are shown the trials of war. In the end, they understand that the movies that depict heroicness and honor are just images of a false idea; that war is full of chaos and horror.

Prisoners of the Holocaust spoke not only of religious faith disintegrating, but also how their faith in humanity depleted. Wiesel recounts how one prisoner said, “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (77). The only person that the prisoners can put any of their trust into is the one who is slowly killing them. Another instance of loss of faith in humanity is when Wiesel witnesses the son of a rabbi he knew run away from his father. The son tries to escape his dying father so that he no longer has to take care of him and can selfishly live on. After watching this Wiesel finds himself praying to a god he no longer believes in, “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me the strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” (87). No matter how tough it is to go on, Wiesel will not give up. He will continue to live through the miserable conditions of the Holocaust just so that he does not give up on his father, the only person he has faith left

In 1949, Arthur Miller wrote a play called “The Death Of a Salesman”. This play is known for its compelling view on the mind of the middle class working man. The characters in “The Death of a Salesman” all have various dimensions of development throughout the story. These characters can all be seen as components one collective mind using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory; the Oedipal, Id, Ego, and Superego. These characters all strive for success by way of the American Dream and all of it’s inconsistent factors and betrayal that personify it so well.

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

The Medal of Honor is a very prestigious award to receive. The Medal of Honor is the highest U.S. military decoration for heroism. In Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, heroism is shown vastly among the characters. Heroism is described as great bravery. Perry, Peewee, and Lieutenant showed the most heroism in and off of the field.

Themes are fundamental and sometimes universal ideas that are explored in literary work. The loss of innocence is one of the different themes of Fallen Angels. The title of the novel immediately emphasizes the theme of innocence and youth. As Lieutenant Carroll explains in Chapter 4, all soldiers are “angel warriors,” because most of the soldiers are still young boys and still as innocent as angels. By naming the novel Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers suggests that the soldiers’ innocence and youth are some of the most important aspects and can be more important than their religion, ethnicity, class, or race. The novel is foremost a tale of a loss of innocence in a squad of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Richie enters Vietnam at seventeen years old, and the other members of the squad including Peewee are also teenagers. Peewee is incapable of growing a mustache. His three life goals are to drink wine from a corked bottle, smoke a cigar, and become in love with a foreign woman. Both Richie and Lobel are virgins, and they fantasize about their first sexual experiences.

In The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara fictionally illustrates the historical facts of the battle at Gettysburg. Shaara gives action and words to characters of another time, and then places these players on the stage of this great battle. Through the use of powerful biblical and non-biblical imagery and themes the epic nature of the battle at Gettysburg and its characters are enhanced. Such imagery and themes, combined with Shaara's fictionalization, help to contribute to why this single battle holds such monumental significance and influence upon the lives of Americans over a century removed from its occurrence.

Walter Dean Myers historical novel, Fallen Angels takes place in Vietnam during the war. The main character Perry, recently enlisted in the army, to fight in the Vietnam war. Perry could not afford to go to college because of his rough childhood in Harlem, also growing up with no dad. He faces many problems throughout war even when he is homesick for his family in the beginning. One of the closest warriors and his bestfriend he finds in the army is Peewee a very experienced veteran who is a great leader. Perry and his fellow warriors have to fend off the Vietnamese and use determination to win the war. The theme expressed in this story is that personal experiences enable people to mature.

The next tone is the perceived attitude toward the protagonist, Phoenix Jackson. She is an obvious representative elder of her tribe with her brash personality and particular wardrobe. The leading character’s crippled lifestyle seeks reader’s mercy. Eventually, her true compassion highlights virtues of humility and devotion for a moral cause of life and death. This overbearing attitude automatically wins favor in the eyes of any

Rabbi Chemelwitz says in his eulogy (Millennium) that the "Great Voyages" of the past no longer exist. Does the play bear out the truth of his belief or not? If not, what are the new great voyages?

…to have and to hold, from this day forwards, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. These are the standard wedding vows and though, they are a married couple, these vows still play a role in any serious relationship. It is the promise of two people that they will be there, no matter what happens. However, things happen and, suddenly, that promise turns into a broken agreement. For instance, in the play Angels in America written by Tony Kushner, the character Louis leaves Prior because he has a terminal illness: AIDS. Therefore, their vow breaks the stable relationship. While the illness can break a vow, it can form one. In the musical movie version of Rent directed by Chris Columbus,

“Angels in America” is a highly dramatic piece that deals with the AIDS crisis in New York, and the lives that are impacted directly