As Berkshire now goes onto its second night of performing the Normal Heart one can see why a school would choses to perform such an incredible, beautiful and heart wrenching play. There is much to learn from Kramer’s work: fear, courage, family and love. Today the play, which first daybued in 1985 still has meaning and content that anyone can learn from. While the Normal Heart does not have the answer to how to help oneself or group of friends about discriminations against minorities, Krammer does teach the most important thing to do is stay as a united front and do not let any adversities hold you down.
Larry Kramer wrote The Normal Heart as a way to express his feeling for the discrimination of gay men during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
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The characters in his story are real men who either died or fought for those who did die during the AIDs crisis in 1981. While I struggled with fully connecting with most of the characters due to the fact that I have never been faced with an issue so large. An issue so large that in the first year of the outbreak there were 121 reported deaths among gays. The character I can relate to the most is the main character: Ned. The reason I found myself being able to stand in Ned’s shoes is due to is undying will to win. Ned gave up everything to fight for a cause that had no cure. He gave up even his friends who were to scared to fight with him. Even though I have not found something that I am will to give everything in my life up for; including my friends. “You are on a colossal ego trip we must be curtail. To manipulate fear, as you have done repeatedly in your ‘merchandising’ of the epidemic, is to us a gesture of barbarism… In accordance with our by-laws drawn up by Weeks, Frankel, Levinstein, Mr. Ned Weeks is hereby removed as a director.” (Kramer 111-112) Ned is left by his peers who had supported his cause. I understood Ned’s role as a character more than any of the others, because if you are going to support something you believe in why who wouldn't give up
The book Black Hearts is written by Jim Frederick and tells the story of all the controversial accounts one infantry unit ran into while on deployment in Baghdad, Iraq. The book is a documentation, captured accounts and events written down to tell the crazy story these soldiers went through. The specific unit Frederick writes about and what Black Hearts is about is 2nd brigade of the 101st airborne infantry division. “Black Hearts” was the unofficial insignia of 2nd brigade. Frederick covers one platoon in particularly and their ethical dilemmas they encounter while on deployment. 1st platoon, Bravo Company, 1-502nd Regiment is the unit the book covers. Many things on deployment unfold poorly for this platoon such as having little
Killing Lincoln depicts the last few weeks of President Lincoln’s life. It was written by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. They have wrote many books together including Killing Jesus and Killing Jesus. In the narrative the viewpoint moves from main character to main character. It first starts out with Lincoln and talks about His presidency during the Civil War and accounts of his time touring the country. It also get to the viewpoint of Ulysses S Grant during the end of the Civil War. We also hear John Wilkes Booth’s point of view.
The nonfiction book, There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz attempts to awaken the reader’s sense of outrage that children are made to suffer needlessly. The author conveys this message through the lives of two boys, Lafeyette and Pharoah, surviving in the Henry Horner Homes which is a public housing unit with crime and neglect. In the Preface, the author explains how he met Lafeyette and Pharoah. He explains he met these two boys through writing an interview for a friend doing a photo essay. Though Kotlowitz interviewed over ten children, Lafayette's description of violence unnerved him. He spoke in terms of “if he grew up” rather than “when he grew up.” He wasn’t sure he would make it to adulthood. Also, he explains that the title comes from the boy’s mother. When asked if he could interview her children, LaJoe replies “but you know, there are no children here. They’ve seen too much to be children.”
Some Kind of Courage, is written for children between fifth and eighth grade in terms of
Spike Lee's comic drama show Do the Right Thing appeared in film theaters all across America on June 30, 1989, A business achievement that has gotten various honors, for example, an institute grant for 'Best Original Screenplay. ' Do the Right Thing recounts the tale of the becoming racial strain between a neighborhood's African-American dominant part and Caucasian minority on what was considered to be the warmest day of the year. The film includes actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Lawrence and even Spike Lee hmself. They have multiple discussions about racial and social issues that are still occurring in the present day. Spike Lee's creation was considered "socially critical" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1999. To have a clear
It demonstrates that even without juridical discrimination; hate speech, lowered expectations, and dismissive behavior can have devastating effects on achievement. Black members of the blue-eyed group forcefully remind whites that they undergo similar stresses, not just for a few hours in a controlled experiment, but every day of their lives. Although these concepts are food for thought… they are merely preludes to the main course. The most important lesson to be learned here is that just one person can make a difference. Next we join a group of 40 teachers, police, school administrators and social workers in Kansas City - blacks, Hispanics, whites, women and men.
Both “The Right of Love” by Gene Lees and “The Canonization” by John Donne represent a form of forbidden love due to ethnicity and religion where both parties are fighting for the acceptance of their relationship. Donne, although catholic, falls in love with a non-catholic woman which is looked down upon by others. In his poem he states, “we in us find th’ eagle and the dove”,the two birds represent two polar opposite symbols, the eagle represent strength and courage, while a dove represents love and peace. Although a relationship between catholics and non-catholics were forbidden, they found a common ground in their love for each other. Differences can strengthen the love between two individuals, which is also shown in “The Right of Love”,
This paper provides a brief summary of the novel Beautiful Boy by David Sheff (2008) that shows life of his son’s struggling drug addiction through the eyes of a helpless father. This paper also expands on the notion of how substance abuse and addiction are represented per several factors – individual, social, cultural and economic, as well as what instances/occurrences may have played a significant role in the development of substance and alcohol addiction Nic, the individual at risk, the circumstances that may have led David to acknowledge his son’s substance abuse problem, and what factors facilitate recovery. In addition, this paper covers the book’s application to the social work practice, including direct social work
The family is faced with conflicts, particularly amongst the siblings as they seek to establish whose dream is superior. It becomes more difficult for Lena to make the right decision in the midst of the conflict because her wish is to please everyone. The play is about the black family that struggles with racial prejudice and economic hardship. The underlying importance of the play is in the way it shows the value of dreams, importance of family, and racial discrimination.
When a person grows up, they are in constant search of their identity, of who they are. Yet, the identity of a person is too complex for anyone to form assumptions about it because it involves more than one factor. The assumptions themselves may be insulting to others who has experienced the truth of their marginalized group. According to the poem Nikki-Rose by Nikki Giovanni, “I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me” (73). People can never enter the minds of others, they can only speculate from what they have seen or heard. Giovanni states that she does not want anyone to write about her, which shows that she believes they will not receive correct information. People may have honest
Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what
creates a play that illustrates not only the struggle of growing up in a prejudiced world but also
Life is full of loss and you cannot avoid experiencing it and well as sorrow. As people grow up they come to realize that the world is not as it seemed to be when they were younger. They get more independent and their perspective of life changes. They will have to realize that they are not going to live forever. In the short story The Hurt Man, written by Wendell Berry and published in 2003, we meet Mat who learns all of this.
Albert Maltz’ The Happiest Man on Earth is written about a man named Jesse who has walked from Missouri to Oklahoma to try and get a job from his brother-in-law, Tom. In the story, Jesse and his family were going through the Great Depression. Since Jesse is unemployed, he needs to quickly find a job order to feed his family from becoming even more destitute than they already were. Ultimately, after Jesse’s relentless determination to get the job, Tom finally acquiesces despite the high mortality rate and the potential dangers that Jesse will face.
The playwright was trying to get quite a few messages when he created this play. First of all, I believe he was trying to show social change and the power and potential that an individual has inside of them, despite their circumstances. I think that this play/movie reveals the true messiness of life and how with the right mindset, you can make it through anything you