Values and Standards in Kushner's Angels in America Essays

When he was little his mom died, and his dad remarried to a woman named Thula. Thula did not like joe and she kicked him out when he was only ten years old. “She declared that she would not live under the same roof as joe, that Harry must choose between him and her. She said Joe would have to move out if she were to stay in a godforsaken place. Joe was only ten years old” (Brown 86,87). I never could understand how someone could kick a child out of the house and force them to live on their own when they are ten years old. As Joe grew up the more he needed his family, but his family was not there for him, at least not his biological family. When Joe made the rowing team that's the day that he got a new family, even if he did not know it at the time. So was Joyce, a beautiful girl who loved joe and they were going to get married and start a family of their own. “When joe stopped playing they talked about what it would be like when they were married and had a hoe and maybe kids” (Brown 102). Making the rowing team and meeting and falling in love with Joyce might have been the best thing that has ever happened to Joe. As soon as everything start going good for Joe, Thula gets an infection and dies. Not that it was a good thing that she died, it was very sad, but it brought Joe and his dad back together again. Harry wanted Joe to move back home with him and the kids. “I’m going to build a house where we can all live

Joe grows as a character throughout the book, his life began at a very young age when his mother Nellie died of throat cancer, this left Joe growing up without having a good mother figure in his life. Not only that, but Joe was also really sick at a young age by contracting scarlet fever. So he would be staying at his aunt Alma’s home, where he was raised as a young child. Later on when he turned five years old, he went to go back to living with Harry and his newly wedded wife Thula. “Harry Rantz packed his family into his Franklin touring car and headed northeast, to the mining camp where he had been working as a master mechanic for the past year.” (Brown 71). The longer Thula and Joe lived together, the bond between them

So he stands up for himself, which shows he is strong. Joe-Boy is a bad friend, he was teasing Vinny about the dead boy in the text it says “ Are you going to let your mom control your life or what”? And” you going to jump down and touch the dead boy’s face beneath the rock”. That shows that he is getting out of Vinny’s comfort zone, which makes him a mean friend.

Sunset Boulevard is a film noir movie that was released in 1950. When looked at, the main character Joe Gillis, portrayed by William Holden, can be seen as an anti-hero. Joe shows his anti-heroic behavior in many ways. For example, he is dishonest, he uses the people around him, and he also is only focused on elevating himself. One of the many examples of the dishonesty of Joe.

In the first chapters I have learned that Joe was dishonest and through his action and choices and this tells me this character cannot be trusted. One reason why Joe is dishonest, is that Joe told Mrs. Robinson (Jackie’s wife) and other people that he wasn't a time traveler even thought Joe was. Another reason is that when Joe got back from the journey Joe didn't tell his teacher that he went back in time Joe said he found it from the baseball cards and lied when he should have been honest although he didn't want people to know. The last reason why Joe is dishonest, is when Joe came back from the first time that he didn't tell his mom that he got chased down from the cops.

The focal purpose of the article ‘Americans get an ‘F’ in religion’ by Cathy Lynn Grossman is to explain how ignorant Americans are when it comes to other religions around the world and their own. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs; a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons and sects. Being ignorant to something as vital as religion scares the author of this article

As opposed to communicating his outrage he tries to avoid panicking. This is either an indication of incredible resilience or utter shortcoming. There, on the other hand, is a moment when Joe demonstrates that his pride has been harmed, to be specific when he leaves the coin under his wife's cushion in the wake of laying down with her. This is a sudden turn in an identity that is apparently unequipped for harming someone else. Anyhow who can accuse the poor man for he has seen his entire world go into disrepair after the treachery of his loved one. The integrity of his character is completely shown in his pardoning toward the end of the story.

Throughout most of the book, Joe’s one objective was to just live again. Joe realized that in order to live again he would need to master communication, but most important, time. “Oh god the Happy New Year, he had counted three hundred and sixty-five days and now it was New Year's Eve” (Trumbo 141). In order to live again, Joe needed to master time. It took him countless attempts but he finally got

R.E.M. ....Religious, educational and moral values. These are the three values that affect society today the most, I think. Society may look down on people if they do not live by what society thinks is correct. For example if a persons values are corrupt then society will look down on that person, but if a person has real high morals then society will think that they are fake of just a “goodie”. In society today you will be looked down anyway your moral beliefs are.

The act of defining religion has been a contentious issue in a wide variety of situations, particularly in the United States. The US is a nation that prides itself on religious inclusivity and freedom. There are consequences to this belief and tenant. Through the social, legal and moral structures of the United States, defining religion has become imperative. In The Impossibility of Religious Freedom, Winifred Sullivan outlines the legal implications of defining religion in the United States. In order for religious freedom to be protected by the American state, religion must be clearly defined. As a result, religious theory must be used to maintain some semblance of religious freedom in the United States. Likewise, Josh Dubler’s Down in

In Angels of America, Tony Kushner outlines the entire play with allegorical quotes from Harper. Specifically in act three, scene one, we see Harper appear in the scene where Joe and Louis are in bed together. During this confrontation, Harper says, “I see more than I want to see” (3.1). Looking at this scene from both a literal and figurative perspective, Harper claims to see things that she does not want to, leading her to understand it in a much higher manner. At this specific time in the play, Harper is talking about how she was looking at her husband and her husband’s lover in bed together. Just a few moments ago, Harper was telling Hannah how she was missing Joe and wanted him to come back. After seeing Joe with Louis in bed, Harper takes

Within modern society when a character strays away from what society depicts as morally right, the individual is frowned upon as if he or she doesn't belong. In “Angels in America” a gay fantasia on National themes, characters struggle to be themselves upon fear of whether or not society will accept them as an individual. The characters not only struggles with whether or not society will accept them, but they also struggle with their inner demons, and ultimately the question of what is truly good or evil. In this paper several characters will be analyzed and discussed from several different viewpoints.

Joe is definitely not comfortable with his homosexuality. His marriage to Harper confirms his closeted-ness. In act two when Joe comes out to Harper, he flat out tells

A sequence of events leads up to Joe becoming almost completely isolated from the outside world. During his time in the isolated continent, Joe becomes addicted to narcotics; he escapes his pain and anguish by succumbing to detached and paralyzed state of mind. Throughout his journey in this secluded continent, he is faced with his hatred of the Germans and his desire to enact vengeance upon them for all that he has lost. When he meets a German geologist exploring the frozen tundra, he inadvertently kills him. Joe experiences ironic feelings of remorse after so many years spent obsessing over the destruction of the Germans. There was no gratification or fulfillment, for Joe, in the German man’s death. Joe felt repulsed and an abhorrence in himself for his

Because of these changes in emotion and attitude that have occurred in both Joe and Violet, Joe feels that he needs to find a way to re-sensitize himself to emotion: As he describes to Malvonne in the apartment, it is the quiet that he cannot take with Violet, he is “just hoping for a lady friend. Somebody to talk to” (49, 46). Joe needs to express himself to someone, but Violet is not letting Joe do that. The narrator describes Joe’s lover as being “Joe’s personal sweet—like candy” (120). Candy, though, as Joe describes in a totally separate incident, “is something you lick, suck on, and then swallow and it’s gone” (122). By providing the image of Dorcas as the temporary candy, Morrison shows how the relationship is not what Joe believes it to be. Yet, Joe wants to convince himself that his affair with Dorcas is more than the transient taste of a peppermint stick, and as he describes in his speech to himself, “This was something else. More like blue water and white flowers and sugar in the air” (122). Joe wants to have a deep relationship with Dorcas—a relationship where he can talk with her and share his feelings, but it is just his mind fooling him into this belief that the relationship is built around a deep bond.