What does Kushner propose about religious/personal standards, and are those standards valuable or do they cause difficulties? Many people today have a set of religious or personal standards that has aided them in obtaining their goals. However, there are many others who do their best to live up to those standards of perfection but end up living miserable lives. This essay will discuss the possible standards of Joe and Roy implied in the play, “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, while discussing how they can be both valuable and questionable.
Kushner implies that religious ideals act as guidelines for those who follow them. He brings this point across with the character called Joe. A Mormon who has used those religious standards to fight off the “wrong or ugly” and has modified his behavior to what is “decent” or “Correct” (Angels in America pg. 40). Joe also talks about the picture where “Jacob wrestles with the angel,” Kushner mentions this to propose that Joe is Jacob and he is fighting with the flesh or something that isn't part of his religious ideals. Joe goes on to say that “losing means your soul thrown down in the dust, your heart torn out from God's,” which means that losing or in other words giving into temptation goes against those ideals (Angels in America pg. 49). Kushner conveys that religious ideals or ultimate goals that assist as a sort of road map to guide people the right way so they may be able to live happier lives.
Kushner also proposes another side to those same religious standards that he discusses throughout the play. As a Mormon, Joe has followed those ideals very closely and even though he is a respectable man he isn't happy; “I graduated fourth in my class... I...
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...and that he will never die, kushner might have added this to imply that there are a lot of old ideals that have been passed down in history and have not changed through time. Ethel, however, adds that that's all about to change because the “Millenium approaches.” The scene where the angel comes through the roof of Prior's apartment (pg. 118) is significant because Kushner shows the breakdown of all the tension and ideals that ha been brought up throughout the play. It is not a total culmination of the story but a new beginning because after destruction comes reconstruction.
It is not the right thing to follow your ideals for your own personal gain without paying attention to your surroundings because that which you did wrong yesterday will catch up to you tomorrow. It is important to have a good outlook for the future because there's always room for change.
Joseph Strorm is the character in the novel that has the greatest disliking toward blasphemies against his beliefs. He has very strong ideas of God and follows the rules of his religion in a fundamental, conservative way. Seemingly, he is insensitive to anybody who is not considered a norm by him and cares nothing about other’s situations. He shows his true feeling towards people when he says “ Pg 71.” Also, it shows Joseph is an unforgiving and insensitive person who puts value on his personal beliefs before the care of his family. He controls his followers with fear and gives strict guidelines to...
come with a goal in life - to succeed on it. With that kind of mentality I
Firstly, through Joseph’s memories and thoughts, conflict is revealed by him remembering his experiences with his son. Joseph recalls the first time he went camping overnight in the woods with David. That evening, Joseph knew his son was awake, “but was not sure whether [he] had been happy or just tired. He could not ask him, even then.” Joseph always had troubles talking to his son, but hoped that his actions had made an impact on his son, leaving him a time to remember and enjoy; a time he was happy. Joseph knew his son was bright, “proud of the many new things [he] could read and understand,” but worried that would lead him to going away. Joseph remembered the day David went off to
Tony Kushner, in his play Angels in America, explores a multitude of issues pertaining to modern American society including, but not limited to, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Through his diverse character selection, he is able to compare and contrast the many varied experiences that Americans might face today. Through it all, the characters’ lives are all linked together through a common thread: progress, both personal and public. Kushner offers insight on this topic by allowing his characters to discuss what it means to make progress and allowing them to change in their own ways. Careful observation of certain patterns reveals that, in the scope of the play, progress is cyclical in that it follows a sequential process of rootlessness, desire, and sacrifice, which repeats itself.
In each of the authors essays in this book, is the truth of the smut and other things of the American ideal. You could say it is a liitle bit Weber's Protestant Ethic meets Larry Flynt. In each scenario, whether through agricultural facility and personal liberties, in the case of marijuana criminalization; immigrants in search of a better life, in the case of stigmatized farm workers; or punishing a successful businessman because of his lack of morals, Eric Schlosser returns to the unpleasant image of America as a bundle of hypocrisies.
A distinct conscience is formed by the values and desires of one’s unique identity. However, common beliefs of societal standards can influence conscientious desires. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces a young girl named Scout, who learns about the difference between social conformity and human conscience. Through this, she notices the conflict it brings: choosing to conform or stand with your desire. Through Maycomb’s discriminatory principles, Atticus’ actions against common beliefs, and Scout’s comprehension of Boo, Lee reveals how society’s standards and conformity hinders personal desires for righteousness.
Durkheim's concepts of the sacred and the profane has dominated religious and social commentary for decades. While these two, inexorably linked, concepts are most often related with respect to religion, we can apply them to the almost-religion of the “American Dream” for the purpose of analyzing the lives of Lester and Carolyn Burnham, Buddy Kane, and Angela Hayes in the film “American Beauty.” In “American Beauty” the experiences of the characters illustrates the dichotomy between the sacred and profane, the morality associated with the sacred and profane, and the influences the sacred and profane have on the characters.
While the American Dream of the post-war ‘40s and ‘50s was the same core ideology as the American Dream had always been, it expanded its previous definitions to include a uniform “American Way of Life”. Will Herberg argues that the true common religion in the United States is not western monotheism but this way of life that we have. He cites the fact that a majority of people at this time don’t let their religious beliefs affect their decisions about politics and society . He infers that there must be another force behind the country’s unity and it is our way of life. This way was more linear in definition than in the past and was reinforced by the pressure that the Cold War produced. Popular media reflected the conformism that was prevalent
Angels in America is one of the most powerful plays written in the twentieth century. The play explores themes such as AIDs, homosexuality, drug addiction, spirituality, politics and identity specifically during the 1980’s. This ground breaking piece of work is not only entertaining, but also thought provoking. Angels creates dreamlike envisions of scenes and yet maintains a form of realism in the plots and characters. Tony Kushner is both the author of the play and the screen writer for the brilliant rendition of the HBO mini series with the same name. Angels in America Part 1: The Millennium Approaches is a phenomenal piece of work to read as well as to watch! The story follows a variety of characters in New York City between 1985-1986 dealing with issues of homosexuality, sexual disease, addiction, and denial.
16 Lester Bush, “Writing “Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview,” Journal of Mormon History 25, no. 1. 256.
...ticle, Solomon has an unpleasant attitude of blaming others and complaining about the issue without proposing any real solutions. It also seems that he divides people into two categories: readers (good) and non-readers (bad), and he look down upon those who do not read. This will cause the readers to be emotionally uncomfortable and to reject his arguments and opinions because of the bias behind it.
In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the interconnection of people and events, that might ordinarily be viewed as disconnected or unrelated, is implicitly presented in the characters section. Dual roles are implemented by a playwright that has one actor portraying the roles of two or more characters, with or without thematic intentions. The use of “dual roles” in several scenes of this play can be viewed as a demonstration of Kushner’s effort in maintaining the interconnectedness between characters, communities (i.e. queer, heterosexual, AIDS and political communities) and events to which they are relative. This essay will argue that Kushner’s use of dual role’s effectively interconnects characters, events and their communities that may be seen as usually unrelated. Analysis of four specific characters, Antarctica, Oceania, Australia and Europa, in Act Five, Scene Five of “Perestroika”, will demonstrate the connection of each Act Five, Scene Five character, to the actors main character based on the implicit evidence presented in the actors “primary” and “secondary” roles, the scenes dialogue and the character interactions. As one will see, by implementing dual roles, Kushner is able to expand or preserve the concept of a major character while the actor portrays another character, keeping the audience from having to completely renegotiate their knowledge between what they physically see of new characters and actually use the new context to view triumphs and struggles for a major character.
It’s safe to say that Kushner’s “Angels in America”, is one of the most famous plays to explore the topic of homosexuality. Joe 's character represents
Being raised in a very religious home, young Joseph Smith Jr. was always taught to attend church, pray, read the Bible, and trust in God in hard times. By the age of fourteen he began to have concerns and wondered which church was the true church of god. There were so many churches that he decided to go to each one and see which one made the most sense. As he did he found that when one church said this a different church said the opposite. He was so confused about which church he should attend. Then one evening as he and his family were reading the scriptures, Joseph stumbled upon a scripture in The Epistle of James chapter one, verse five; “If any of lack wisdom, let him ask of god, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” This scripture empowered him so much that he knew he had to ask of god to know what church was true. So after careful consideration, he decided to obey the Epistle of James and to ask of god.
The movie Joseph displays incredible moral values that we can keep in our hearts for the rest of our lives. When each of us views this movie, we can always remember that no matter hard things may get, we can always trust and believe in God, just as Joseph did, because through it all he never gave up regardless of what was put in his path. Faith, trust, and patience can be trying moral values, but when we remember that God is working in our lives and that we should never give up no matter what others may say or do to try and change our minds.