Belize

Belize seems to be the one character feeling good and confidant in his own skin. He is black, gay, ex drag queen, and has a job as a male nurse that is usually more common among females. I believe Kushner included him in his play as the voice of wisdom and reason. He represents kindness when he was first introduced to the reader as Prior’s friend when he went to visit him at the hospital. He was joking, trying to comfort Prior about his disease, and making him laugh. He brought with him a special balm supposedly to help Prior’s lesions. He was shown in the HBO movie to rub the special cream himself on Prior’s body, without any fear or repulse. Kushner intended to portray Belize as the sweet individual who can listen, sooth, ease, and reason with anybody, and God knows how the characters of Angels in America are in a great need to be consoled and listened to. He assured Prior that Louis will not abandon him, even though the reader or the viewer could sense a doubt on Belize’s face and tone. He just wanted to make Prior feel good at that particular moment. Kushner particularly, had him listen and respond to the most troubled, tormented, and lost characters of the play and which are Roy and Louis. He listened to Louis for a long time without interrupting him, till he felt that the time to stop him and start responding has come. Again, Kushner wanted him to be the conscience that Louis is blocking and denying. He told Louis exactly what he should not have done, especially walking away from Prior at a time when he needed him the most. In the movie, the viewer could tell that Belize was disgusted from Louis’ excuses, and convinced that Louis himself was not happy about his decision to abandon Prior but wanted to hear otherwise from someone else, to feel a kind of a relief. But Belize never gave Louis the satisfaction to walk away with a clean conscience.
In Part II of Angels in America, there was a very interesting scene at the hospital mixed with truth and humor. Belize was on duty, and Roy was in the same hospital, being treated for AIDS. Once again, Belize was calm, when Roy refused to be treated by Belize because he was black. Even though Roy was very harsh in his words towards Belize, Belize tried to explain the whole procedure of radiation, and tried to warn him about what the doctor might do to him. Roy was confused and did not know what to make of Belize. In this particular scene, Kushner wanted to reveal another side of Belize, who despite the insults from Roy, stayed calm and focused on his job. In his conversations with both Louis and Roy, Belize was the truth that both men refused to see, a truth about their cowardice and their loss in a world full of controversies. Belize somehow reminded me of Tyler in Fight Club, who wanted to see the world from a different angle.

Welcome to the Eighties

The eighties were significant years in the history of America. With a newly elected republican President and fifty two U.S hostages held by Iran set free after more than a year, America was getting ready to enter a new era. Just as we learned about the movement of the “New Journalism” in the late fifties early sixties that effected America’s writing style, the eighties went beyond journalism to touch every single form of art including literature, painting, film, fashion and so on. In his play Angels in America, Kushner tried to talk about various themes that deeply influenced not only America but the whole world. Religion was one particular theme that played a big part in the play just in time when conservatism made a heroic entrance into the White House.

With its diversity, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and liberty and justice for all, America seemed in a continuous struggle when it comes to all these issues since the end of World War II. As I mentioned before, religion was the source of many heated debates in the political arena as well as in the socio-economic one during those years. The characters of Joe and Harper in Kushner’s play were living an inner struggle, a complicated and a tough struggle that was tearing them a part every moment of their life. Both Mormons, raised by very religious parents, Joe and Harper endured a pain that was kept inside. Harper was described as an unhappy wife who was addicted to pills. Joe her husband, was taking nightly long walks, instead of being home with his lonely wife. Religion was the only obstacle that stood in the face of their happiness. It is because of religion that Harper doesn’t want to admit that there is something going on with her husband. Harper knows deep down that her husband might be a homosexual but refuses to admit it to herself since in her church they don’t believe in homosexuality. Instead she turns to pills to appease her pain and her loneliness instead of confronting Joe and make it easier on her and on him as well. Religion also haunts Joe, who just like Harper believes that homosexuality is evil and that the Lord doesn’t have a place in heaven for those kind of people. Instead he takes those long nightly walks in an area in Central Park known to gay people. Once again, his faith comes between him and his desires or rather between him and the peace he was looking for and hoping to find one of those days. It is very ironic how shifting away from religion would give Joe that peace, the joy of life not only to him but to Harper who was suffering and self-destructing. It was his confession to his mother on the phone that set him finally free.

Religion in Angles in America was one important theme that revealed how people pretended to live a life that was not meant to be theirs. Even the character of Louis was in a dilemma when he asked the Rabbi what he thinks about people who abandon their loved ones in times when they needed them the most. I would add cowardice as a trait of Louis whose uncertainty made him the evil person. The insistence of Joe that he was not a homosexual was also seen in his confirmation of his political views when he mentioned that he voted twice republican. Harper was more open to the idea of letting go of her suspicions about the sexual orientations of her husband when Prior told her in her hallucination that Joe was indeed a homosexual.

Breaking away from materialism

Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is definitely a book of controversies regarding contemporary issues. While some of his ideas make sense, I find others very subjective. He seemed to hold a grudge against his parents particularly his father who, just like the narrator’s father left the family when the author was only six year old. His anger towards the circumstances that led him to be raised by a woman appeared in his writings in Fight Club. I personally think that Fight Club; besides dealing with some twenty first century matters, is the story of Palahniuk himself and his personal problems.

No one denies the fact that a good society breeds good citizens. But when a society starts to show failures within its system, we start to wonder about the causes and the roots of those failures. Fight Club is certainly a novel that deals with some of the issues that became apparent and obvious in this twenty first century. As the main character of Fight Club, the unnamed narrator was suffering from a modern syndrome that was tormenting him, a condition related to today’s lifestyle, where everybody is working hard to fulfill certain desires that the narrator rejects and opposes. Consumer culture, one of the contemporary issues in the book, as Dr. Martin described it – built on a cycle of temporary satisfaction, deflation and renewed desire- was the reasons that turned the unnamed narrator in someone lost, but not hopeless. His desires were very different from those who turn to material things to feel rewarded and content. The narrator was desperately searching for a metaphysical and incorporeal fulfillment that would give him a reason to feel that he exists as someone different from any other materialistic human being. The character of Tyler in the book and the narrator’s unusual attachment to him was a way of easing the pain and the agony that were accumulated in the narrator’s spirit over the years. Starting Fight Club with Tyler was the best thing that the narrator started his new life with, after moving in with Tyler. But Fight Club could never be the answer and the final solution to solve the matter of “consumer culture” that made the narrator search for an alternative to an empty life that he could no longer accept.

The author made his points clear to the readers, but some readers would find his views on consumer culture a bit exaggerated. Palahniuk ignored the fact that every human being has desires that don’t necessarily conform to his personal opinions. Feeling satisfied and fulfilled differs from one individual to another. Wanting material things is definitely not sinful, as long as it does not make the consumer trapped in his or her own world of fantasies. Obviously the narrator felt that his life had no meaning so he chose a different path, a path that would make him break away from what the rest of the people think is essential and vital. In Fight Club, the detailed description of his apartment had a great significance to justify his new life with Tyler. It definitely shows how the narrator started to see life from a different angle, an angle that could fulfill his life, and give him a reason to live.

Auntie's mysterious personality

“Auntie” seems like the most mysterious and the most intriguing character in Ceremony. She is a person with a complex personality. Confused, she never accepted Tayo for who he was, at the same time she never denied him as someone who doesn’t belong to their milieu. Auntie was a main element in the developing and the progress of the book, as her character contributed in the problems that Tayo had to deal with since the day his mother left him with her. The anger that auntie felt towards her little sister started to shift towards Tayo, as Tayo was a constant reminder of the shame and the embarrassment caused by her sister when she slept with a white man and got pregnant with Tayo. When Tayo came back home from the war, it was Auntie who took care of him along with the help of Old grandma. However, Auntie never stopped her usual story about how the betrayal of her little sister was the cause of every misery that the family is enduring. But I believe that Auntie herself was confused. Her being Christian further complicated her personality and her behavior towards Tayo and towards life in general. Being involved in her church and listening to preaching about love and forgiveness did not seem to make her change her attitude towards her nephew. The embarrassment of the behavior of her sister was persistently haunting her. Auntie seemed willing to accommodate and please her church more than accommodating her own nephew who was in need for comfort and care. There is a clear conduct of hypocrisy when she was constantly correcting anyone who thought that Rocky and Tayo were brothers. She always seemed repulsed and disgusted of the idea of associating her son with Tayo. The word “half-breed” accompanied every sentence and any subject that concerned Tayo. Obviously Auntie from time to time, let an indication of love and concern slip from her. The author did not want the readers to paint this evil image of Auntie, but rather wanted to link Auntie’s behavior and conduct to Tayo’s, so the readers can understand that both of them are somehow the victims of their traditions and heritage as Native Americans. Auntie was very careful in disassociating herself from what her sister put her family through, but only in public. In her home, she was trying to do her best in treating Tayo, not as nephew but as a mistake of nature that she felt compelled to care for. Auntie seemed very aware of the awkward situation with Tayo, but deep down, she was trying to convince herself that treating Tayo as one of them is the same as denouncing her roots and her Christian beliefs. She had to bring up her little sister every time there is a problem with Tayo, especially at that time when Old Grandma decided to look for an alternative way to heal Tayo by suggesting medicine man instead of white people medicine. Throughout the book, I never suspected for a minute that Auntie was this heartless and insensitive person. I felt that she was carrying a burden for a long time that she could not take it anymore. She was a very vulnerable woman when it comes to gossip. All the gossip was about how Tayo; a half-breed is the main cause that ruined the reputation of Auntie’s family.

The effect of the New Journalism on today's society

The sixties seem like interesting and intriguing years in America. Since I was born in the sixties but outside the United States of America, I wanted to explore some of those events, discoveries, tumult, and commotion. The most poignant and heartbreaking moments of the sixties were definitely the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Dr. King Jr., the father of the Civil Rights Movement, and last but not least the Cold War. One movement though I never heard of before I took my online literature class was the movement of the New Journalism. It has nothing to do with wars, nor any assassination, but it undeniably left a print in the history of America, at a time when the public was trying to understand the roots and the circumstances that led this country to those unfortunate events. This movement caught my attention and made me surf the internet to better understand Capote and the rest of the “gang” who specialized in this genre of writing. The non-fiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, which typified the New Journalism work, was a work of art, a real masterpiece in Capote’s time. The events were real, and the people were real, and the murders were real, but what made this novel a unique novel was the genius of the author who managed to show his readers how to take a new and different look at violence in America. Capote had an objective when he wrote this novel. He simply was trying to revolutionize a mentality that had no mercy on the people who committed certain violent crimes. The idea of a person “is innocent until proven guilty” did not seem to have popularity among the citizens of America during those years. And what made things worse was the fear of Communism. People were being accused of spying for the Soviets and executed based on suspicion, not on facts. Contrary to any true crime novel, the killers in Capote’s novel were the main focus of the author, not the victims. The reason for that was to educate the citizens on how the socio-economic environment during those years could trigger any human being to commit a horrific crime. Poverty, neglect, and a history of family abuse could all lead to some disastrous events. Capote never described the killers as heartless, insensitive people; he never portrayed them to his readers as the villains who deserved the death penalty without a trial, but rather came very close to describe them as the “victims.” Obviously he left that choice to his readers and let’s not forget that pleading insanity was not an option for Dick and Perry given the nature of the crime. At that time people could have been outraged by this plea, since it happened in a serene town, a town that never knew violence till Dick and Perry showed up one night out of nowhere, and with no mercy killed an entire family. But Capote succeeded in making his readers understand reality, a harsh reality that could affect any individual to become a criminal. That was the objective of Capote and the goal of the New Journalism movement that wanted to alter the readers’ views on many news issues of those years, and “crime and punishment” was one particular issue that affected our system and still is to this day.

The effect of the New Journalism on today's society

The sixties seem like interesting and intriguing years in America. Since I was born in sixties but outside the United States of America, I wanted to explore some of those events, discoveries, tumult, and commotion. The most poignant and heartbreaking moments of the sixties, were definitely the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Dr. King Jr., the father of the Civil Rights Movement, and last but not least the Cold War. One movement though I never heard of before I took my online literature class, was the movement of the New Journalism. It has nothing to do with wars, nor any assassination, but it undeniably left a print in the history of America, at a time when the public was trying to understand the roots and the circumstances that led this country to those unfortunate events. This movement caught my attention and made me surf the internet to better understand Capote and the rest of the “gang” who specialized in this genre of writing. The non-fiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, which typified the New Journalism work, was a work or art, a real master-piece in Capote’s Time. The events were real, and the people were real, and the murders were real, but what made this novel a unique novel was the genius of the author who managed to show his readers how to take a new and different look at violence in America. Capote had an objective when he wrote this novel. He simply was trying to revolutionize a mentality that had no mercy on the people who committed certain violent crimes. The idea of a person “is innocent until proven guilty” did not seem to have popularity among the citizens of America during those years. And what made things worse was the fear of Communism. People were being accused of spying for the Soviets, and executed based on suspicion, not on facts. Contrary to any true crime novel, the killers in Capote’s novel were the main focus of the author, and the reason for that was to educate the citizens on how the socio-economic environment during those years could trigger any human being to commit a horrific crime. Poverty, neglect, history of family abuse could all lead to some disastrous events. Capote never described the killers as heartless, insensitive people; he never portrayed them to his readers as the villains who deserved the death penalty without a trial, but rather came very close to describe them as the “victims”. Obviously he left that choice to his readers and let’s not forget that during the sixties, pleading insanity was not an option. At that time people could have been outraged by this plea, but Capote succeeded in making his readers understand reality, a harsh reality that could affect any individual to become a criminal. That was the objective of Capote and the goal of the New Journalism movement that wanted to alter the readers’ views on many news issues of those years, and “crime and punishment” was one particular issue that affected our system and still is to this day.