Author: Sally Jones

Oranges for Queer Jews!

Throughout the play “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner examines the intersectionality between religious identity and sexuality. Joe Pitt is one of the protagonists in the play, and he is both a Mormon and a gay man. At first, he struggles to admit that he is gay, partly because he is married to Harper–a woman–partly because he is a republican politician, but also because homosexuality is seen as a sin in Mormonism. In the first act, Louis tells Joe, “well, oh boy. A Gay Republican,” to which Joe responds, “not gay. I’m not gay,” (Kushner 29). Joe cannot admit to his sexuality at first, not even to another gay man. But by the end of the play, Joe starts to accept his sexuality while still identifying as a Mormon.

When looking through this lens of homosexuality and how it is regarded in different religions, it made me think of the addition of an orange on a Passover seder plate and how this move is aligned with queerness. Passover is the holiday where Jews recall the exodus from Jewish enslaved life in Egypt, and this story is told at the Passover seder every year. At the seder there are different items placed on a seder plate to symbolize different objects. That being said, the holiday is thousands of years old, but the orange was only added in the 1980’s. So why an orange?

A Jewish feminist scholar named Susannah Heschel found a feminist Passover haggadah (the text that explains how the seder works) that told the story of a Hasidic rabbi. This rabbi had told a Jewish lesbian that there is as much room for lesbians in Judaism as there is space for bread on the Passover table (bread is the food that is forbidden to eat and even own during the holiday). So, this haggadah instructed people to put a crust of bread on the seder plate. But Heschel thought putting bread on the seder plate was too extreme, so she put an orange in order to show solidarity with gay and lesbian Jews. In this story, the Hasidic rabbi and Joe had the same thought process: they both thought that homosexuality has no place in their religions. However, Joe eventually learns that he can be both gay and a Mormon, and Jews learn that other teachings in Judaism are accepting of queer people.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/an-orange-on-the-seder-plate/

Roy and Ethel: An Unpredictable Friendship

Throughout “Angels in America,” there is a presence of paranormal and fantastical characters, one of which being Ethel Rosenberg. Roy–the big-shot lawyer–is the reason that Ethel was put in the electric chair, and as a result, he is visited by her ghost. From my interpretation of the text, Roy secretly enjoys Ethel’s company because he is lonely and she’s the only person who will talk to him. For example, in Part II, Act III, Scene II, Roy is in his hospital room with Ethel. Instead of ignoring her presence, Roy engages in conversation with her. Not only that, but during their conversation, Ethel makes a joke, and then “they’re laughing, enjoying this,” (Kushner 188). Instead of getting mad at Ethel and telling her to leave him alone, Roy makes the decision to talk with her and they even enjoy laughing together. Laughing is something that Roy does not do often because he’s a very serious man. Laughing would force Roy to put his guard down, which he never does. So, when he and Ethel are laughing together, it shows us that Ethel is bringing out a side of Roy that we would not otherwise see. Even though he does not want to admit it, Roy enjoys Ethel’s company.

Ethel should have a lot of anger toward Roy as he is the reason she and her husband died. However, when Ethel continues to visit Roy, she does not scream and curse him out, she stays and talks with him. Roy tried to push Ethel away, but she keeps coming back. As a result, Roy feels that he can be honest with Ethel because whatever happens, he knows she will keep coming back to him.

Part of the reason that Roy is acting honestly with Ethel and not any of the other characters in the play is because Roy is a mean man who pushes away the people in his life who care about him. For example, Belize–Roy’s nurse–is just trying to treat him in the hospital. Belize is being paid to take care of Roy, but instead of saying thank you and being kind, Roy tells Belize to “move your nigger cunt spade faggot lackey ass out of my room,” (Kushner 187). Roy creates problems and picks fights with anybody who will fight back, using slurs to target Belize and get under his skin. Roy continues to hurt the people who could possibly care about him, including Belize.

Our Bodies Are Ours to Claim!

In Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, Eli Clare explores his sense of identity through the lenses of gender and disability. Clare is a transgender man who has Cerebral Palsy–a disability that affects movement. In the first chapter of this book, “The Mountain,” Clare repeatedly brings up this idea of the body being home. However, he juxtaposes this feeling of belonging in a physical body by stating that “bodies can be stolen, fed lies and poison, torn away from us,” (Clare 12). Clare begins the paragraph by offering his readers comfort, showing them that regardless of the communities they are ostracized from and the family that might hate them for their identity, they all belong somewhere, and that is in their own body. However, he takes this comfort away from the readers by mentioning that our bodies can be stolen and we can stop feeling like they are our own.

Clare is bringing to light his own past trauma, showing the readers that he did not feel in control of his body. There were people in his life whom he trusted, including his own father, and they tortured Clare for years, stealing that trust and controlling his body. This caused Clare to disassociate from his own body–the one thing that should be his and his alone.

I don’t believe that Clare tells his audience about his past trauma because he wants us to feel scared and alone. I think Clare shares these moments in his life for the purpose of teaching his readers a valuable lesson: “the stolen body can be reclaimed,” (Clare 13). At the time when Clare was being physically and sexually abused, he still identified as female. He had all of this trauma associated with that female identity. By transitioning away from the female-identifying self that was abused for years, Clare was given the space to heal, reclaim his own body, and embrace his identity as a transgender man. He made a decision for himself, allowing him to feel in control of his own body and identity.

Clare has written a lot about his multi-faceted identity and how his body comes into play. That being said, he also explores the bigger picture: even though our identity can change throughout the course of our life, it will always be a part of who we are. We can change our identity to better fit how we feel inside, but our identity can never be taken away from us, unlike our body. From Clare’s own identity as a disabled person, a former lesbian, and a trans man, his identity is something that will always belong to him, just as our identities will always belong to us.

Returning to Boy’s Burning House

At the end of the poem, Jones paints a picture of his “burning house,” indicating that he must walk back to the place that causes him grief and struggle, (Jones 8). This fire serves as a metaphor for what his home life is truly like. Similar to a fire burning and causing destruction, that is what has happened inside Jones’ home. It is apparent that he is looking for an escape, as shown by him leaving the house in the first place. Earlier in the poem, the readers get the picture of two boys in the woods together. But the other boy left Jones “alone to pick pine needles from [his] hair,” (Jones 8). Jones is dirty from being in the forest, shown by his “mud-stained knees,” and he has been deserted by the other boy who is supposed to care about him (Jones 8). When putting these two images together: Jones being abandoned in the forest and his burning home; readers get the sense that he is unfamiliar with being treated well. When he was younger, learning from his parents set his expectations very low. So, as he is growing up, he continues to gravitate toward the people that treat him poorly. And despite all this, Jones still manages to return to his home. He knows something will happen if he does not. His father forces him to leave the house, but he returns because he knows he and his mother need each other. My question for the boy is why does he not try to put out the fire, solve his problems? Fires leave burn marks, but the less a fire burns, the less damage will be caused. How long has the boy’s house been burning? Does he even know how to put out the fire? Will he ever take action?