{"id":365,"date":"2016-10-31T10:20:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T14:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=365"},"modified":"2016-10-31T10:20:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T14:20:57","slug":"various-generations-approachs-to-a-lgbtq-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2016\/10\/31\/various-generations-approachs-to-a-lgbtq-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Various Generations Approachs to a LGBTQ Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Oranges are not the only Fruit <\/em>by Jeanette Winterson and Angels in America<\/em> by Tony Kushner symbolize the internal and external struggles of coming out.\u00a0 Each piece of literature attempts to define the exterior barriers of their societies.\u00a0 While both fall under the same category of coming out stories, the novel and play take different approaches to exemplify the struggles in their society with the LGBTQ community.\u00a0 Each story highlights characters who embody the attitude that their societies had with people who identified with queer.<\/p>\n

In Oranges are not the only Fruit<\/em>, Winterson personifies these values within the character of Jeanette\u2019s mother.\u00a0 Her mother is a queer-fearing Christian who believes that with the help of God, her daughter can be saved. In the book, Jeanette\u2019s mother attempts to save her by aiding the church in attempting to get Jeanette to repent from her sins.\u00a0 Jeanette\u2019s mother, along with members of the church and the pastor, pray for Jeanette while locking her in the parlor for thirty-six hours.\u00a0 Jeanette then falsely accepts that her sexuality is a sin, only to get out of the confined space.\u00a0 However, the elders, the pastor and specifically Jeanette\u2019s mother are ecstatic believing that God has saved Jeanette from this horrid sin.\u00a0 This was a common assumption at the time, that a person could be saved from their \u201cqueerness\u201d by God or a religion and Jeanette\u2019s mother is an outward example of this.<\/p>\n

While Jeanette\u2019s mother shames her for who she is and attempts to destroy Jeanette\u2019s \u201cgayness\u201d, in Angels in America <\/em>the character Ethel has the same purpose, but attempts to punish Roy for his identity rather than save him.\u00a0 Ethel visits Roy as a ghost to haunt him about decisions he\u2019s made in his lifetime. She terrorizes him on his sexuality and attempts to shame and reprimand him.\u00a0 Ethel characterizes the aggression that people of her time had towards the LGTBQ community.\u00a0 During the time of the AIDS crisis, the common belief was that queer people were dirty and misfits, therefore not worth trying to save.\u00a0 The hostility and disgust that Roy receives from Ethel was a general way the culture dealt with the LGBTQ community during their time.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Oranges are not the only Fruit <\/em>and Angels in America <\/em>help their audiences understand how the main characters coped with the mechanics of their societies and cultures.\u00a0 Through both authors work, they portray their struggles, and how each of them took different approaches to get through it. The differences in the way the authors coped with their own hardships can teach others in how to deal with their versions of the same base story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and Angels in America by Tony Kushner symbolize the internal and external struggles of coming out.\u00a0 Each piece of literature attempts to define the exterior barriers of their societies.\u00a0 While both fall under the same category of coming out stories, the novel and play take … Continue reading Various Generations Approachs to a LGBTQ Problem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}