{"id":367,"date":"2016-10-31T10:29:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T14:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=367"},"modified":"2016-10-31T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T14:29:56","slug":"oranges-vs-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2016\/10\/31\/oranges-vs-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Oranges vs Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angels in America<\/span><\/i> portrays the devastating situations one is forced into when diagnosed with AIDS. \u00a0Most characters in the play seem to have their lives under control for the most part at the beginning. \u00a0However, one person after another is infected by AIDS, first Prior, and then Roy, which strongly impacts all of the characters\u2019 lives whether they have the disease or not. \u00a0This reminds me of Jeanette from <\/span>Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit<\/span><\/i> and her struggle to find happiness throughout the story. \u00a0Later in the story, after Jeanette has left her mother, someone asks her about what would have happened if she had stayed with her mother. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I could have been a priest instead of a prophet. \u00a0The priest has a book with words set out. \u00a0Old words, known words, words of power. \u00a0Words that are always on the surface. \u00a0Words for every occasion. \u00a0The words work. \u00a0They do what they\u2019re supposed to do; comfort and discipline. \u00a0The prophet has no book. \u00a0The prophet is a voice that cries in the wilderness, full of sounds that do not always set into meaning. \u00a0The prophets cry out because they are troubled by demons. (Winterson 161)<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeanette asserts that she could have had her future set out for her; she could\u2019ve followed her mother\u2019s beliefs and been a priest. \u00a0This is similar to many characters in<\/span> Angels in America<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0For instance, Prior had his life figured out before he was diagnosed; he was happy, he had Louis, and they were happy together. \u00a0However, everything changed when Prior got AIDS. \u00a0He had to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, especially when Louis left him. \u00a0Prior struggles with reclaiming his life in light of Louis leaving him and his disease. \u00a0Roy also struggles with coming to terms with his life when he is diagnosed. \u00a0He has to confront all of his inner demons when trying to come to terms with his AIDS. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think that the juxtaposition of \u201cpriest\u201d and \u201cprophet\u201d posed by Jeanette is seen in characters in <\/span>Angels in America<\/span><\/i> with the juxtaposition of the characters before AIDS and after AIDS. \u00a0Before any of the characters had AIDS, they seemed to have control over their lives; they were similar to the \u201cpriests\u201d with the fact that they knew what they were doing, it was like they had a book to follow for their life. \u00a0Roy remained in control and powerful in his career; Louis and Prior were happy together, etc. \u00a0However with AIDS, maybe nothing really changed for the characters except their state of health, but the disease uncovered all of the problems in their lives and they were forced to face all of the mistakes they had ever made, because they were confronted with death. \u00a0When these characters face death, there is no book for them to follow; they are like \u201cprophets\u201d in that way. \u00a0However, the struggles that the characters in <\/span>Angels in America<\/span><\/i> face differ from Jeanette\u2019s struggle because she has the choice to be a priest. \u00a0Maybe she doesn\u2019t get to choose her sexuality which is what puts her against her mother, but she could\u2019ve chosen to stay and cover up her true self; she could\u2019ve followed the books written for priests. \u00a0However, Prior and Roy are diagnosed with AIDS, meaning they had no control over their choice. \u00a0They are involuntarily thrown into this state of confusion with themselves because they struggle with figuring out their life throughout this tragic experience.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angels in America portrays the devastating situations one is forced into when diagnosed with AIDS. \u00a0Most characters in the play seem to have their lives under control for the most part at the beginning. \u00a0However, one person after another is infected by AIDS, first Prior, and then Roy, which strongly impacts all of the characters\u2019 … Continue reading Oranges vs Angels<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3244,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","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\/3244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}