In the latter half of Scene 1, Act Four, when Roy is emoted by Joe\u2019s news of living with another man, Belize enters the scene at just the right moment to receive Roy\u2019s bleeding arm and enraged state. Belize is able to take control of the erratic situation, and bandage Roy\u2019s arm. His presence in this scene is crucial for Joe because he not only saves Joe from Roy\u2019s wrath, but also urges him to change his shirt and not to touch the blood- something Joe would not have known to do otherwise. This particular instance enforces Belize as the more \u2018omniscient\u2019, and \u2018voice of reason\u2019 character.<\/p>\n
Belize\u2019s somewhat protective, somewhat informative role in Roy\u2019s fragile life, is similar to Elsie Norris’s role in young Jeanette\u2019s life in Oranges. Though Belize and Roy are not good friends as Elsie and Jeanette were, he is quite literally, Roy\u2019s caretaker, as Elsie becomes Jeanette\u2019s \u2018surrogate mother\u2019. Elsie and Belize both become reliable sources of safety for Jeanette and Roy. Elsie Norris, as an experienced and well traveled person, represents life outside the church that Jeanette has not yet experienced. In a similar way, Belize represents gay culture, and living as an openly gay man, as Roy has never experienced. Another similarity between Belize and Elsie is their innate good nature, despite factors that have lead other characters to turn against Roy and Jeanette. Even though Roy is relentlessly rude, racist and berating to Belize, Belize is equally calm and caring to Roy, as we assume he\u2019d be to any other patient. When everyone Jeanette knows turns against her for being gay, Elsie remains Jeanette\u2019s friend, regardless of her strong religious views. Each of these characters represent humanity and morality in two stories that are ridden with cruelty and inhumanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the latter half of Scene 1, Act Four, when Roy is emoted by Joe\u2019s news of living with another man, Belize enters the scene at just the right moment to receive Roy\u2019s bleeding arm and enraged state. Belize is able to take control of the erratic situation, and bandage Roy\u2019s arm. His presence in … Continue reading Belize is to Roy as Elsie is to Jeanette<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3238,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","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\/3238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}