Kushner’s Angels in America discusses the multi facets of gay men during the AIDS crisis. He uses the various men and their relationship with sexuality to explain their actions and emotions. Roy M. Cohn, Joe and Harper Pitt, and Prior Walter and Louis Ironson are the particular characters that intrigued me. Roy M. Cohn was a powerful figure in American politics during his life. He worked as a lawyer in New York, and thrived on power. Cohn rejected his sexuality and AIDS. Roy M. Cohn associated gay men as weak and powerless. Kushner has Cohn describe himself as “Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man, Henry, who fucks around with guys” (47). His mentality dates back to ancient times. The receiving party is gay, but the active party is “not gay.” For Cohn, this mentality allowed him to control his public perception, but never allowed himself to be fully himself. Joe and Harper Pitt are a Mormon couple. Joe is a closeted gay man, and Harper a drug addict. Joe’s religion plays a key role in his relationship with his sexuality. When Harper confronts Joe about his sexuality, he responds with “ As long as my behavior is what I know it has to be. Decent. Correct. That alone in the eyes of God” (41). Religion is killing an essential part of Joe’s being, eating at him worse than the AIDS epidemic. He totally rejects himself. Religion does not allow for him to fully accept himself. Prior and Louis’ relationship seems to be the healthiest and living the most truly to their authentic selves. Yet, Louis struggles with Prior’s AIDS and makes up a story about Belize, Prior’s nurse and drag queen, and Prior having a relationship. The lack of social infrastructure prohibited full acceptance by society. Each of the men involved have something that prevents them from being fully accepted by themselves and society.

In Kao Kalia Yang’s TED talk (left), she tells her story of how she began to write. Yang was a selective mute, but the story of her life came out on paper. She learned how to tell stories through the stories that her family shared when she was a child. Gellhorn told the stories of refugees, but Yang tells her own stories. Gellhorn provides an outgroup perspective on refugee life and conflict, but she truly will never understand because she can leave the conflict. Often, refugees could not leave. Yang provides an ingroup perspective of a Hmong refugee. Through her writing, you can feel the vulnerability and pain that results from displacement. Yang’s essay in The Displaced, details the loss of childhood that her and other refugees experienced in the refugee camps. Master Mei and his ragtag gang risked their lives to feed the other children in the refugee camp. Yang is not gratuitous in telling Mei’s story because she was experiencing hunger with him. Gellhorn was bound by the “objectivity” of her journalistic background. If she did not report the way her editors expected, they would pull her from the conflict. Her story would be seen as exaggerated. Gellhorn simply did not have the understanding or genre to tell refugee stories like Yang and other refugees have. Gellhorn was there by choice— get the job done and get out. Refugee stories provide an uncut understanding of their own experience through their own voice. Comparing Gellhorn and refugee authors encourages us as readers to avoid Adchie’s single story narrative.

James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates both use epistolary form to create a bridge between their generation and the next. The form of a letter creates conversation. Roman writers and Renaissance humanists used epistolary form as a way to write about things they “did not want” others to know. The style of writing allows for intimacy, and can at times leave the reader uncomfortable feeling as if they violated the writer’s space. This intimacy allows outgroup readers to receive insight from another’s point of view in a way that other forms of writing do not. Our society expects for black men to be tough all the time. Baldwin and Coates show tenderness and vulnerability in their letter to their nephew and son. The same threat remains to black bodies. I don’t believe the threat has changed either, but I am hopeful that change is coming.

My mom went to a small women’s college in Selma, Alabama. When her and her college friends meet up for their annual dinner, they swap stories. Her friend, Anita, and her husband live in Birmingham and are both prominent attorneys. Their children have gone to one of the elite private schools, and are preparing to enter college. When her son turned sixteen, he began dating. To Anita’s chagrin, her son only likes “shiny white girls.” Anita does not care that her son's girlfriends are white, but she cares about what her white dad or white brothers think or do. Anita worries that if some white supermacist sees her son on a date with his white girlfriends that he will not make it home. The same threat to black bodies that Baldwin sees in the 1960s and Coates sees in 2014 remains now in 2021. Many people's eyes are opened, but opened is not enough. Some only learn through the vulnerability of storytelling.

Camus uses existentialism in The Plague to cope with the horrors of the war. The careful usage of metaphor allows Camus and his readers to take a step back and process. Dr. Rieux recounts the casualties of previous plagues, and he thinks “But what are a hundred million deaths? When one has served in a war, one hardly knows what a dead man is, after a while” (38). The desensitization to death creates a space for readers to acknowledge the cloud of darkness surrounding loss, but also gives them space to acknowledge that desensitization allows the reader to continue moving forward. Using existentialism, Camus does not force his thinking onto the reader, but permits the reader to make their own meaning. The metaphor of the rats dehumanizes Jews and refugees, and mirrors the imagery used by Nazi Germany. When the rats begin trickling into Oran, the “... rats meant trouble coming” (27). Rats are dirty. Rats bring problems. Rats bring disease. No sane person would want rats in their town. Camus justifies the closing of borders and initial aversion to refugees with the rat metaphor. The metaphor is coated with guilt, but also recognizes the other forces at play. Would the reception of refugees have been different if Nazi propaganda protrayed them differently? Reflecting backwards, we have all the information and outcome of the conflict. We have to wrestle with the decisions that we made and how they affected the situation. By reinserting the situational context and pressures, Camus allows the reader to feel less guilty, but also understand that everyone still has to wrestle with the consequences.

Virginia Woolf’s and Alice McDermott’s authorial voices are very similar. Both plots are set in the 1920s following World War I. Woolf’s novel is set in the city of London, and McDermott’s plot is set in New York City. London and New York are often compared for their bustling nature and booming industry. The displacement of Woolf’s Italian immigrants Septimus and Rezia and McDermott’s Irish immigrants, Sally and her daughter, Annie parallel with physical displacement from their homeland in the face of opportunity. Both sets of characters are battling types of mental illness and its effects on caregivers. Septimus suffers from PTSD due to the trauma he suffered during World War I. Rezia struggles to care for him, and her own mental health struggles with the loss of a support system due to the displaced nature of immigrant status. Sally’s husband, Jim, commits suicide while Sally is pregnant with Annie. Annie’s whole life is spent wading in the wake of trauma.While Sally and Annie face a similar loss of a support system, Sally receives support from an order of Catholic sisters. When Annie matures she is conflicted about her role within society because she does not want to leave her mother. Septimus, Rezia, Sally, and Annie all suffer from the lack of psychological knowledge that existed during this period. Woolf and McDermott’s writing styles indicate this in subtle and blatant ways. The heaviness of their writing can be felt throughout the mundane scenes, and in the traumatic scenes that occur.

The 1912 painting to the left is by Vanessa Bell. She titled the painting Studland Beach. Verso: Group of Male Nudes by Duncan Grant and is currently housed in the Tate Museum. I selected this painting because Vanessa Bell is the sister of Virginia Woolf. Both sisters belonged to the famous artistic and literary group called the Bloomsbury Group. According to the gallery label, Studland Beach was a favorite holiday spot of the Bloomsbury Group. Woolf’s writing highlights feminist themes as well as undertones of the dark period following World War I into the 1920s. The reverse nature of a male nude by a female artist conversely ties feminist themes into the painting, yet the backs of the woman and children protects their modesty. The muted colors of Bell’s painting mirror that of Woolf’s moody writing. Although, the label claims Bell’s style and color choices were commentary on Mattise, and the painting was completed prior to the start of World War I. The beach scene reflects that of British life prior to the war and the sometimes cloudy nature of England. In a way, the mundane, peaceful nature of the scene drastically contrasts with chaos that awaits with the conflicts of the coming period. The Tate’s label indicates that lounging on the beach was a new activity during 1912 and highlights the Bloomsbury Group’s ability to partake in leisure activities. Bell’s oil on canvas painting indicates a shift from industrial to post-industrial society through an increase of leisure time.

Throughout Heart of Darkness,* Joseph Conrad discusses his journey into the Congo from London, England. He addresses his fellow passengers, who are European, as “pilgrims.” This rhetoric establishes these characters and Conrad as respectable humans. By calling the English/European “pilgrims” and starting the novela on the River Thames, Conrad vaguely draws on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Conrad changes his tone when referring to the natives of Congo and Africa. His values shift from personhood to animalistic values. He calls the Congolese “cannibals” and refers to them as eating “hippo meat.” Conrad’s rhetoric here highlights the Congolese as animals and devalues them. Conrad treats this journey into the Congo as more than your semester abroad. The concept of visiting Africa was not necessarily for tourism, but almost like people going on safari or to the zoo— yet these were people. Conrad seems suspicious of African humanity. He calls the continent a “prehistoric world.” The untouched nature of Africa contrasts greatly with England and Europe post Industrial Revolution world. He uses England as the pinnacle of civilization and the Congo/Africa as needing to be saved by the English and Europeans. Conrad’s rhetoric of Africa and its peoples mirrors orientalism in the 19th century. The true Heart of Darkness here is Conrad and the racist ideals of European society, not the center of the Congo River. We see the effects of imperialism throughout America and Europe today.

*I do not have page numbers because the bookstore did not have a copy of the book, so I had to listen to the Audible version.