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Angels In America Essay

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Knowing the time period in which a piece of drama was created can indicate patterns and forms or help to predict common themes. Knowing the historical context is very important for any scholastic reader. Knowing the context not only makes it more enjoyable, but also helps connect and relate to what the author wants. “In great writing from the past, we find ancestors, and we not only see the country and the people as they were, but we also soak up the climate of the times through the language, characters, tones and settings” (Kirk). As an example, knowing the time period helps the reader understand why the themes of politics and AIDS are the basis of Angels in America. Angels in America would not have been so wildly popular (plus controversial) if it was not written during The Reagan Era and the start of the realization of the AIDS epidemic. “The author writes only what he or she has learnt from that particular …show more content…

Greek theater involved very few people, on stage in general, which meant that everyone had to play multiple parts this is very similar to Angels in America, but Kushner did this for a purpose other than tradition. Kushner 's doubling requires some actors to play the opposite sex and certain major and minor characters are angels or ghosts. The historical period has an immense overall impact on various facets of drama production. One reason this is the case is because older plays did not have the extensive props, visual, and auditory effects that modern plays do. Greek drama was much more formal in its diction; including more soliloquies and actions done off-stage or implied to have happened this is the case for Oedipus Rex. With Angels in America, any action the author want can happen onstage for the audience to see and not just heard from

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Angels on the Battlefield In the Battle of Gettysburg that took place on July 1, 1863, and ended on July 3, many casualties and injuries resulted from the fighting between those few days, leading to the victory of the Union Army. It is roughly estimated that 620,000 men lost their lives fighting, many for liberty and freedom, others for new opportunities. The Civil War was considered the deadliest and bloodiest battle. Medicine has come a long way now, in comparison to the 19th century, although many lives were lost on the way.

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The novel Fallen Angels, written by Walter Dean Myers, is a story that follows a young African American man named Richie through his journey in the Vietnam war. As a child, Myers had a hard time communicating with others as a result of his speech impediment, and looked to writing as an escape. Similar to the main character, he joined the army as a teenager. This novel was inspired by his own experiences in the army, and served as an outlet for him to express all of the things that he learned about war. The main theme of Fallen Angels is the loss of innocence that war brings.

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Jaime Vega Taylor D.C. U.S History 5 December 2017 The Killer Angels "The Killer Angels" is a historical novel written by Michael Shaara in 1974. The novel is about the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg which is viewed from various perspectives that took place during the American Civil War. The story takes place between June 30, 1963 when both the Union and the Confederacy soldiers prepare for battle around the town of Gettysburg and the 1st to 3rd of July 1973 when the battle takes place.

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Bloody Angels “It rained all that night. The next day was Saturday fourth of july”. This was the last day of the Gettysburg 3 day battle. This is found in pg. 345 of novel “The Killer Angels”.

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During his conversation with Belize, Louis blatantly states, “…there are no gods here, no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America…” (Kushner 98). Analyzing this statement, taking the whole play into account, one may argue that this statement is supported. Oftentimes, the presence of gods, angels, and even spirits implies that there is the possibility for these entities to improve the lives of various individuals by lessening their hardships. However, the fact that things such as AIDS, Harper’s insanity, the falling apart of relationships, and Joe’s homosexuality, even exist and have to be suffered by individuals throughout the play hints that these “magical beings” don’t exist.

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In addition to that, the author allows the readers to see what it was like to be in the middle of the most tragic history

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We can all agree that today's world affects our decisions. The extent of the effect varies depending on what time period people live in. Not only do outside forces affect our decisions in the real world, but we can also see people's decisions getting swayed depending on the time period in literature also. A field of study that examines decisions based on time period in literature is called new historicism. New historicism is shown greatly in the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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The Bernie Sanders campaign’s “America” ad, featuring a homonymous Simon and Garfunkel song, is undoubtedly a positive ad, filled with warmth, hope and enthusiasm. The minute-long advertisement switches focus from the candidate to the voters, or the American people. Using classic American images, a familiar folk-style soundtrack and footage of children and family, “America” appeals to optimism and quaint patriotism, especially those of Iowans who are the primary target of the ad. The ad opens with the shot of a snowy day, with wind turbines in the background. The image brings viewers Iowa to relate whatever else happens in the rest of the ad, since Iowa is one of the “top states for installed wind capacity.”

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All Greek plays were musicals, thanks to the chorus, a group of 15 men who sang and danced during the plays. The chorus was paid for and maintained by the choregus, performed in all shows, and underwent extensive training. For a while, the chorus performed alongside the speaking actors, but over time, the chorus and actors separated and essentially alternated, with the chorus performing in between chunks of the play. The final important feature of Greek theatre was masks. The performers were masked, which were carefully constructed to amplify the performer’s voices and to provide information.

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English theater was criticized in its early days, Christianity decrees ensured that theater was practically unheard of for hundreds of years. That all changed when the church itself resurrected theater for its own use in the middle ages. It started Miracle Plays that portrayed stories of the bible. This, however, started theater groups that started portraying their own plays for profit and entertainment. All of these early English plays were solely made, portrayed, played and viewed by males of the era.

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I was lucky enough to be able to watch Angels in America more than once. Each performance allowed me to focus on any details or dialogue that I had potentially missed, and it enabled me to be able to spot the differences from each performance. Overall, I was beyond impressed with the production. Having news reports from the 1980’s being played during the transitions from scene to scene was absolutely genius. It was such a good filler, and it just made the performance feel almost live.

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Aeschylus’s speeches were elegant, while Sophocles speeches were direct and understandable. The last thing that separates Sophocles from dramatists of the fifth century was his self-criticism. Unlike any other dramatist in the fifth century Sophocles left opinions on his own work. This allowed him to correct his mistakes and develop himself as a dramatist. There were multiple great dramatists during Sophocles time, but he was the best due to his uniqueness and

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Studying plays as Oedipus Rex and Hamlet is a vital part of studying literature since they are timeless works that teach many lessons. Moreover, they still have some concepts to be unmasked by critics of literature. According to Aristotle tragedy is ''a form of drama based on human misery that arouses in its audience feelings of pity and fear'' and each tragedy must have a tragic hero. Tragedy began in the ancient Greek theatre where tragedies were performed in late March to early April at an annual religious festival in honour of Dionysus. () One of the most famous tragedies in that period is Oedipus Rex which was written by Sophocles.

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SHUBH MITTAL IBDP XII B D-BLOCK Paper 2 Essay Context: Historical, Political, Economic, Cultural, or Social can have an influence on the way literary works are written or received. Discuss with reference to two literary works that you have studied. Writer’s use of context acts as a driving force enabling and shaping literature.

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