Progress In Joseph Kushner's Angels In America

Joseph Pitt: The Silent Progression
What is progress? How do we measure progress? Who has the answers for these questions? Tony Kushner’s Angels in America helps give the reader insight on these questions. Through the use of characters that he creates in his play, Kushner is able to help kindle the curiosity in the reader and helps generate thinking. In the case of Joe Pitt; whether he did or didn’t progress can be debated. Kushner started off the play by placing Joe in a loving relationship with a wife, in which major communication problems existed. Joe then seems to slowly lose everyone and everything by the end of the book, from an outsider’s perspective. Although Joe seems to lose all of his material possessions by the end of the play, Kushner portrays Joe as progressing emotionally through his change in behavior and habits. Discussion about the idea of progress cannot commence until some background information is covered. For instance, we must realize that progress can only occur through change. And what is change? The concept is easy to understand, but

Joe is the center of the universe. In the beginning of the play he has everything and everyone but he does not like himself. He describes himself as an empty shell, “nothing left to kill,” (Millennium Approaches 46). Although he may be Mr. Popular, Joe is not happy with his life. As the play continues, Joe eventually loses his mother, Harper and Luis. He is alone; he has no job opportunity in Washington because Roy has died. But Joe is happy. Joe has finally faced unlocked that “hidden thing” and he has embraced it. Joe’s secret exists no more, and he gains that confidence and sureness that he was missing. Although Joe loses everyone else, he finds himself. And as we know, Joe’s happiness comes from how he sees himself. How can someone expect another to love them if they do not love themselves? Joe demonstrates progression in that he finally learns to love