The Symbolic Meaning of the Hold Button... While facing a life-threatening illness, one tries to hold on and control things around them. This is very prevalent in Angels in America by Tony Kushner. The hold button that Roy uses contains symbolism in regards to his control over his life, but also his control over words and their meanings. Through this, one can see his continuing attempts to gain more control over his life as it is slipping away from him. Not only is Roy’s use of the hold button symbolic of his repressed gay identity, but it also enables him to assert his dominance and control over words and others. Throughout the play, even if Roy does not expressly use the word “hold,” the meaning can still be gleaned to symbolize his holding …show more content…
down or suppressing his identity as a gay man and his rejection of the meaning of certain words. One example is when Roy says to his doctor, Henry, “Homosexuals are men who in fifteen years of trying cannot pass a pissant antidiscrimination bill through City Council. Homosexuals are men who know nobody and nobody knows”(46). Roy is afraid of what “homosexual” connotes to him and what it will mean for his career and standing in society; the word also carries his own confirmation of his failure as he sees any hint of him as being homosexual as a falsity unto his character as a person. “Homosexuals are men who know nobody and nobody knows” clearly expresses his fear of being alone and helpless in a way as he will not be able to “hold” down or assert his power over people, leaving him useless. “Nobody knows” clearly expresses his fear of being cast aside and looked down upon by society thus having no say in everything that affects him. This can clearly be seen in his outrage over being disbarred. An example of Roy commenting on how society looks down upon him and his own insecurities relating to his identity is when he says to Martin in the presence of Joe, “The disbarment committee: genteel gentlemen Brahmin lawyers, country-club men. I offend them, to these men I’m what, Martin? Some sort of filthy Jewish troll?”(69) “Some sort of filthy Jewish troll?” indicates that Roy views himself as not being good enough since he thinks, despite his status of power, he does not have the authority to stop himself from being disbarred. This lack of power to stop his disbarment indicates to him that he is losing his power in society because of his religion. Roy’s problem with words and labels extends throughout the play as he again tries to assert and overpower the connotations of words. An example of this is when Roy tries to take away power from the word “homosexual” in order to demean and take away the power that it has over him. He also does not want “homosexual” to define him because it would lower his social stature and the way that he views himself. “You are hung up on words, on labels, that you believe they mean what they seem to mean. AIDS. Gay. Lesbian. You think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with, but they don’t tell you that”(46). This is a prime example of Roy trying to devalue the meaning of words, in order to reinstate his place of power. In this same passage, he takes away the upper hand that the doctor had over him with the revelation of him having AIDS by threatening to sue him find passage. “They don’t tell you that” shows very clearly that Roy is denying everything and his obstinacy towards Henry further solidifies that. Roy’s focus on labels is also important because he self identifies as Jewish, but it is ironic that Roy tells Henry to not be hung up on labels because Roy continually uses his Jewish heritage as an excuse for being disbarred “Some sort of filthy Jewish troll”? The hold button can be applied here as he is holding back who he is from everyone including himself. The use of hold symbolizes him trying to gain back control over his life as his illness and later the threat of being disbarred starts to gain control over him. Roy’s use of the hold button on the telephone is used frequently when Roy is in front of Joe.
This use shows the power that he exerts over people showing that he is the boss and that he is all-important. An example of this is when he talks to Harry, “You hold. I pay you to hold”(13). This dominance over his clients defines his character as wanting to be in control of his life in that he has the authority to say who speaks and who doesn’t. “I pay you to hold” also shows that Roy is putting people in their place, or in their social place in the hierarchy therefore elevating his own importance. Another prominent example of Roy imposing his dominance over people is with Belize. By now, Roy’s disease has basically rendered him helpless, which he tries to reverse through his dialogue and how he masks his pain with a stoic front. “And get me a real phone, with a hold button” (155). This quote emphasizes him wanting to feel powerful given his circumstances; here, he is bedridden and constantly has searing pains. Furthermore, he is going to get disbarred eliminating his place in social society. Therefore, this phone with the hold button essentially brings him back to when he was healthy and in control of his life. His request to have the phone with the hold button allows Roy to retake control over his life. “Don’t start jabbing that goddamned spigot in my arm till you find the fucking vein or I’ll sue you so bad they’ll repossess your teeth”(151). This blatant show of power on the part of Roy clearly shows his arrogance and sense of self-worth as well as him trying to assert his dominance and his power as a lawyer over Belize who he deems as inferior to him. His threat of suing Belize is important as even from his place of weakness, he still wants to be important and carry power in a place where he does not have any. As the play progresses, the meaning of “hold” begins to gain a slightly different meaning from gaining power to holding power. As can be seen through
“I’ll sue you so bad they’ll repossess your teeth” (151), Roy is trying to hold on to the remaining power that he has as the threat of being sued is still within his power. However, at the end of his life when he has been disbarred, that power and authority is taken away from him leaving his only position of power over Ethel and pretending to die in order to make Ethel sing. When Roy dies, his last line is “Remember that, OK? A fucking-Hold”(255); this use of “hold” as his last line holds several meanings. The use of it represents him trying to keep ahold of his life, even at his last breath, as well as trying to assert himself over Ethel and death in a way by dying on his own terms. Through the use of the hold button, he is again putting himself in power as he has none left: he is disbarred and he is bedridden; meanwhile through this action, he cheats death by putting his life on pause thus dying on his own terms. The stage directions, “(Punching an imaginary button with his finger)”, (255) revisits the beginning of the book when Roy was in a position of power and dictated everything. This further reinforces the idea that Roy is indeed ending his life on his own terms. At Roy’s death, the implication of him tricking Ethel into singing to him, is the final example of him making himself more powerful than Ethel who had been revisiting him from the dead to assert her own power over him and to challenge him. This reversal of power from Roy being the person who prosecuted Ethel to Ethel now judging Roy and therefore replacing him as judge. “I just wanted to see if I could finally, finally make Ethel Rosenberg sing! I WIN”(255)! “I WIN!” clearly shows Roy’s hierarchic thinking as he declares himself the winner. Ethel also represents death as she is revisiting him from the dead to mock his powerlessness over his fate and everything that he previously controlled. By being a winner from his view, he is cheating death by forcing death to do his bidding. Another symbolic moment when Roy presses the hold button in front of Ethel is that during the whole play, Ethel shows up when Roy is at his weakest; however, when Roy dies, he presses the hold button in front of her asserting himself over death and attempts to regain his power in front of Ethel. In conclusion, the hold button contains symbolism as it shows how Roy tries to regain control over his life even at death. Through Roy asserting and commanding things in his life, he shows his power over people; however, this power is taken away when he becomes bedridden and eventually disbarred. The hold button represents his overall hold on people, his life, and especially words.
As soon as the king leaves, Falstaff immediately proclaims his unashamed cowardice, asking Hal to protect him in battle. The prince retorts with an insult to Falstaff’s enormous size, and abruptly bids him farewell. Gone are the jests that would accompany a conversation between these two at the beginning of the play, and Hal’s reactions to Falstaff now represent his moving away from the tavern world, and that he now belongs to the court world. Falstaff is extremely honest about his feelings towards the whole affair, bluntly stating that he wishes it all were over, exposing his strong reluctance to fight and interest in self-preservation. Again the prince offers only a rude retort before his ...
“Fallen Angels”, written by Walter Dean Myers, is a novel that tells about the story of young boys going into battle during the Vietnam War. There are many themes in “Fallen Angels” but the main theme is the loss of innocence. The title makes reference to these themes. And the boys in the book have dreams of losing their virginity and drinking alcohol for the first time. They are thrown into a harsh reality when they are shown the trials of war. In the end, they understand that the movies that depict heroicness and honor are just images of a false idea; that war is full of chaos and horror.
The American Civil war is considered to be one of the most defining moments in American history. It is the war that shaped the social, political and economic structure with a broader prospect of unifying the states and hence leading to this ideal nation of unified states as it is today. In the book “Confederates in the Attic”, the author Tony Horwitz gives an account of his year long exploration through the places where the U.S. Civil War was fought. He took his childhood interest in the Civil War to a new level by traveling around the South in search of Civil War relics, battle fields, and most importantly stories. The title “Confederates in the Attic”: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War carries two meanings in Tony Horwitz’s thoughtful and entertaining exploration of the role of the American Civil War in the modern world of the South. The first meaning alludes to Horwitz’s personal interest in the war. As the grandson of a Russian Jew, Horwitz was raised in the North but early in his childhood developed a fascination with the South’s myth and history. He tells readers that as a child he wrote about the war and even constructed a mural of significant battles in the attic of his own home. The second meaning refers to regional memory, the importance or lack thereof yet attached to this momentous national event. As Horwitz visits the sites throughout the South, he encounters unreconstructed rebels who still hold to outdated beliefs. He also meets groups of “re-enactors,” devotees who attempt to relive the experience of the soldier’s life and death. One of his most disheartening and yet unsurprising realizations is that attitudes towards the war divide along racial lines. Too many whites wrap the memory in nostalgia, refusing...
The novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara depicts the story behind one of the bloodiest, and highly significant, battles of the American Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg. The battle consisted of 51,000-casualties between the Union and Confederate army forces. Mainly focused on letters, journal entries, and memoirs, Shaara tells the story of Gettysburg by using characters from both sides of the war. The characters chosen grasp the divergent views regarding the impending days of the war, and countless numbers of those views develop throughout the novel. Such views come from the Confederates own General Lee and General Longstreet, and the Unions own Colonel Chamberlain and soldiers from both sides. From those depicted
Symbolism In "The Things They Carried" In Tim O'Brien's story "The Things They Carried" we see how O'Brien uses symbolism in order to indirectly give us a message and help us to connect to what the soldiers are thinking and feeling. During a war, soldiers tend to take with them items from home, kind of as a security blanket. The items they normally take with them tend to reveal certain characteristics of their personality. Henry Dobbins is the guy who loves to eat, so he made sure he took some extra food. Ted Lavender was the scaredy cat of the group, so he carried tranquilizers with him.
Killer Angels, written by Michael Shaara, takes place in Gettysburg in the year of 1863. Prohibiting slavery in the states that did not yet become states triggered the start of the Civil War. Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay was where the war was triggered by the Confederate Army opening fire on the federal garrison and forced it to surrender. For three long years, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia delayed attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac. All principal confederate armies surrendered by the spring of 1865.
In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the interconnection of people and events, that might ordinarily be viewed as disconnected or unrelated, is implicitly presented in the characters section. Dual roles are implemented by a playwright that has one actor portraying the roles of two or more characters, with or without thematic intentions. The use of “dual roles” in several scenes of this play can be viewed as a demonstration of Kushner’s effort in maintaining the interconnectedness between characters, communities (i.e. queer, heterosexual, AIDS and political communities) and events to which they are relative. This essay will argue that Kushner’s use of dual role’s effectively interconnects characters, events and their communities that may be seen as usually unrelated. Analysis of four specific characters, Antarctica, Oceania, Australia and Europa, in Act Five, Scene Five of “Perestroika”, will demonstrate the connection of each Act Five, Scene Five character, to the actors main character based on the implicit evidence presented in the actors “primary” and “secondary” roles, the scenes dialogue and the character interactions. As one will see, by implementing dual roles, Kushner is able to expand or preserve the concept of a major character while the actor portrays another character, keeping the audience from having to completely renegotiate their knowledge between what they physically see of new characters and actually use the new context to view triumphs and struggles for a major character.
Tony Kushner, in his play Angels in America, explores a multitude of issues pertaining to modern American society including, but not limited to, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Through his diverse character selection, he is able to compare and contrast the many varied experiences that Americans might face today. Through it all, the characters’ lives are all linked together through a common thread: progress, both personal and public. Kushner offers insight on this topic by allowing his characters to discuss what it means to make progress and allowing them to change in their own ways. Careful observation of certain patterns reveals that, in the scope of the play, progress is cyclical in that it follows a sequential process of rootlessness, desire, and sacrifice, which repeats itself.
... to his regular spot in the sun field and Earl hit him some long flies, all of which he ran for and caught with gusto, even those that went close to the wall, which was unusual for him because he didn’t like to go too near it.” (51) In this description of Bump’s work habits, the reader sees that Roy’s presence affects the other players on the team. Bump starts working hard and the team begins winning more and more games. Malamud’s visual, tactile, and auditory imagery dominate the relationship between Bump and Roy.
This poem dramatizes the conflict between love and lust, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say about last night. In the poem “Last Night” by Sharon Olds, the narrator uses symbolism and sexual innuendo to reflect on her lust for her partner from the night before. The narrator refers to her night by stating, “Love? It was more like dragonflies in the sun, 100 degrees at noon.” (2, 3) She describes it as being not as great as she imagined it to be and not being love, but lust. Olds uses lust, sex and symbolism as the themes in the story about “Last night”.
Authors use literary elements throughout short stories to give an overall effect on the message they give in the story. In his short story, “Doe Season” by Michael Kaplan, illustrates a theme(s) of the hardships of not wanting to face the reality of death, losing of innocence and the initiation of growing up. Kaplans theme is contributed by symbolism, characterization, setting and foreshadowing.
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. We have all heard this cliché at least once in our lifetime. But how many times have we ever followed through with this expression? The author Raymond Carver writes about an experience where a couple is visited by the wife’s acquaintance Robert, whose wife has recently passed. The fact that Robert is blind belittles him in the eyes of the narrator, causing tension and misjudgment. In “Cathedral”, Carver uses irony, point of view, and symbolism to show the difference between looking and truly seeing.
My theme of my visual essay is the Dome of the Rock and the controversy that surrounds it. The images for my visual essay are arranged in the order through which I plan to write my final research paper. The Dome of the rock is a 7th century building located in Jerusalem at the visual center of a platform known as the Temple Mount (which is illustrated in the first image). The name of the original sponsor of the building was Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik in 691 C.E. (Grabar, The Dome of the Rock 62). The second image is intended to aid in the visualization of the Dome of the Rock, not as a mosque, but rather an Islamic shrine that was built over a sacred site. However, exactly which sacred site it is, is still up for debate. Three different religious traditions have significance associated with this site. I am curious to examine how the significance of the Dome of the Rock for each religious tradition effects how it is portrayed in religious art.
August Wilson uses the symbol of a 'fence' in his play, Fences, in numerous occasions. Three of the most important occasions fences are symbolized are by protection, Rose Maxson and Troy Maxson's relationship, and Troy against Mr. Death. Throughout the play, characters create 'fences' symbolically and physically to be protected or to protect. Examples such as Rose protecting herself from Troy and Troy protecting himself form Death. This play focuses on the symbol of a fence which helps readers receive a better understanding of these events. The characters' lives mentioned change around the fence building project which serves as both a literal and a figurative symbol, representing the relationships that bond and break in the backyard.