Mind Map of Angels in America

Angels in America
Overview
Theme
Main Characters
Set in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the two-part Angels in America is at once realistic and transcendental. Loving relationships are torn apart, disease and its psychological disruptions must be dealt with, and angels—both physical and allegorical—appear, shedding light on the depravity of life in America.
Denial
The more Roy, Joe, Prior, and Louis deny their feelings and true identity, the more misery they feel.
Justisce
Louis wants the scalec, to be balanced, but the Ang. I says the world and its logic have collapsed.
Human Suffering
Characters feel abandoned by God as Joe fights his "immoral" urges, Roy suffers from narcissism, and Prior's illness and visions terrify him.
Louis
Young, Jewish gay man; works for the court
Prior
Young, artistic gay man; the Prophet
Hannah
Joe's reserved Mormon mother; befriends Prior
Joe
Closeted gay Mormon; clerk for a justice of a federal court
Belize
Drag queen and nurse
Roy Cohn
New York lawyer and political power broker; gay but in the closet
The Angel
Symbolizes judgment on American society and the chance to become pure again
Harper
Agoraphobic, pill-popping Mormon
Symbols
AIDS
Represents devastation because antibodies are powerless to protect against it
The Angel
Symbolizes judgment on American society and the chance to become pure again
Politics
Represents the worldly and corrupt, but also the arena where human freedom is enacted
Author
TONY KUSHNER BORN 1956
Screenwriter and playwright Kushner grew up an outsider in Louisiana but moved in 1974 to New York, the main setting for Angels in America. His experiences as a closeted gay Jew lend an edge to his plays, which often deal with change, loss, and politics.
Numbering
>8 million
People estimated to be living with HIV around the world by the end of 1990
2013
Year Kushner received the National Medal of Arts
2
Tony Awards for Best Play Angels in America received—in 1993 and 1994, for the two parts of the play
1987
Year the first antiretroviral drug, zidovudine (AZT), was approved by the FDA to treat HIV
32 1