The cultural environment of Matthew Shepard is dominated by Christianity in a small town. The priests, although saddened, stood by their beliefs concerning homosexuality. All it takes is one and in this case two extremists to take a belief to the next level. In the small town, everyone knows each other, and everyone knew about Shepard. The two men took advantage of the situation and even admitted to their dislike of homosexuals. However, this could have taken place anywhere and Laramie received a bad image. Any person with an unstable mind and hatred could have performed these acts. The hatred, however, is the issue. The ideas of homosexuality as a sin was exaggerated by the two men. Had they never been exposed to these ideas, the crime may have been avoided in Laramie.
The play jumps between time and speakers frequently. Part of this reflects the commotion of the city at the time. The crime created a massive media sensation that interfered with the lives of the people of Laramie. The confusion and desire for answers is also displayed by the short scenes. Everyone was looking for closure at the same time, requiring the jumps between characters. This play had little physical actions and contained mainly dialogue. A conventional play would have been drawn out with individual interviews. The skipping presented multiple views of one topic allowing for reader interest.
An article by Fox News investigated a new book, The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard, by Stephen Jimenez. Jimenez claims to have discovered evidence that supports the murder as a drug related crime and not a hate crime. According to him, McKinney was accustomed to gays and robbed Shepard for money to buy drugs (the lack of drugs causing him to temporarily be insane.) If these facts are true this could certainly eliminate the controversy of a hate crime. Either way the murder is wrong, but motive would have definitely changed. This still doesn’t change the need for resulting laws and awareness. The murder would have been overplayed by the media and nation because of misunderstanding. This does not affect me much, a lot of people die over drugs everyday. It’s only disappointing that Matthew had no place in McKinney’s troubles.
Source:
- Miller, Joshua R. “Matthew Shepard Ntmurdered for Being Gay, New Book Claims.” Foxnews.com. Fox News, 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/23/book-claims-matthew-shepard-murdered-for-reasons-far-more-complicated-than/.
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Vital Info – 4
Overall Meaning – 3
Persoanlity/Voice – 4
Mechanics – 4
There’s insight here, but some of your replies feel a little perfunctory. The crimes occurred because Laramie is small and Christian…yeah, sure. Do any characters in the play challenge that idea? Which ones? What do they say? Providing some quotes would have allowed you to dig deeper and be more thoughtful. Do that next time.