Those People: A Look at Demonic Otherness and Homosexuality in Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in Kushner's Angels in America Say No to Plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe arts and humanities have served not only as social and political barometers of their representative eras, but also as warning voices pointing to the future. Both Tennessee Williams and Tony Kushner have incorporated the voices of marginalized people into their playwriting. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams animates the fractured relationships of a Southern family and its relationship with the truth, astutely alluding to the foundations of same-sex relationships and reflecting on their place in the South; Kushner examines this same marginalized group in Angels in America, but places homosexuality at the forefront of the culture. Each playwright addresses the subjugated group from a unique perspective: Kushner, directly; Williams, indirectly. Although Williams and Kushner use different techniques to present homosexuality and its relationship in contemporary social stratification, both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Angels in America comment on the representation of the homosexual as “other” – a creature to be feared and persecuted. How is this “other” initially constructed? The principles of both egocentric and ethnocentric thinking lead to the dismantling of culture and the subjugation of others outside of the traditional social image. As Ann Dobie notes, the process of othering – through which individuals see and interpret those who are in some way different from the social norm – is central to the stratification of culture (Dobie 189). It is this stratification that justifies hierarchies and the distribution of wealth and power within a class system. Sometimes the dominant class or culture sees another group as evil because of its traditions or practices. This process, according to Dobie, is known as demonic otherness (189). Neither Williams nor Kushner practice otherness in the representation of their respective gay characters; instead they allow their characters to directly reflect American society, so that the process of othering is cast in a new light. However, they also subtly complicate the issue of homosexuality in America by allowing their characters to hide their orientations. Dobie calls this related process mimicry, or an attempt by the marginalized group to disguise itself in order to become a more equal and functioning part of the norm (190). For example, Williams gives Brick Pollitt alcoholism to mask his sexual ambiguities. This then allows other characters to swap one perceived illness for another. Likewise, Kushner has Roy Cohn, one of his homosexual characters, denounce his sexuality and AIDS infection: “AIDS is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer." (Kushner 913) With this statement Kushner succinctly summarizes the nature of mimicry and attributes the behavior to homosexual stereotypes and the American social climate. Both authors recognize that displaying sexual deviance can be a mistake of unforgivable proportions. Both agree that their characters are better suited to cloak themselves behind alcohol, semantics, and outright lies rather than risk being devalued by family, society, and even America as a whole. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof does not directly affirm a homosexual connection. Williams indirectly spins the topic, referring to Brick's relationship with his best friend, Skipper, and theirs“unnatural” friendship. The audience is introduced to Brick as an alcoholic. Brick's wife and the rest of the Pollitt family accompany him with these claims during Act I. However, as the play evolves, Brick's relationship with Skipper is brought into the spotlight. Maggie stabs her husband, evading a homosexual relationship in the first act when she mentions Skipper and accuses: "Oh, sorry, forgive me, but the laws of silence don't work!" (Williams 32) This reference to silence is linked to Williams' use of indirect inferences to Brick's ambiguous sexuality: none of the characters want to talk about it. However, it is Skipper's death that Williams uses as a subtle interface between the. homosexuality and American society. As Marie Napierkowski notes, a writer often "kills off a character whose actions or presence contradict or threaten society's most cherished mores" and thus does not threaten the status quo with a measurement of morality (Napierkowski 198). Instead Brick is left to consider his own worth - homosexuality included - in the world around him. He chooses to hide behind alcohol abuse not only to reconcile his own feelings of inadequacy, but also to fit into his family's and prescribed normality. , on a larger scale, of America Brick states his perceptions regarding the social strata of gay men when he talks about the original owners of the plantation and states, “Straw? A couple of... fucking sissies?..." (Mae also chimes in, referring again.) to the "unnatural" relationship in question. Through these jokes and machinations, Williams makes a strong statement about American culture and the demonization of homosexuals without ever directly associating the nickname with Brick. The underlying inferences in the dialogue alternating with silence allow the audience to get a sense of the truth, while keeping the moral dilemma safely in the closet pomp and circumstance of a “Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” Such an introduction leaves little to the imagination, other than the light in which the characters will be portrayed. Kushner makes no apologies for the mannerisms of his production; , the cast is employed in multiple roles and the dialogue is spoken outside the confines of space and time. Kushner's methods allow him to get the most out of his characters' interactions while the simultaneous dialogue creates a strong sense of urgency for. the moment. It is this urgency that increases otherness in the cast of homosexual characters. For example, in Act I scene 8 there are multiple dialogues occurring simultaneously: Joe and Harper are at home, while Louis and Prior argue in bed. Harper rhetorically states that she fears her husband is gay, attributing some of his dysfunction to his latent sexual desires. At the same time, Prior tells Louis about the terrible symptoms associated with AIDS, a disease closely linked to the gay community in the play. Kushner does not poeticize the disease and, in fact, commenting on homophobia, equates the new epidemic with a plague of "faggots". He's not one to mince words; his work comes at you like a sack of bricks, direct, blunt and textually obvious (if subtextually elusive). Aside from the otherness associated with AIDS and the general fear and persecution, Kushner uses his characters as obstacles to perpetuate separatism. As Ross Posnock notes, Kushner's illustrations of the Roy Cohn character create a “pathologically conflicted and self-loathing” individual who is representative of so many homosexuals in American culture (Posnock 66). Cohn refuses to declare allegiance to the gay community, as evidenced in his dialogue with his doctor when he discovers that he also has AIDS. He proclaims his hatred for homosexuals, 2004.