Essay On Simulacra

To discuss the power of simulacra – why Prior can reject it, and why Roy and Joe cannot – we must establish how each character is affected by it. Power is the epitome of success for Roy Cohn. He wants to have it and be remembered it. To Roy, the antonym of power is gay. Gay is a status, not sexuality. He says this himself in his diatribe about homosexuals. Labels do not mean identity; they refer to “clout” (Kushner 45). Roy learns this from the nuclear environment he grows up in. He is a youth in the 30’s through 50’s when American society was strengthening the reigns on divergence. There was a movement to go enforce archaic, strict gender and sexuality norms. In an article for The New York Times titled “A Gay World, Vibrant and Forgotten,” George Chauncey talks about the oppression and silencing of gay men that occurred in the 30’s and beyond. …show more content…
The LGBT community had no rights; their identity was legally oppressed. Chauncey writes, “gay life became less visible and gay meeting places more segregated and carefully hidden from the straight public. The state built the closet in the 30 's, and the isolation of homosexuals made it easier for them to be demonized.” Representation and identity were retracted and demonized sending a whole community dormant. Gay identity was forced into hiding; no one could be open about who they were. LGBT people suffered as their silence was turned into a simulacra of powerlessness. This is the climate Roy grows up in. This simulacra powerlessness comes from seeing the gay community’s power taken away at every outlet. There were no successful gay men thriving in politics Roy could look up to. He did not exist. This causes a fundamental fracture in Roy: he is gay, but wants to be remarkable, and therefore has to hide his