Hoey And Homosexuality

For centuries homosexuality was viewed as taboo but in actuality it has been present since the days of Alexander the Great. As of late people’s attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted in connotation. In the 1980’s, due to the HIV and AIDS epidemic gay men were looked down upon and isolated because people did not understand that the disease was sexually transmitted and could be given by direct contact. They just knew gay people were associated with the disease. These views contrast with new public attitudes towards homosexuality in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled same sex marriage as legal in all states of the United States. As time has progressed public views on homosexuality have become widely accepted in the world. However, in the …show more content…
The setting of this story was important to grasp because it impacted the characters’ decisions. In the beginning, descriptive phrases such as “coca colored” and “chocolate body” were used to indicate that this was a story about black people. The main character repeats that the young girls live in the “King Kennedy Projects” and were called “the Project girls” indicating that they lived in an impoverished black neighborhood. This is essential because in the past black communities, especially poor ones did not accept homosexuality in the home. This refusal to accept homosexuals created a negative attitude in the story. Hoey displays this through the usage of derogatory terms like “fag”, “faggot”, and the phrase “he had some sugar in his tank”. The author established a negative reaction by the black community towards the discovery of Augustine’s sexuality to emphasize the reason he jumped off the building in the first place. He could not be with the man he loved because he was scared people would not accept him. This rejection is depicted in the shift of syntax from the beginning of the story to the …show more content…
The author implicitly displayed how different people and communities feel about homosexuals through descriptive and colloquial diction, fragmented sentences, and a significant shift. The diction creates an image and attitude of disdain against gay people further emphasizing the importance of Augustine’s death. The broken-up sentences followed by the shift display the impact the community’s views have on an unbiased mind. Hoey utilizes these tools throughout the story to portray the importance of accepting people for what they are and how impactful one person or communities’ views can