Primary text: glee “duets” episode
Secondary text: “how to watch your brother die” Michael Lassell
- Both are dealing with homosexuality in society
- In Lassell’s poem, the narrator’s brother is gay and is dying. The narrator neglected his brother for years because he was not comfortable with the fact that he was gay. Then in the very last days of his brother’s life, the narrator comes back and tries to be there for him. He tries to bring him medicine and the reader sees how sad that narrator is that he is loosing his brother. The reader sees a flip in the narrators’ personality and views of gay people. At first, he is completely against them and thinks that it is wrong to be gay so he cuts his own brother out of his life. Then, the reader sees the narrator trying to understand and comfort his dying brother’s partner. After, as his brother is dying, the reader sees how the narrator is sad and he, for example, gets mad at the priest. But finally at the end of the poem, it is clear that the narrator is still against gay people in society for he knows that his children will be raised “without challenge”
- In the Glee episode, there is a new boy named Sam that comes into the Glee club. The assignment of the week is to perform duets with people within the club. A boy named Kirk, who is gay, wants to do his duet with the new guy Sam, but other people object to this. Kirk asks Sam to sing with him and he says yes, because he doesn’t know what else to say, but other people tell Kirk that it was not right of his to do so. The other people are trying to look after Sam and tell Kirk that by making his first appearance singing with Kirk on stage, people may get the wrong idea that Sam is also gay and they wouldn’t want him to start of with a bad reputation. The other people tell Kirk to be conscious this and not damper the new kids reputation, and it makes him really upset. He proceeds to tell Sam that he does not want to do the duet with him, rather he performs a duet by himself playing the part of a female and male making the statement that men can do anything that females can do no matter what society says.
- The comparison between the poem and the TV show is that they both deal with homosexuality in society. My thesis will be developed as I begin to write my essay, but it will be something along the lines of how society perceives what is right from wrong and whom people should loved based on their sexual orientation. I think that these two texts will be good to use as a primary and as a secondary because they both have the same conflicts.
Hi Jackie!
ReplyDeleteI like the two texts you chose. As you work through your thesis, let me know if you have questions. I would consider using Lassel's as the primary text and think about arguing that despite the process the narrator goes through to accept his dying brother for who he is, in the end, he still sees homosexuality as a challenge and something he certainly doesn't want his own kids to go through.
Your secondary can then be Glee, and you can talk about how this either contradicts or goes along with the argument you're making about Lassel's text. Hope this helps!