The play, The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, uses long, uninterrupted monologues to show a character's full views about the murder of Matthew Shepard, and homosexuality in general. Juxtaposition is often used within a monologue to show the discrepancies that some people in the town feel about the Matthew Shepard incident. An example would be, “Moment: One of Ours.” In the previous moment, Harry Woods, and Matt Galloway give emotional interviews about all the support people had shown for Matt at the homecoming parade. However, this is all juxtaposed by Sherry Johnson’s monologue in the next moment, where she goes on to say, “A lot of it is my feeling that the media is portraying Matthew Shepard as a saint, and making kim a martyr. And I don’t think he was.” She then misinterprets facts about Matthew to justify her feelings about him. “It’s scary. You know about his character and spreading AIDS and a few other things, you know, being the kind of person that he was. He was, he was just …show more content…
The play uses juxtaposition and long monologues to show the perspectives that the residents of the town have. However, the play portrays Matthew as a symbol, so the reader does not have much of a connection with him. Since, the documentary focuses on creating a human image of Matthew, the viewer is able to feel a personal connection with Matthew, and know what he would have been like. On the other hand, the documentary is not able to depict the reactions of the residents of Laramie. The play, The Laramie Project, and the documentary, Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine, both focus on different elements of storytelling, but in both things are gained and things are