85 pages • 2 hours read
Moises KaufmanThe Laramie Project
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
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Act I, Moments 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Moments 11-13 Summary
“The Word” considers the reactions of Laramie’s religious leaders—the unnamed Baptist Minister, Stephen Mead Johnson, the Unitarian Minister, Doug Laws, the Mormon Stake Ecclesiastical leader, and Father Roger Schmit, a local Catholic Priest—to Matthew Shepard’s death. This section opens with the Baptist Minister preaching that the word of the Lord is “either sufficient or it is not” (35). Similarly, Doug Laws mentions the importance of the boundaries set for us by God. Stephen Mead Johnson notes that many of the conservative Christian pastors have been very quiet about the crime, and this ambivalent response made Father Schmit, who hosted a vigil for Matthew, particularly angry.
A different perspective on religion is provided in “The Scarf,” which takes material from an interview with Zubaida Ula, a young Muslim woman, feminist, and university student who has lived in Laramie since she was four. She began wearing a head scarf two years ago, after which people began to treat her differently and question her about her religious beliefs. She finds it surreal to think that a play about Laramie will be staged in New York.
The religious theme continues in “Lifestyle 1,” in which Amanda Gronich has a conversation with the Baptist Minister’s wife, requesting an interview with him. Initially, his wife refuses, telling Amanda that her husband has “very Biblical views about homosexuality” (37) and that while he doesn’t condone violence, he doesn’t approve of “that kind of lifestyle” (37) either. Amanda is sympathetic to the media bombardment the Minister suffered after Matthew’s death, so his wife agrees that she can call back at 9pm.
Act I, Moments 11-13 Analysis
These three moments consider the role that religion plays in Laramie generally, and the response of Laramie’s religious leaders to Matthew Shepard’s murder. Laramie’s religious landscape is diverse, consisting of conservative Christians, Mormons, Unitarians, Catholics and Muslims. As Stephen Mead Johnson notes, while the Catholic Church is not renowned as a liberal institution, in this case, it was the Catholic priest, Father Roger Schmit, who took the strongest stance in condemning the attack of Matthew Shepard. Other religious leaders, including the Baptist Minister and Mormon Stake leader Doug Laws, were more ambivalent in their response, lest they be seen to condone homosexuality, which the Baptist Minister’s wife refers to as a “lifestyle” (37). This idea that homosexuality is a lifestyle, something that people choose rather than part of their identity makes it easier for people like the Baptist Minister to condemn it, to suggest that a person is deliberately going against god’s wishes. The fact that Zubaida Ula’s decision to wear a head scarf also drew comments and questions in Laramie suggests that while religion might be a fundamental part of life there, not all religions are considered equal. This section asks us to consider the role that religion, and religious leaders in particular, play in maintaining a status quo that enables the prejudice that led to Matthew Shepard’s murder.
