Ryan Krumins
Aaron Ellis
THE2000
10/17/14
The Laramie Project As I was watching this film I could honestly say I was shocked. I’d never heard this story before or ever heard of Laramie, Wyoming in my life. The brutal beating of this homosexual boy and degrading of him as a person closely can relate to many of the books discussed so far in class. The Laramie Project certainly relates to Gem of the Ocean and many other books by again showing hate towards a specific group of people. In Gem of the Ocean it was against blacks and in the Laramie Project it was against homosexuals. Both of these books exemplify the author explaining it’s just another way of putting down the minority of the population and singling out specific groups of people that don’t fit in with the rest. The Laramie Project was about a very big unexpected event happening in a little quiet town that had no place in being on national news ever. The setting of this play takes place in Laramie, Wyoming. I really enjoy how the setting of this town contradicts the entire plot of the story. The author perceives the entire town as a very happy town that will let you thrive in doing any opportunity you want to do. The setting of this play is described through sets of interviews, all separately describing different parts of Laramie that is very innocent. The author also uses the mayor in the play to use foreshadowing by saying “ The Wyoming wind’ll drive a man insane”. Things suddenly weren’t as safe as people might have thought as Laramie, the small innocent town in the middle of nowhere, was seemingly the biggest town at one point in history when a kid named Matthew Sheppard was murdered. Matthew Sheppard was a pretty normal kid, and was described as always looking for new opportunities and new challenges. The only thing that was a little different about Matthew was that he was gay. In a bar called the Fireside Lounge in Wyoming, Matthew met two kids named Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. As they talked, it was decided these two kids were going to take him back home for the night. He never came back home again. Tied to a pole, beaten and bruised all over his body, dead. This little town had made a very big mistake and was about to be put all over the map. For my overall analysis and review of this play, I could honestly say I was a little skeptical about how the production had been made. The Laramie Project is a narrative that tries to present itself as a true story. As stated in the movie based on the interviews, Matthew clearly stated he had no problem admitting he was openly gay as he certainly wasn’t ashamed of his sexuality in any way. He wanted people to understand his homosexuality. When discussing the interviews in the movie, it seems very confusing as to what might have happened the night that Matthew got beaten when approached by McKinney and Henderson. Did he approach them or did they approach him? The way the interviews describe the entire story leave me to a be a little skeptical as editors can clearly alter the way the audience perceives a character based off of chosen interviews. Another misconception I believe that was in the plot was the fact that everyone believed the murder happened just because of the fact he was gay. If he