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Act 2: Magnitude
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Laramie Project, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Homophobia, Tolerance, and Acceptance
Violence, Punishment, and Justice
Media and Community
Religion, Morality, and Prejudice
Theater and Representation
Summary
Analysis
In this moment, Stephen Belber tells Doc O’Connor that the interview team will be back for Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney’s criminal trials. Doc O’Connor states that he hopes they don’t put Aaron and Russell to death because Matthew Shepard would not want them to die—he would want to give the community hope, instead. According to Doc, hope is the crux of the entire incident.
As Doc O’Connor discusses why he doesn’t want Aaron and Russell to get the death penalty, he ushers in a conversation that dominates the third Act: about the proper punishment for heinous crimes and how punishment, like crime itself, affects the community at large.
Themes
