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Act 3: Aaron McKinney
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
Zackie Salmon talks about how, when the defense team tried to argue that Aaron McKinney killed Matthew Shepard because Matthew hit on him, she felt sick. Zackie thought it was an endorsement of that kind of reaction. Rebecca Hilliker, meanwhile, feels conflicted, because she thinks it is important to acknowledge that Matthew’s identity was a major factor in his attacker’s motivations, rather than the murder simply being the consequence of a normal robbery.
As Zackie and Rebecca express opposite reactions to the defense team’s strategy (which was pointing out that Aaron’s reaction was based in homophobia), they raise questions similar to Father Roger’s about whether describing anti-LGBT violence might actually be understood as an endorsement of it. The playwrights leave the answer ambiguous.
Themes
