Princess Harmon Harmon 1

Mrs. Singleton

EN 373

17 February 2011
The New Laramie

A utopian society is a place that everyone desires to go to experience the pleasures of living

without worry. What happens when your utopia is not as perfect as you thought it was? The Laramie

Project, by Moises Kaufman, is a play about a small towns search for identity after the murder of

Matthew Sheppard, which was labeled a hate crime. The fear that the residents have when confronting an

identity that they never suspected would be associated with the small town of Laramie, coupled with their

confusion while identifying themselves to the theatre group, showed how one event could bring out the

characteristics that lay dormant in a community; and in society. Jedadiah Schultz is one of the only

people who are interviewed who has a realistic view of Laramie. He mentions what is really going on in

Laramie pointing out the good as well as the bad. Others only begin to admit to the problems that

Laramie has along with the fact that Laramie was not the safe, community oriented, “live and let live”

(17) community that its residents described it as, after the death of twenty-one year old Matthew

Sheppard. Some of the other residents who were interviewed have a purified view of Laramie. Others

know the reality of the situation in Laramie but do not want to believe that the town that have lived in all

their lives could display such “unLaramie-like” (Kaufman) values. I also felt that either they did not know

what to think or they were afraid that what they might say would make things worse. The conflicting

views on Laramie’s identity confuse me, because I am the type of person who believes strongly in

identity and I have a strong sense of identity myself.

The people of Laramie have a difficult time acknowledging that Laramie is not perfect partly

because the illusion of the purity of Laramie is so clear and vivid. They do not want to admit that the

Laramie of yesterday is not so different from the Laramie of today. The Laramie of yesterday is described

as safer than anywhere else (7). The community is also characterized by the fact that everyone knows

everyone else and “if you don’t know a person, you will definitely know someone they know” (8). The

fact that the people who killed Matthew Shepard are not outsiders, but a part of the community, is what
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forces the citizens into denial. As Jeffrey Lockwood states during his interview, “[His] secret hope was

that they were from somewhere else…we don’t grow children like that here” (46). They do not want to

believe that a child who was born and raised in Laramie, a town formally known for its peacefulness,

safety, and comfortable community could commit such a heinous crime. The Laramie of today frightens

them when it forces them to question their own identity as a community. Even after the brutal beating and

death of Matthew, the glamorized view of Laramie still exists. Doc O’Connor confirmed this when he

assumed that “the last thing [Matt] saw on earth was the sparkling lights.” (99) This made me realize that

we all have illusions about the places we live and the people we hang out with because of our faith and

pride in our home and community.

Jedadiah Schultz is the first to acknowledge the difference between the illusion of Laramie in the

citizen’s minds, and the real Laramie that hid behind it, by saying “if you would have asked me before, I

would have told you Laramie is a beautiful town…now…I would say that Laramie is a town defined by

an accident” (9). Not only is the way that the people see their town completely destroyed, but the

reputation that the media has given the small town is going to define them. Jedadiah also mentions the

topics that might become issues in the households of the families of Laramie. He discusses how the first

time his parents do not support what he considered the most important event in his life, he happened to be

playing the part of a homosexual. He addresses the problems of the town as well as the personal problems

the community might be faced with. In his way he is telling the world that Laramie’s problems started at

home and spread to the rest of the community. This is something I know for a fact from observing the

different people who live in my own community. I realize that the image of your community is like the

image you have of yourself. My pride in myself is directly linked (in a way)to the pride I have in my

community, since I know that all the things that are happening in the community are connected to the way

we raise our children and what we teach them and show them as they are growing up; the biases we place

upon their shoulders that they carry out into the world as young adults.

A few of the residents who are questioned about the death of Matthew do not bother to hide the

fact that Laramie is not perfect though they covered their tracks by saying that everyone knows that
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whatever you do that is not considered a Laramie value (17) keep it to yourself. Catherine Connolly

mentions in her interview how another lesbian who heard of her sexual affiliation called her and spoke to

her mentioning that “there were other lesbians she knew who wouldn’t be seen with [her]…[she] would

irreparably taint them” (22). This statement highlights the fact that although everyone wants to say that

the motto of Laramie is “lives and let live”(17), everyone knows not to be openly gay or to showcase any

“unlaramie”-like values(). By “live and let live” (17) what they are actually saying is close to the former

“don’t ask, don’t tell” of the military. The woman that Ms. Connolly talked to knew the real deal about

Laramie but for her it was still a don’t ask don’t tell situation. If no one knows that you are gay, there is

no way for them to discriminate against you. If you are openly gay, how do you expect people to respect

your choice while at the same time disagree with it? I feel that you should not have to hide who you are.

Though I am aware that there is no way to transform our society into a utopian one, we should have at

least a little bit of respect and tolerance for other people’s lifestyles. I enjoy knowing the real person and

not the outer layer of what they want everyone else to see and I allow other people to see me and not just

who they want to see or who I want them to see. The gays and lesbians of Laramie allowed who they are

to be stifled by the community. The amount of homosexuals that everyone is saying there are in Laramie

should be enough to make a major change in the views of the heterosexuals if they will only let people

know who they were instead of hiding behind a façade.

The confusion concerning the identity of Laramie in the play shows an important part of what is

going on in society today. People try to hide who they are and do not want to let people know the real

them for fear of being rejected or they do not know who they are because people try to dictate to them

who they should be. You have to realize that friendship and community is a sort of tolerance and

acceptance within a group and you will not always be accepted. Society also has difficulty admitting

when there is a problem. We try to glamorize everything when in reality if we do not admit to the

problem there is no way that we can fix it. Laramie finds this out the hard way, with their reputation

tarnished and a loss of communal identity. I can not imagine the loss or even the questionability of

identity. I now understand the kind of things that could cause such a traumatic event and that some
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characteristics can be so far below the surface that we do not even realize that they are resurfacing until

they blow up in our faces. Even when other people who are outside of our community are aware of

whom we are, we sometimes choose to ignore them. We want to believe that everyone else is wrong,

which is what Laramie faced with the media. The media only confused the town even more and hindered

their discovery of their identity. I could not imagine such confusion over identity, which is why this

portion of the play caught my attention, and because identity is so important to everyone that I can’t

imagine the chaos that it might cause any city or suburb, better yet a small community oriented town like

Laramie.

On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this work.
Signed:______________________________________________________________________

I do not know of any violations of the honor code.

Signed:______________________________________________________________________
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