Andre's Mother (Extra Credit)

In Terrence McNally's, "Andre's Mother", the play focuses on 4 people. The scene is a convesation between the people of Andre's death and his mother holding balloons in his memory. They reminice about Andre and how important he was. Cal, is Andre's partner and Andre has died. He was never really accepted into society as being gay, not even his mother has fully accepted him. In reading the play, Andre's mother is quiet and has no comment. Not one comment about anything that Cal is saying about her son. She is left there holding her balloon that she will have to eventually let go, listening to how good her son is. She is there miserable and trying to keep herself strong, but on the inside she is slowly breaking down. She is shocked and is left with regret for not accepting her son and not spending time in getting to know who her son really is. She hasnt given the chance to allow her son to live and express who he really is regardless of his sexual orientation. She is there not knowing how to react or feel, she feels sorrow and complete lonliness of the fact that if only she knew and accepted her gay son, he could have died knowing that he was accepted by the one person that he admired. Her body language, leaves it to the climax of the play. Throughout the whole time, she is left still and quiet and the audience is waiting for her to explode or break down in crying. But she continues to hold it together while the audience listens to Cal, on how Andre was a good person. They watch her very carefully even more so, as she is being still to see how she is breaking down on the inside. A sympolic spectacle in the play are the balloons. The 4 white balloons are held by each person. Each person lets go of their balloon one by one, as sign of accepting Andre as  human being for who he is and saying goodbye, and letting go. Cal and Andre's mother are left alone at the end holding their balloons saying their goodbyes. Cal can let Andre go, letting his balloon go, knowing that he accepted his partner as who he is and was loved by a special person. He knows he can die freely knowing that he was free with Cal. Andre's mother has a hard time letting go of her balloon, because she has to live the rest of her life knowing that she never accepted her gay son while he was alive. The white balloons represent their acceptance to Andre. The theme of this play is acceptance. Each person freely accepted Andre for the person he is and his sexual orientation. Andre's mother is left alone in life not being to get the second chance to accept her son and realizing it when it was already too late. The protagonist of the play is Cal. Cal constantly reminds Andre's mom how good of a person he is and is the only character out of the 4 present, that took the time to accept Andre, live a life knowing Andre, and saved Andre in a sense that he accepted him more than his own mom. The antagonist would be Andre's mom. Never knowing who her son's identity is, she is left to a relationship with her son that is missing acceptance and love. Her son wanted her to know who he really is but the fear of being rejected caused Andre's mother to never get to live a life knowing her gay son. She hindered her son from being who he truly is around her. In reading this story, it is a life lesson about acceptance and to live life to the fullest. Fear is only an obstacle but should never remain even in death. Acceptance is an important issue in today's society. And we are given the freedom to be. So lets take the chance to be free and to accept before it is too late.