ABSTRACT
This undergraduate thesis focuses on the play The Normal Heart written by Larry Kramer. This play reflects the real condition of New York society in the early 1980s as the impact of HIV/AIDS. The main character is Ned Weeks based on the writer himself and his experience during the rise of gay politics in 1980s. There are two objectives in this study on which the researcher wants to achieve. First, to find out the depiction of the society of New York as seen through Larry Kramer‘s The Normal Heart. Second, to find out the rejection of the HIV/AIDS and the relation towards the rejection of the homosexual as seen on The Normal Heart.
The researcher applies library research method to gather the data and references for this study and uses cultural studies approach who analyze the novel to have a better understanding in the rise of gay politics and gay rights movement. From the analysis, the researcher reveals some practices harassment towards LGBT especially gay men community. The rise of gay politics started in the sexual liberation movement in the late 1970s. Then the sexual liberation movement manages to create a state of mind in the gay community where they can have free sex without being ashamed of their sexuality. These free sex relationships caused a widely-spread disease which later called HIV/AIDS and caused many young gay men under the age of 40 to die. Then the gay community created many ways to tackle this deadly epidemic eventually cause the rise of gay politics that help LGBT to have the same rights as anyone and take action towards HIV/AIDS epidemic.
