The Play Andre's Mother is an example of a family and friends dealing with a death. Andre has died of AIDS, his mother, boyfriend and boyfriend's family (Andre's mother, Cal- Andre's boyfriend, Arthur-Cal's Father and Penny Cal's sister) are gathered in central park, they are releasing white balloons as a symbolistic way of letting go of Andre. .
Andre's mother does not speak in the play, although Cal speaks to her at length about how he wishes Andre had told her that he was gay, and how he feels that Andre was hiding his feelings to avoid hurting his mother and also to avoid her disapproval. He also speaks about his feelings of bitterness; he feels bitter about Andre's death and towards Andre's mother. .
I believe there are multiple reasons for Andre's mother's silence. First of all from my understanding she is amongst strangers, from what I understand she was not aware of the fact that her son was gay and had a boyfriend (or that he had AIDS) and therefore never met .
Page 1 .
Cal or his family, she may be feeling vulnerable and perhaps shy. She may also be in shock not only has her son just died but she has discovered major things about his life; also she has been told that he was basically scared to tell her about these intimate details of his life, I believe that she may be feeling hurt by this fact.
By Andre's mother remaining silent throughout the play it makes it difficult for us to understand how she is really feeling about these revelations and how she felt about her son in general. It seems that Cal's father had a closer relationship with Andre that his own mother did, Arthur even states that Andre helped him to understand his own son. It also seems that Andre's mother's silence allows the other character's to freely express themselves, though it does seem strange to me that she had nothing to say through-out or after Cal's speech towards the end of the play.
