Motif: Supernatural elements
A motif in the play is the presence of supernatural phenomenon and supernatural beings, and not just the angels. For example, Harper and Prior meet in a dream and they both think that the other person is a figment of their imagination: Harper believes that Prior is her hallucination and Prior believes that Harper is just a fictive person who appeared in his dream. This proves to be inaccurate as both Harper and Joe reveal details about themselves that the other person couldn’t have possibly known. Most supernatural elements are linked with Prior and other characters like Harper who have some type of health problem, thus highlighting the idea that normal people who obey the social rules can’t get in touch with what is beyond our world.
Motif: Wrestling
Critic John Hudson identifies the motif of wrestling in the work, situating it not only in the story of Jacob wrestling the Angel—which Joe fantasized about and Prior actually did—but with the characters that have to to wrestle their inner demons: Louis's distaste for illness and suffering, Roy's inability to control everything, Harper's sanity, and more.
Motif: Ghosts
The dead do not stay dead in this work; rather, they visit the living to accomplish certain goals of their own: Ethel haunts Roy to prick his conscience and make him face what he has done throughout his life; Roy, who at least feels a modicum of regret, haunts Joe for a moment in order for them to both to experience a bit of grace and intimacy; and Prior's two ancestors haunt him to herald the imminent arrival of the Angel and to remind him that their line is dying with him. Ultimately, Kushner's ghosts are neither good nor evil—just like people.
Symbol: Ozone Layer
At the beginning of the play, Harper frets about the thinning of the ozone layer, commenting that, from afar, it "looks like a pale blue halo, a gentle, shimmering aureole encircling the atmosphere encircling the earth...It's a kind of gift, from God" (16). But then she destroys that image and says what is really happening: "But everywhere, things are collapsing, lies surfacing, systems of defense giving way" (16). The ozone layer is a symbol for America, which looks shiny, beautiful, and rich on the outside (yuppies, Wall Street, luxury goods, a charismatic president, etc.) but is actually dying on the inside (racism, homophobia, AIDS, poverty, dying values, the breakdown of traditional social structures, etc.). At the end of the play when Harper sees the ozone layer repairing, this symbolizes the potential present for America if people would see what Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah have created for themselves.
Symbol: Perestroika
The word perestroika means "restructuring," and it literally refers to the period of time near the end of the Cold War when Mikhail Gorbachev began to implement some reforms. Perestroika and glasnost helped make the U.S.S.R. more modern and less authoritarian, and they were generally viewed as positive developments. Kushner uses the term symbolically here to discuss the restructuring that takes place in individual characters' lives as well as in the nation itself—albeit it in a very limited fashion. He hopes that the four people at the end of the play, in all their beautiful diversity and strength, are prescient in their drive to create a new, more inclusive community.
