“There can never be enough locks on Marisol’s front door to keep out the uninvited”
Rivera on Violence in Marisol
Neo-Nazis and Hate Crimes
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A Neo-Nazi is “a person who belongs to a group that believes in the ideas and policies of Hitler's Nazis and that sometimes commits violent acts.”
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These acts are sometimes motivated by political ideology but are often more general hate crimes against marginalized populations such as racial minorities, homosexuals, women, the economically disadvantaged, and the homeless.
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Rivera's violent experiences:
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“There was a rash of burning of homeless people. I remember reading the crime statistics, and 1989 was a peak, a terrible year for violent crime. My wife, who was pregnant at the time, was punched in the stomach on the subway by a man who wanted to get in while she wanted to get out. She lay in a crumpled circle on the ground until some old lady helped her… A lot of Marisol was actually about the years I lived in the Bronx… I was attacked by a man with a golf club in the subway. I was burnt out of my apartment by an arsonist who had discovered his girlfriend was cheating on him, so he threw gasoline on her bed and set it on fire - twice.”
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Rivera uses Nazis not as a direct correlation to middle-class notions or Ed Koch’s 1980s government, but as a way to magnify the crisis of Urbanism.
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He has stated he is more interested in the beauty within the violence in his plays than the violence itself.
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Sickness prevails throughout Marisol, from the large scale of the “universal body” down to the sickness of the city and the sickness that June, as a skin head, feels toward Marisol and the homeless.
Example of Goose-Stepping
Types of Violence in Marisol
CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT
Immolation
​Example: The Nazis light the Man with Scar Tissue on fire which Lenny describes in Scene 6 and June lights a homeless person on fire in Act Two (37).
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Immolation is to kill someone by burning them.
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If the burn is severe enough and your nerves are burned, your body goes into shock and adrenaline stops the pain.
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There can be an inflammatory response caused by the burned skin. Your body reacts by shunting all blood and fluid to the burned area. Because your skin would normally hold in your body fluid, it leaks out everywhere. If you’re not taken to a burn center, which can replace that fluid, you may die of shock from loss of fluid.
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Survival depends on the percentage of your body that is burned and how quickly you are taken for medical care. It is still possible to save a person using skin grafts when up to 80% of their skin is burned. For scale, your palm is about 1% of your skin's surface area.
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In 2010, immolation comprised 1% of attacks against the homeless.
Poison
​Example: Marisol asks the Angel, "Why are they planning to drop human insecticide on overpopulated areas of the Bronx?" (17) and Lenny explains to Marisol, "Man who owned the restaurant on the other side of that wall put rat poison in the trash to discourage the homeless from picking through the pile" (49).
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Poisoning can affect the body in different ways, from minor discomfort to long-term organ damage. Lead poisoning, for example, can lead to permanent brain and kidney damage. A caustic or chemical poison can burn the throat and stomach and lead to scarring.
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Institutionalized crimes against the homeless and dispossessed occur to this day. It wasn't until 2009 that the federal government included crimes against the homeless as "hate crimes."
Blunt Force Trauma
​Example: The Man with Golf Club threatens to hit Marisol at the beginning of the play and Lenny hits June with a golf club at the end of Scene 7.
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Blunt Force Trauma is a severe traumatic episode caused to the body or head with the sudden introduction of a blunt instrument used with great force.
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A large and heavy object, such as a rock, baseball bat, or golf club hits a person or someone is thrown into another object with great force (as in a car crash).
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Some indicators are bruising, abrasions, and/or lacerations. Trauma can also be invisible to the naked eye and only occur under the skin.
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In hits to the head, results can also include internal bleeding and brain damage.
Fire Arms
​Example: Sandy tries to shoot Marisol thinking she is Matthew (14) and the Woman with Furs shoots Marisol (56).
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The United States has been plagued by gun violence in urban areas for decades.
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Uzis were originally developed for the Israeli army but quickly became popular for bodyguards as they were reliable and accurate as well as more compact than previous machine guns.
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The female-on-female violence depicted by Rivera in these two moments expands his commentary on violence beyond Marisol being attacked by male aggressors.