Summary
Analysis
Harper sits on a plane. She says to herself, “Night flight to San Francisco—it’s been years since I was one a plane.” She talks about flying through the atmosphere, just below the ozone layer, which has been torn by modern industry. She remembers a flight she took years ago, during which she saw the souls of the dead, rising to Heaven.
Harper initially seemed like the most pathetic character in the play—a pill-popping housewife. Here, however, she gets the closest thing in the play to a happy ending: she’s off on a glorious quest to San Francisco. The future holds a lot of danger and uncertainty for her, but Kushner presents this as a good thing.
Harper talks about the “painful progress” of life on Earth. All humans have to learn how to savor their sense of longing for what lies ahead.