Throughout the play, "The Lonely Planet," the author, Steven Dietz, portrays the strong theme of friendship through the characters of Carl and Jody. We see these themes complimenting each other and becoming the cornerstone throughout the rest of the play. Carl plays the biggest role because of the strong character traits, which he possesses. He takes the role of a martyr, who in likeness stays with his cause and runs his course until the end. As a martyr figure he begins with Jody and then continues with many other individuals who are also outcasts like Jody but for a different reason. Carl in some ways imitates Christ by being a righteous man, friend to the outcast, and a self-sacrificing figure throughout the play.
             Carl all through the play is see as a righteous man because of his strong nature to never give up on what he has set out to accomplish. Like many others, Carl is infected with the AIDS virus. This virus has no cure and is basically a death curse on all who contract it. He strongly represents himself and his fellow friends and colleagues who also have been stricken with the deadly disease. Jody says, " Carl is a constant reminder of what I love about maps: they are fixed objects. They have been called surrogates of space. They attempt to make order and reduce our reliance on hypotheses. They are a picture of what is known." (Act I, Scene I 15) By looking at this passage we can see Carl's righteousness clearly. He is constant and virtuous to what he feels strongly about. This is also why he and Jody are such close friends; they are opposites and complement each other in their actions. In the beginning of the play we see Carl bringing chairs into Jody's map store, at first Jody is disturbed by Carl's consistency with this, but soon realizes and faces the harsh reality of his friends deaths. Carl helps Jody to see this from a different point of view. He helps him face his...