The short story Sonny's Blues, by James Baldwin, tells a story of two brothers who throughout the story come to understand each other. As it exhibits the growth of a relationship between the two brothers it also shows through the author even though he has assimilated into "white society" as much as possible how African Americans still deal with the pain racism and and limits placed upon him.
Although Sonny never tries to assimilate, and searches throughout the story for some way out, he doesn't seem like one to follow the beat of a drum, but more the beat of his drum. He finds his outlet through music, especially bebop jazz and blues music. Music that was started by African Americans.
Cali Simmons (post 3)
While you make many correct observations about the story, this post is mostly summary as opposed to analysis. You bring up the interesting idea that Sonny does not want to assimilate, whereas his brother does. Perhaps take this idea and analyze it further. Why is this the case? How does it relate to the theme of music in the story? Perhaps select a passage that you see illustrating this idea and then perform a close reading of it using the method discussed in class.
ReplyDelete