Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sonny's Blues
Looking first at the title, "Sonny's Blues" a reader can discern quite a bit about the story. Combine the title with the date in which this particular story was written, 1957, a reader can almost anticipate some sort of racial tension. The era in which this story was written was at the heart of the Civil Rights movement, as well as, an influx of at the time, socially unacceptable music called the "Blues". One can also expect tension in the story to include something that may or may not be considered "socially acceptable". In this short story all of this is correct. This particular short story is about two Africian American brothers living in New York City. There are many different conflicts that take place in this story, there is the human verses human element that exsists between the two brothers, human verses self, and also human verses society. This story revolves around the disfunctional relationship these two brothers share and the willingness of the older brother to except his brother for who he is. The story opens with a fantastic use of imagery where the older brother hears about his brother being arested and the burning sinsation he experiences which reflects how one might feel while taking drugs as seen in this passsage "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly...." (47). This is the first time the older brother has any insight into his little brother's feelings. Based on the title the story, the story does revolve around the narrater's brother, Sonny and his musicial aspirations and the acceptance of his older brother. The description of lighting is used through the story. Racial tension is see in the story of their father and how he was killed on a street lite with moonlite as seen in this passage "....into the road, in the moonlight." (56) Shadows are cast upon Sonny while looking out the window talking with his brother and finally at the end when the light formed a halo as seen here, "it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling." (70)
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I like the way Michelle put in her own words the conflict between these two African American brothers, "human verses self and also human verses society". Not only the time and place it was a difficult time to deal with racial issues, but also their troublesome relationship became stronger at the end with Sonny's acceptance of his older brother, and the other way around as well, the recognizance of the older brother of Sonny's talent. Michelle captured a lot of details of the story that i think her point of view was well written, and well explained with all the emotions and highlights of these short story.
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