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Analytical Essay: The Use Of Language In Sonny's Blues

894 Words4 Pages

Paper #3: The use of Language in Sonny’s Blues This story is about a man named Sonny who was arrested for using heroine. Once in jail Sonny knew he no longer wanted to live the life he was living, so he looked for help from his older brother who is the narrator of the story. When Sonny gets released from jail he moves in with his older brother and his family. While living with his older brother Sonny starts to get involved with music again. When he was younger his older brother didn’t approve of the idea of becoming a musician, which lead to Sonny’s drug addiction. However, the brother changes his mind when he sees Sonny play on stage and decides to support Sonny’s dream of becoming a musician. The main idea of this story is that not supporting a loved one’s dreams can lead to a life somebody’s loved one doesn’t enjoy or regrets. This paper will talk about the use of language in “Sonny’s Blues” and how it helps develop the main idea. …show more content…

For example, when the narrator says, “shaking as though he was going to fall apart” (Baldwin 44), allows the reader see how nervous Sonny’s friend is when talking to the narrator. If the author didn’t use this type of figurative imagery the reader wouldn’t be able to see the emotions of Sonny’s friend. Another example of figurative imagery would be when the narrator said, “’He was maybe a little full of the devil,” (Baldwin 49). This type of figurative imagery allows the reader to associate the devil with a dark side, which can then translate to saying that the father’s brother had a dark side to him. Furthermore, if the author didn’t include this statement in the story there wouldn’t be no similarities between the uncle and Sonny, which would make the uncle’s murder

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