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Conflict In Sonny's Blues

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James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” was initially very confusing. I had trouble distinguishing between the past and the present when the speaker was reflecting on school (Baldwin 1-3). However once he began to do so, I remembered how Professor Ewan told us to avoid writing chronologically. I did not understand why he had told us this other than to make our work more interesting. Reading this short part of the fiction text gave a sense of nostalgia and established a kind of connection and introduction to the unnamed character. I originally thought the conflict was going between the two since the narrator mentioned how he hated the other male (Baldwin 2). However, if this was the case, the story would have ended on page six, when the two went their separate ways (Baldwin). I also considered the narrator would have a conflict with the music. When the music first appeared, I thought it was very random and put it off as describing the background. However shortly after it was first mentioned, it was brought up again. At the time, I had still thought the conflict was going to be with the other man from school. When the music was mentioned the second time, it lined up with what the other man was saying. Once both of them vanished, I had eliminated both as a possibility for being a major part of the conflict. I was unaware of Sonny’s candidacy as being a part of the main conflict and I assumed he would be away for the entirety of the story. In addition, up until the narrator started to

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