Darkness In Sonny's Blues

The “Scarlet Ibis” and Frankenstein Comparison Imagine working so hard to get what you want, only to realize your work was in vain. When wanting something so bad, people let emotions take over, not thinking about the big picture. In Hurst's “The Scarlet Ibis”, and Shelly’s Frankenstein, the main character leaves their work in a no-win situation.

He has “an overpowering desire to break free from himself and dive into the flow” and not be conscious about where he is from (p. 296). Cedric Jennings is the main subject through whose eyes we see the struggle to get a good education. His story begins in Ballou High School in the black ghetto of southeast Washington D.C. Cedric is the youngest child of Barbara Jennings and Cedric Gilliam, a drug dealer who has spent a good part of his life in jail. Barbara and Cedric live in poverty, moving from one place to another.

Smokey his best friend who is the same age and also black is a weed dealer that would rather smoke his own product rather than sell it and that leads to him and Craig in danger. This film represents neighborhood change, violence & transformation, and a local hero. I chose this film one it is one of my favorite movies, also because it is a gem to the black community, and lastly it relates to blacks who live in the ghetto and who have gone through the same struggle as Craig and Smokey but with a humorous and heroic twist. American culture can be expressed in different ways and for this movie is displays the culture of the ghetto. It seems that in

Another disadvantage of Sparta's military is that the boys only learned reading and writing to a certain extent, since their military was their main priority. According to Document D, “The Spartans learned to read and write for purely practical reasons: but all other forms of education they banned from the country,...” If an man wasn’t interested in fighting and wanted a strong education, he was simply out of luck since in Sparta, killing others was more important than schooling. The men in Sparta had no choice of their future. Overall, Sparta’s weaknesses outweigh their strengths because they are under a harsh discipline, they are taken from their families without a choice, and education was not a main

Darrel, or Darry has always wanted to become something amazing in life, but sadly when his parents died in a fatal car crash, he was left to raise his two younger brothers, Sodapop, and Ponyboy. More specifically, Darrel chooses his gang over his potential future to care for his friends but sadly, “. . . Darry has never really gotten over not going to college” (Hinton 109). Basically, anybody would choose to finish a career over a more strenuous life of arduous occupations. Of course, Darry would have chosen college over two jobs, but because of his compassion towards the gang, he would choose them over anything.

“As my bones grew they did hurt bad, they hurt really bad. I tried hard to have a father, instead I had a dad,” sang Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in “Serve the Servants”. Which for Cobain was to reflect his weak bond with his dad, as it states how he didn’t have a father to guide him and Cobain’s severe pain from scoliosis. The scoliosis was a metaphorical stand point to emphasize how he had no one to help shape the structure of his emotional turmoil as he was growing older. Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a dystopian society by Ray Bradbury, perfectly exhibits this fading of proper parenting.

Franklin leaves his home life because his life was being controlled by his school, and his parents. Franklyn did not let his rich parents make his life choices for him. Franklin Crabbe feels very strongly about his independency, and this is portrayed by running away into the wilderness. When he misses his final exam, his parents talk the school into letting him pass. This is an example as to how excessive his parents are about Crabbe following their dreams.

Disliking Books Summary In Gerald Graff’s work “Disliking Books” the author explains how he is surprised that he would become a celebrated writer and literary critic because he formerly despised reading. Graff, who grew up in a tough working class Chicago neighborhood, grew up thinking reading was boring and irrelevant. Graff’s parents brought him modern adventure books and classics that have traditionally interested young men, but it didn’t work. Since he was listless and lacked ambition Graff “chose” liberal arts and majored in English when he started college.

He was embarrassed, so he decided to teach his brother without caring the pain his brother was going through. The narrator only did for himself because he didn’t want his brother by his side because the thought his brother was an embarrassment. Evidence in the short story when Doodle could finally walk Doodle’s brother decided to show his parents he could walk and he starts to notice

The Unnamed narrator, an algebra teacher in Harlem, reads of the arrest of his younger brother Sonny on claims of selling and using Heroin. The narrator is deeply disturbed the thought of his brother reminds him of his algebra students. He realizes that his students might end up like his brother someday given the obstacles and obstacles they encounter at Harlem. What the narrator believe is that Sonny succumbed to the destructive influence of Harlem life. To some extent the narrator feels that he is responsible for whatever happened to Sonny because he is a victim.

Equality 7-2521 doesn’t like what the council of vocations assigned his job for the rest of his life. He was always different from his brothers and people look at him like. Equality 7-2521 always wanted to be apart of the home of the scholars and learn more things. While doing his job equality sees an a dark tunnel that lead to thing from the unmentionable. He sneaks off to the tunnel to mess with this box that he found while roaming the tunnels one night.

He went into the navy after that, and after coming out of the navy, was arrested for using and selling heroin. All the anguish, trouble, and suffering that Sonny went through to become who he was, was put into a song and that was Sonny’s blues.

Lastly, Huck didn’t put up with anyone telling him what to do, especially pap. Pap was racist and abusive, and Huck fought back even though he knew he’d be beat. Pap was furious that Huck was going to school and learning to write, on account of nobody else in the family being able to, saying: “You’re educated, too, they say; can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t?

Flashbacks are important in “Sonny’s Blues”, because they provide context for the events of the story. Flashbacks of the past help readers to understand the present. The author uses significant flashbacks to highlight the theme of the story, which is the obligation of the narrator’s love towards his brother, Sonny. In an important flashback, the narrator recalls the fight between Sonny and their father because they were so much alike in personality. The narrator also remembers his mother requesting him to watch out for his brother on the last day he saw her while on leave from the army.

Psychologist Robert Berezin says that, “Human struggle is not a brain problem, but a human problem.” (Berezin 1) In the short story “Sonny’s Blues,” the author James Baldwin reveals the dark truth about human nature, and through a psychoanalytic criticism perspective it can reveal how people cope with their suffering and problems. The main character, Sonny, is suffering from the hardships that many people face throughout life. Sonny’s suffering becomes so unbearable that he refuses to accept this inevitable situation, and seeks relief and control through the use of jazz and drugs.