Narrative Essay: Blues On The Mississippi

In the good old horse and buggy days, Montana was full of gold, silver, copper, and coal.Mining was important and mining camps were set up in many rough and rocky places across the state. In those unkempt camps, dusty and grimy miners sank into an exhausted sleep after working hard all day long. The miners, like the camps, were untidy and had neither the time nor the interest to tidy up. The bald miners were particularly happy that they had one less task of grooming to perform every day.

He did not want to go and leave behind his whole life and everything he knew, especially his mother and Blueback. “He’d just have to count the weeks till the holidays” (Page 47). He belonged at Longboat Bay and believed he would “wither up and die away from this place” (Page 48).

‘Sonny’s Blues’ was written by James Baldwin about the story of two brothers. The narrator and his brother Sonny are the main characters and their pain and sorrow are the part of their life. The narrator and his brother learn to deal with their pain and suffering.

The woodlands by the ranch were peaceful, not alarmed by the breeze of death and sorrow that followed the men as they marched through the canvas of green. Alerted by the footsteps of the men, the rabbits scuttled back into their burrows. The trees swayed in the glistening sunlight that bounced between them, igniting the woodlands with light. It was quiet, but death intruded on this harmonious atmosphere. Laying in the arms of George, Lennie looked as calm and peaceful as a kitten cuddling its owner. Unlike George, Lennie looked the opposite. Sadness crept up his face and regret shone in his eyes. He was feeling anything but calm and wanted to scream at any possible second. Flowing through his mind were the memories of him and George. He remembered

The sound was loud the screech owl was screeching and the plants were waving back and forth non stop then all the sudden we heard leaves crumbling .It’s a deer.

According to Tero Liukkonen, a critic, James Baldwin’s writing is known for his “sexual and personal identity and civil rights struggles in the United States” which is evident in his short story Sonny’s Blues. It presents suffering and survival within the black community and throughout the characters family as well. Sonny’s Blues takes place in Harlem, New York in 1950’s were the Narrator, an unnamed character, as well as his older brother Sonny, tells the story. Characters like the Narrator, Sonny and their mother are strongly impacted by the pain of their families suffering. Throughout the short story, each character understands his/her own suffering and plan to attain a better life.

I looked out from the passenger side window as we pulled into our parking spot. The trees were beginning to go bare in the frigid October weather, and the ground was covered in their dry, crispy leaves. The four of us were going on a haunted hayride tonight, a popular past-time for season. We clambered out of the car and left our bags behind. It had rained the day before, and it made the ground beneath us soft with mud and trampled leaves. The night hung over us in a dark, cloudy sheet. No one could ask for a better backdrop for this decidedly frightful evening.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused

The darkness took over every corner of the streets. Squirrels scurried back to their trees, tripping on rocks and stumps as if they’re being chased. But me, I just felt lost. It was like I don’t even know where I’m going or where I came from, just that there is this thing in me that just leads me to that place. A few stumbles later, I felt that searing shock deep in my heart come out of nowhere. That’s when I knew something was about to go down. “The time…what time…” I kept saying to myself, but I had no intention of distracting myself with something else. The only thing in my mind was that place I was going to. My legs walked me over the stumps, by the sewer drainages, and under the overgrown branches, even if my mind didn’t know where I was.

The approach of autumn was well on its way. “Autumn’s hand was lying heavy on the hillsides. Bracken was yellowing, heather passing from bloom, and the clumps of wild-wood taking the soft russet and purple of decline. Faint odors of wood smoke seemed to fit over the moor, and the sharp lines of the hill fastnesses were drawn as with a graving-tool against the sky.” As Ellie drove down the road she was much more aware of all her surroundings. She grew up in a suburban area and always knew she would live there forever. Cypress is where she grew up and had most of her adventures. Though Cypress was where Ellie’s heart was, she was ready to start her new journey at USC. Since the age of ten, Ellie has always dreamed of going to USC, eight years later those dreams became reality.

Sonny's Blues is a first person narrative that tells the story of a relationship between the narrator and his younger brother Sonny. Set in the middle of Harlem the story takes place during the early 1950's. The story begins with the narrator learning about his brother getting arrested for the use and selling of heroin. This creates a flashback to major events in the childhood of the two brothers. The narrator remember his brother at the age of the boys in his algebra class, how Sonny’s face was bright and open, but back to reality the narrator wonders how his brother looks as a prisoner. The narrator new life, his marriage, leaving Harlem has caused distance between him as his brother. The narrator recalls the death of their parents, how his

Right now I am on a plane headed to Europe. With me are Jack Hileman,John Shleinz,Grant Williams,Nathan Jolly,and David Beilin. We are almost over the Amazon,when the plane begins to shake then fall. Grant screamed, “What are we going to do?” Nathan shouted in response, “I don’t know you tell me wise guy.” I was thinking to myself that we were going to die. John comes over to me with a floatation device. John was resourceful like that. To save ourselves we all decided to jump out of the plane. When we were out of the plane we decided to swim to the Amazon for safety.

“James Mercer Langston Hughes was the most versatile, popular and influential African-American writer of the twentieth century.” Langston Hughes was born 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. At a young age his parents separated, he had a rocky road ahead of him. During his childhood he moved back and forth to his grandmother in Kansas and with his mom twice in Illinois and Ohio. Langston Hughes career began at age thirteen in his grammar school in Lincoln, Illinois, he was voted class poet. Hughes had never written poetry before, this inspired him to write some. As a gift to the class he wrote over a dozen poems to thank his fellow classmates and staff. Hughes did not stop there, he moved once more. With a little bit of experience

With “Puppy” two ladies have different perspectives on how to raise their children. Saunders delivers one informative scene from each woman’s life before permitting the women to engage. As with, “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator and Sonny go through hardships after the death of their mother. “Puppy” by George Saunders and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin switches between two perspectives of the characters. Marie and the narrator in both of the stories essentially feel that it is not worth the trouble to help out the other two characters.

“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves”. During my trips back to the south to save my fellow brothers and sister I wasn 't thinking about myself and getting caught I was thinking about how much im impacting their lives. I freed about a Thousand slaves in a decade and I could 've saved even more but the problem was them knowing that they were slaves and there was a better life without masters and people that treat the floor better than they treated you a fellow human.