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Compare And Contrast Sonny's Blues And Round Midnight

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Jazz is a powerful form of art that has influenced the change of music since the beginning of its existence. It has the power to bring different forms of people apart and allows them to not only listen to music, but actually hear it. It also has the power to find new hope when you start to believe that all hope is lost. By showing the suffering of others, jazz can give us perspective on our lives and the lives of others. The film Round Midnight directed by Bertrand Tavernier and Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin are two examples where jazz gives people another chance to rekindle their lives. This is how jazz can affect the lives of the people who hear it. In the short story Sonny’s Blues, the narrator of the story hears that his brother, Sonny, was caught in a heroin bust and could be doing serious time in jail. The thought of his brother in jail keeps coursing through his mind until finally, the death of his daughter causes the narrator to …show more content…

Sonny and his brother were family while in the other hand Turner and Borier weren’t, but that did not stop Borier from helping him. Turner and Sonny were both also jazz musicians but Turner was more famous and popular than Sonny. Turner had a career as a jazzman while Sonny did other things like join the navy then went towards jazz. One of the biggest differences was of course that one was a film and one a short story. In the film you rely on what you are seeing to show you the pain and suffering that Turner goes through. While during the short story, the narrator paints a picture using descriptive language to paint the picture in your head and show you what type of suffering his brother Sonny was going through. Both methods of portraying the stories were still able to get the theme across and show the influence that jazz music could have on someone’s life. This is how jazz can affect the lives of the people who hear

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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.

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As a matter of fact, the storyteller does not appreciate Sonny's motivations to play jazz music until the evening he socially joins Sonny to his stage show at a nightclub. Sitting in a dark corner at the nightclub, the storyteller listens to his brother play, considering the reminder of Sonny's friend, Creole, of what the Blues are about, "The tale, of the blues, how we live, and how we are delighted, how we suffer... and how we triumph... must be heard... it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." (Baldwin 139). For the narrator, he perceives that the Blues is the manifestation for Sonny's emotions, especially his suffering, because, as Creole would say, music is the only light in the

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Sonny’s brother finally saw all his brother frustrations come out his need for music to keep him away from the drug, the music is an outlet. Sonny’s and his brother relationship reaches a different level of understanding. The jazz club is a place where Sonny can finally relax and his brother can see Sonny for who is really is musician not an

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365 Words | 2 Pages

Sonny’s letter written to the narrator in response to the news of the narrator’s daughter dying serves an important role in the story by reestablishing the relationship between the brothers and giving the reader insight into the misery that Sonny felt as a result of his actions. It is revealed to the reader that before the narrator had written his letter to Sonny, that the two had not been on speaking terms for a long time. After hearing of the news, Sonny wrote the letter back to the narrator which formally began their newfound connection to each other. It is revealed within the letter Sonny’s reasoning’s behind his imprisonment as well as the sadness he felt within. Sonny describes himself as “trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep

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707 Words | 3 Pages

Baldwin 's "Sonny 's Blues" and Hurston 's “How it feels to be Colored Me" both take a captivating look at how jazz music portrays such an important role in the lives of these characters and their journey through unyielding times of change. In this essay, I will be dissecting the lives of Sonny from “Sonny’s Blues” and Zora from “How it feels to be Colored Me” and the significance that jazz music has played in each of their lives. James Baldwin 's "Sonny 's Blues" begins with the narrator on the subway reading his brother 's name, Sonny, splashed across the morning paper. It had been heroin that got Sonny arrested. Throughout sequins of cascading events, the narrator and his brother Sonny will reveal the differences between the two of them.

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1184 Words | 5 Pages

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story depicting the relationship of two brothers, Sonny and an unnamed narrator. The story takes place in the project of Harlem, New York in the early 1950s. The narrator is a high school math teacher. His younger brother Sonny is a troubled musician struggling with his addiction to drugs. Before their mother dies, she asks the narrator promise to her he’ll look after his younger brother when she is gone.

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838 Words | 4 Pages

Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin was a short story about the struggles of living in a tough, rundown neighborhood and looking to drugs as a way out. Baldwin’s intent on writing this piece focuses on pain and suffering. The author stresses that not everybody is born in the best circumstances. Sonny was one of those people who grew up in a rickety town where people often did not make it out successful.

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1265 Words | 6 Pages

Sonny and Mabel, two of the main characters in “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” are surprisingly very similar, especially when it comes to the conflicts they face during their lives. In “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator and Sonny deal with the death of both their mother and their father, they lost their mother at a young age, in the story the narrator talks about when he and Sonny first lost their mother and the conversation they had the first time they were alone following her death (Baldwin 51). Sonny struggled with many things in his life but the source of a lot of his pain may have been due to the loss of his mother at a young age. In “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” it states, “ And she lived in the memory of her mother, who had died when she was fourteen, and whom she had loved”(Lawrence 458). Both Sonny and Mabel struggled with the loss of their mothers.

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Sonny’s Blues incorporates racial frustration, self-expression, avoidance, lightness/darkness and symbolic nature of music. Baldwins descriptive mental images gives readers a sense of the time frame the characters are in. With our understanding of the setting we are able to understand how life was like in the 1940s and why the theme of racism plays a factor in these characters lives. Through this short story Baldwin manages to show pain ,and hardships and the journey that is needed to transcend from

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827 Words | 4 Pages

Sonny’s escape in music is him moving away from the pain and suffering in his life and moving towards peace and order. In the beginning, Sonny’s brother was not too keen of the idea of Sonny playing jazz music because he thought he could do something more with his life, but he failed to realized that music was Sonny’s escape from life and all its chaos. However, at the end of the story Sonny asked his brother to join him at the jazz club and watch him play. At first his brother was hesitant to go with him, but gives in and goes to watch his brother. When Sonny started playing, his brother realizes how involved Sonny was with his music.

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1140 Words | 5 Pages

In the story, “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin insists, that music is a universal language that speaks life into a dead soul. Stereotypical notion of music arouses emotions that are disregarded. The story demonstrates the significance of music and the components that communicates needs and wants. Sonny’s character was not very talkative, but his music spoke with volume. This paper will analyze the elements of music told in “Sonny’s Blues” that connects and bonds the characters emotionally, physically and socially.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

This particular paragraph in “Sonny’s Blues” is incredibly important to the development and resolution of the story. At this moment, the narrator is watching his brother play the piano for the first time. He is overwhelmed by the sensations he receives from the music and also gains insight on his brother’s life. The narrator realizes that music is how Sonny expresses his feelings and how he copes with the struggles of everyday life. Without this paragraph, we lose the breakthrough moment the narrator has regarding his relationship with his brother.

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1104 Words | 5 Pages

Once the narrator heard Sonny play he knew “he was in Sonny’s world. Or, rather; his kingdom. Here, it was not even a question that his veins bore royal blood.” (145) When he heard Sonny play he could finally understand and listen to Sonny. Jazz gave them a common ground.

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1465 Words | 6 Pages

When the narrator accompanies Sonny to the nightclub to listen to him play his music; Sonny’s music portrays his wisdom as he plays about his brother’s frustrations with the trials and sufferings they both endured. Sonny’s artful playing of the blues opens the narrator’s heart to listen genuinely. If one listens to what lies on the inside that is the key to finding oneself. Joseph Flibbert states in the article “Sonny’s Blues” Overview, “In the music he hears, he sees his mother’s face, and that of his little girl … The powerful incantations of Sonny’s art reaches his soul, and for the first time, he listens to the dark voice within”.

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388 Words | 2 Pages

Sonny is the main character in the story who has been through a lot in life. He wanted to be a jazz musician. After going through all the trouble, Sonny was a great musician and he loved to play music more than anything. He used music to escape from all the bad things around him. Most black people grow up in the slums and it is extremely hard to make it out of there without getting stuck on something bad.

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