Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's Short Story 'Old Woman Magoun'

How far would you go to help a member of your family? Would you try to understand and support them? Or would you make decisions for them, even if you thought it was for their own good? The Story of Old Woman Magoun and Sonny’s Blues explore familial relationships by trying to protect their loved ones from societal harm, each ending in a different resolution, one through tragic outcome, the other through mutual understanding. In the Short Story “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Old Woman Magoun is characterized as a strong, independent and somewhat broody old woman. She keeps a very close watch on her granddaughter Lily, never allowing her to play with the other children. She sees her as a vessel of goodness, something so innocent

In the story Old Woman Magoun lets Lily eat deadly nightshade berries without stopping her so her death may seem as an accident.Old Woman Magoun made decisions for Lily that she believed would save her life, even if that meant taking it away so she would not have to suffer. Their complex relationship makes the reader wonder whether or not Old Woman Magoun did the right thing, or if it was ever in her place to make the decision for Lily. Old Woman Magoun feels great remorse for her actions, as she continues her day to day life, she still keeps one item with her at all times, “she carried with her, as one might have carried an infant, Lily’s old rag doll.” (Wilkins Freeman 172). This theme of complex familial relationships dealing with societal pressure follows us into the story “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin. In this story, we uncover the struggle two brothers face trying to understand each other, and understand

Although trying to look out for his brother, his comments on Sonny not being able to make it as a jazz musician emotionally affected him, “He looked more helpless than ever, and annoyed, and deeply hurt.” (Baldwin 497). The narrator states, “I was beginning to realize that I’d never seen him so upset before” (Baldwin 497). Even then, the narrator hopes this is just a phase, Sonny shouldn’t drop out, and to ease his sorrows, he says there's a piano at Isabel's place he can play while he stays there and finishes school. After awhile, Sonny stopped going to school, he hung out at a white girls apartment with musicians doing what God knows what. When the narrator confronts him they have a huge fight, the narrator tells him, “he might just as well be dead as live the way he was living.” (Baldwin 502) and Sonny replies, “he was dead as far as I was concerned.” He shuts the narrator out of the room as people inside looked on indifferently. After this flashback, we continue to the present where the narrator contemplates searching Sonny’s room for