On paragraph 11, in “Letter from the Dust Bowl,” Mrs. Caroline A. Henderson writes to a friend that the dust storms have destroyed their barley, buried mulberry hedges that protected their shelters from north west winds, wiped out pastures, and turned their locust grove into fence posts. Despite these conditions, why did Mrs. Caroline A. Henderson and her husband decide to stay, while the rest of their fellow settlers left? The song “I’d Rather Not Be in Relief” opens with these lines: “We go around all dressed in rags While the rest of the world goes neat,”
In the 1920’s segregation was common, big cities like Baltimore was even more segregated, and incidents just as the poem, took place more often as it should. Buses were places were places where people were forced to come together. The setting in “Sonny’s Blues” is the impoverished Harlem after the Korean War, and the future looks grim to most of its inhabitants. After all, the two works might have been written thirty years apart, but the conditions had not changed much for African Americans in America during that
From the very beginning of the tale, the sorrow is palpable through the unnamed narrator 's discovery of Sonny 's incarceration, and moreover through the atmosphere created by Mr. Baldwin. The most prominent message that can be deciphered and recognized in Sonny 's Blues is that the sadness and sorrow that one experiences in their life can bring about many obstacles but it can be countered and used for something greater by a search for understanding and acceptance. James Baldwin establishes this implication through the use of his characters; the narrator, Sonny, and the singer seen on the street. All these characters experience sorrow and sadness in their
The narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin describes the blues as "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph" (Baldwin 99). “Sonny’s Blues” is centered around two African American brothers in Harlem, New York during the 1950s. Baldwin writes about the brothers’ struggles, kinship, their redemption and triumph over the cruelties of life. The narrator played the role of the father figure and always thought practically and wanted Sonny to make something of himself.
They contributed to the formation of historical, cultural, and social movements by using their art to illuminate the challenges and victories of their society. For Hughes, this meant embracing the strength and beauty of African American culture. He championed equality, denounced racism and injustice, and embraced African American culture, comedy, and spirituality through his poems, novels, plays, essays, and children's books. Hughes said “He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues!
‘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. I believe that the narration was perfect because the author uses dialogue and mind reading of the main character because he is stating how the narrator feels also his father, his mother and also Sonny feels.
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
Using his writing as a form of self-expression, James Baldwin, an African American author, spent his life seeking to reveal the cruel reality of African American men. “Sonny Blues” Baldwin’s short fiction, was published in 1957 and takes place during the Harlem Renaissance. The literary work tells the story of Sonny and his brother (an unnamed narrator), as they seek to understand how to navigate the delicate and dangerous waters of familial relationships, their role in society and themselves. However, it is not until the end of the story when Sonny’s brother narrates the powerful, melodic sound of Sonny’s blues that he acknowledges his own pain. It is during his epiphany, when he finally begins to understand Sonny’s pain and the pain of every generation who came before him and after him.
The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture.
Poems can be analyzed in various ways ranging from their complexity to the emotions they convey to readers. The poems, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay will be analyzed based on their similarities and differences to name a few. The poems may describe different events; however the overall connection between the two can be identified by readers with deeper reading. Comparisons between the poems may easier to analyze and identify compared to the contrasts based on the reader’s perception. Overall, the concept and much more will reveal how the poems are connected and special in their own way.
Inspiration Throughout The Decades Langston Hughes once said “In writing truthfully about the life of the Negro people and the relationships of negroes and whites, in this country, it helps to teach Negro children that there is a culture among their own people. Therefore I think that Negro writers help to uplift the whole mass of the people” (Voices and Visions).
Introduction First published in 1957, Sonny’s Blues written by James Baldwin is a prose of two brothers. Sonny, the younger one, is a rebellious jazz musician who turns out to be a drug abuser, while the narrator, the elder brother, is a conservative mathematics teacher in Harlem. He, the narrator, refuses to understand Sonny whose life is distorted by imprisonment. In this way, Baldwin developed the major topic of music, the cornerstone of African American culture, alongside with the themes of brotherhood and salvation. How music develops the plot of the story Music is a leitmotif in Sonny’s Blues, which reflects and creates a new structure of music and drama (Bribitzer-Stull, 2015).
Yet, the ideals that were shown in the book and found in blues music are best shown through the author’s own words. Bluestein cites Ellison’s definition of blues as, “an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness . . . As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically” (Bluestein). In making this comment, Bluestein is showing through Ellison’s words the similarity between the novel and the genre that it is a piece that shows someone’s own
Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.
In this case repetition is used to regularly insinuate a sense of desperation and isolation. In addition to this, the first two lines of the stanza rhyme. Blues music was created and first sung by the African slaves who would sing to convey their hardship and isolation from others. Blues music to the African slaves was a strategy to explain their feelings and help them cope with their suffering.
