Two Perspectives In Sonny's Blues, By George Baldwin

1115 Words5 Pages

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. Starting with “Puppy” each prospect point is told in the third person and feels like it is coming from the character’s mind. The first scene concentrates on Marie, a mother of two children who has some problems but still living a nice-looking useful life. Her son Josh is headlong to forcible burst but has mellow …show more content…

Marie can influence her son's behavior by getting him a video game but with Callie’s situation, it is more demanding to watch. Bo is vulnerable to himself when given freedom outdoors but dislikes being kept indoors. Callie's explanation is to chain Bo to a tree. This is how love exists in Callie's mind. Loving those around you for who they are and trying to afflict them in comprehend their full potential. I consider this to be the farthest communication of "Puppy". Moving on to “Sonny's Blues” that is told in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed narrator who, we find out, is Sonny’s brother. The narrator in this story is an interesting figure. He’s mostly telling us Sonny's story, and this would seem to make him a peripheral character instead of a central one. But this is also his story. “Sonny’s Blues” is not just about Sonny's decisions and struggles but also about how they affect the narrator. This story is as much about family and brotherhood and the relationship between these two men as it is about the character of