- Response to “Sonny’s Blues”
“Sonny Blues” is a short stories book written by James Baldwin, where the author explains how the protagonist, Sonny, tried to overcome the challenges he faced. He tried to overcome several hardships, including poverty and oppression, to achieve his ambition in Jazz music. There was an instance when Tony got arrested for heroin, after when he went to stay with his elder brother in Harlem. At Harlem, the challenges of hopelessness and addiction from the society were so intense for him to handle. Being an African-American, this is a challenge in which he is not the only person who faces it; rather, it is a challenge faced by several other minority groups. Thus, for him to regain hope about life, Tony returns to the housing project. Notably, Racism and Segregation is a theme which flows continuously in “Sonny Blues”. According to the narrator of this interesting literal work, racism is an aspect that is inherited from one generation to the next amidst most minority groups in the U.S. The vague and constant influence of racism is more evident when the narrator’s mother painfully explains the death of her brother in law, after getting murdered by drake white men. Moreover, the mother is worried that similar circumstances can befall Sonny since racism is still a threat to most societies.
Markedly, everyone can relate to the story of racism in one way or another, whether it affects people directly or indirectly. Recently, there have been protests mainly in the U.S. and the U.K. against the ill-treatment of the blacks by the police in these two regions. Although I have not faced racism in person, my elder brother, Sean, has been a victim, which has adversely affected his welfare. Sean is a very intelligent person ad after graduating from the University, and he got sponsorship for his master’s degree in one of the best institutions in the U.S. He completed his tuition. Still, whole doing his project, the professor, who was white, kept on frustrating him. Rather than guiding Sean on where he was wrong, the professor only asked him to redo the project without further explanations. Sean got so frustrated, and just like Sonny, and he resulted to alcohol for comfort. Initially, he did not want to tell us what he was going through, so he tried his best to act up as if everything was fine. However, with time my parents realized something was wrong with Sean. He barely came home for months and even missed important family gatherings like my parent’s anniversary and birthdays, which was unlike him. He stopped picking up our calls, and neither called. My parents went to the institution to look for him, and unfortunately, they found that he was depressed, always taking alcohol with any cash he got. Fortunately, he was taken to rehabilitation and is recovering well. Racism is a deadly aspect that needs to be eradicated for a society to envelop both socially and economically and politically. People should avoid treating each other based on their culture, gender, religion, or ethnicity.
- A Rose for Emily” Timeline
“A Rose for Emily”. Written by William Faulkner is in no chronological order, which allows the reader to understand the uniqueness and how genius the author of this work is.
The writer mentioned a few specific dates in the literal work. Nonetheless, looking at the work closely can make the reader assign some sequential events timelines.
- In 1862, Emily was born.
- Emily’s father died in 1892. Initially, she is unable to come to terms with the death of her father. She keeps on telling people that he is not dead. Nevertheless, with time she accepted that he is no more, and she even buried him, according to the author. Emily’s father was the one in charge of driving away tax collectors. Now, because he is dead, people are harassing Emily.
- In 1892, Emily was seen riding through town with Homer Barron. The two were seen driving a yellow wheeled buggy on Sunday afternoons. The author explains this shortly after introducing Homer Barron. People start insinuating that the two are dating.
- The Baptist minister visited Emily in 1892.
- In 1892, there are various complaints from the people concerning a horrid smell. Men go to Emily’s Lawn to investigate and sprinkle lime to eradicate the smell.
- In 1893, Homer came back to town, and they start dating officially with Emily.
- Emily cuts her hair short. This was confusing, and I could not locate the year in which it happened.
- In 1894, Emily purchased poison. She tells the seller that she wants to kill rats with it. However, the town’s people suspect that she was lying.
- In 1894, people showed support to Emily. People are all concerned about her situation, and they ask the Baptist minister to call her relatives. Her relatives travel from Alabama to come to visit her.
- Colonel Sartoris also paid Emily a visit in 1894. The purpose of this visit was to discuss her taxes.
- In 1895, the town’s people were feeling that Emily should be paying her taxes. Nonetheless, she refuses to pay the taxes. It is so unfortunate that her father is no longer there because he was the one who was driving away from the tax collectors.
- Emily orders a silver’s men toilet seat from the jewelers.
- Homer relocates to a different place, and after some time, Emily resorts to give painting lessons. In 1904, she established a studio downstairs in one of her rooms. During this period, she is approximately 40 years old, and the year is 1904.
- Emily hardly leaves the house, and in 1934 when she was 74 years old, Emily dies.
Faulkner had given several hints which help in putting the fragments of his story together, which gives the reader and a better understanding of when different events happened. Nonetheless, there are instances when it is impossible to explain the exact time when a certain fragment happens. However, the puzzles make the story more interesting because the reader is always in tension and suspense on what the writer will explain next.
Comparing Marie and Judith
George Saunders writes a thought-provoking book called “Puppy” that resonates between the two mothers, Callie and Marie. The two have sons with behavioral disorders. The writer begins by explaining more about Marie, a suburban woman who keeps the outbursts of her son, Josh, under control by making him play games most of the time. Her childhood has was less than perfect because she was left stranded in a blizzard for more than two hours. Moreover, her parents told her that she could not make it to college, which makes her desire to become a better parent for her kids (Saunders, 2020). Nonetheless, this results in the kids becoming spoilt. Marie’s husband was very wealthy, and he did not mind about how she spent the money, which made it more convenient for her to please the kids. Similarly, in ‘The Management of Grief” by Mukherjee, the author explains a similar character, Judith. The book is based on the notion that grief is something that people can manage. Judith is the character who is used to explain this notion because she carries a book on grief, and she has a degree in grief management. Moreover, her work is on grief management. She is a Canadian social worker who is in charge of contacting the relatives of the crash victims and offering them aid from the government. Her task is challenging since most of the individuals whom she visits do not understand English, and are they do not trust the government officials whom they feel have a tendency of confusing documents.
The two characters use their past experiences to manage their current situations. The assumptions both of them make about how to deal with certain situations is not correct. Judith uses the information she has read on books to describe the Indian Canadians, who she argues are psychologically and emotionally stunted. Additionally, Judith gets annoyed with the survivors when they do not manage their grief as she expected. She feels that accepting the situation is what one should always do, and her cultural background could influence her perspective. Like Judith, Marie uses her experience of difficult childhood to raise her children in a perspective that she perceives to be best. She thinks giving them everything they want will make them better people. Nonetheless, his only results in the children becoming spoilt.
Nonetheless, Unlike Judith, who is working hard to make her own money, Marie is a housewife who is contented with her husband’s money. Another difference between the two characters is that for Marie, she believes that everything she does is correct, and she does not need advice from anyone. However, for Judith, she reaches out to Shaila to ask for help on how she can handle the cultural gap situation, especially because of the language barrier.
- Recitatif” Code Switch
“Recitatif” is a book written by a well-known African American female writer, Toni Morrison, in 1983. In this literal work, Morrison explored the roles and experiences of black women in a male-dominated racist society. In addition to showcasing the hurt which racial discrimination caused the black women, she explained the inner psychological world in the white-dominated society. The writer endures the racial identities of the characters, which are similar due to various reasons. Although the writer does not state outright whether a given character is white or black, the reader can conclude this by understanding the context in which the character is explained. To begin with, Twyla is a white girl because the writer explains that she was less-than-adhering to the traditions of the white, which were attached to her (Morrison, 1963). Additionally, Morrison (1963) explains that Twyla’s mother danced all night long. Then, Roberto is black because her second name is Fisk, like a renowned historically black university in Nashville. Additionally, when Twyla was placed in a children center where neglected children stay, she does not get along with Roberto because of the texture of her hair. Roberto’s hair is explained as wild and big, which is mainly connected with black’s hair. Then, Maggie is black, too, because of the harassment she gets from Twyla and Roberto. Even in the current day society, blacks commonly get mistreated and harassed, especially by the whites, but in some instances, even by their fellow black people. My brother could barely graduate with his master’s degree because of the harassment she got from a white professor, and when he approached some black professors, they did not help too.
Nonetheless, a different reader could argue that these characters belong to different races. For instance, Twyla is a name that is also given to African-Americas, so people could argue that she is black. Additionally, her family is not well-off, which could also be used as an argument to explain she is white because most whites do well financially. Then, it is rare for a black girl to harass another black girl, which shows that Maggie could be a white girl.
In conclusion, the author does not outrightly mention the tribe of any character. written, the audience is expected to attach certain racial identities to the characters through the use of various codes like food, hair, name, or history. The author makes the reader think about the racial stereotypes which exist in `the society up to date. Markedly, when one explains that a given person is white or black because of a certain character, it shows that they are biased in one way or another. Thus shows that racial identity is something that society creates. Thus, as readers, we understand that literature can be interpreted in different perspectives, which does not make anyone wrong. An individual should use any clues in a passage to explain a certain pint.
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Wheatley is a poem featuring an African woman who got captured and had to relocate to the U.S. Despite getting captured several years ago, this woman can recall where her home was located. Nonetheless, she has lost her identity. For instance, she has to follow the guidelines of a religion that she has never heard about. She needs to talk about a savior that she needs to believe exists, unlike in her ancestral land, where people did not believe in any religion. In this poem, Wheatley uses symbolic words; for instance, “Black as Cain”. Biblically, Cain is an evil person, which shows that anything black is evil.
Similarly, the poem by Robert Hayden is about an African man that was enslaved in Boston, although he was freed eventually. Similar to the woman in Wheatley’s poem, this man feels that he has lost his cultural identity, and he cannot even talk about his ancestral land in this new land. His name is Obour, which is a native African name. While his master was preparing documents to release him, Obour is not even certain whether the master wants to free him completely or to sell him to another master.
Although the two slaves know that their ancestral land is in Africa, the memories which they have about the region are vivid. They have been massively assimilated to the American culture, to the extent that they can barely identify themselves with Africanism.
The poem, which is written by Hayden, is an affirmation of what Wheatley wrote in her literal work. It is a confirmation of the happened during the slave trade era. People were kidnapped from their homes in Africa, then taken to a different land where they had masters whom they needed to serve. Moreover, one needed to adhere to the believes, rules, and regulations of the master, which made some lose their cultural identity. For instance, despite in Africa not believing in a god, the slaves could be forced to become Christians, and believe in a savior. The poem, which is written by Wheatley, is brief. Although comprehensive. Hayden’s poem has more details, most of which is a further explanation of the slaves’ livelihoods. For instance, Hayden’s poem gives details about the challenges the slaves faced as they were transported from Africa to America. Notably, being a slave was treated as a commodity and not a human being. Slaves did not have an option to refuse what their masters said. Therefore, the theme of slavery in Wheatley’s poem is illuminated by Hayden.