Re: Sonny's Blues

James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues

"But houses exactly like the houses of our past yet dominated the landscape."

One of the most crucial aspects of any piece of writing is the syntax, or word choice, used throughout the story. In reading this tale of growing into adulthood in Harlem and the shaky, dangerous boundary between boyhood and manhood, the differences between boys and men - and where each term is used - is especially important. The narrator often speaks of the impulsive, rash, almost explosive behavior of the boys he knew when he was younger as well as the boys he now teaches. These boys, "growing up with a rush" and "filled with rage" (76), act as if their world could come crashing down at any moment, and they are well aware that their lives are full of strict boundaries and unexpected dangers. I read once that drug addicts are especially likely to be stuck in their current lifestyle if they are particularly short-sighted; looking only a short distance into the future means that one would look forward mostly to the next high, rather than planning for the more distant future and one's general well-being. Aware that they have no future, these boys see no problem with their lifestyle, full of rash choices and habits that, while dangerous, also provide a great deal of short-term pleasure.

Growing up in this world means gaining the foresight that only adults seem to have, as well as the ability to understand and see beyond what the restricting darkness of the world these boys grow up in. The darkness is what the adults "[have] come from...what they endure" (83-84). Becoming an adult means having traversed the darkness, and being a boy or a man is defined less by one's age and more by one's maturity and insightfulness. For instance, Sonny's old friend that the narrator runs into near the beginning of the story is termed a "boy", even though he must be a fully-grown adult by now. In addition, Sonny himself begins to be described as a man rather than a boy when the narrator realizes that his brother has matured and is trying incredibly hard to figure out for himself how he views the world. He is still growing and has a lot to learn, but he is moving forward.


Works Cited:

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011. Print

Photo of a City Street at Night. “The NEXT New York Conversation: Stop and Frisk.” greenespace. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.

Re: Cathedral

Raymond Carver, Cathedral

"...his being blind bothered me."

Cathedral is quite clearly a story about blindness, but rather than revolving around simply the physical inability to see, it speaks on other types of blindness as well. Right from the beginning of the story, with his cliche ideas about blindness and blunt, closed-minded attitude about the blind man and his wife, the narrator shows that he is very much blind, even emotionally stunted. He shows no wish to recover from his "blindness", saying that his wife's friend coming to their house is "not something [he] looked forward to" (32), and sounding very upset when he heard about his wife's out-of-the-ordinary experience with the blind man. The narrator's wife may be the person who most wants the blind man to come visit, but she is blind to the depth of her husband's unease and is trying to force two differing parts of her life together, choosing not to see the consequences that may arise from her choice.

This story also plays into the common idea that blind people are often able to "see" things that others can't, and can help guide those who are figuratively blind into a more aware or even enlightened state of being. The blind man opens the narrator's eyes to the world of a blind person, even just a bit, when he draws a cathedral with him. After they finish the drawing, the blind man asks him to "take a look" (44), and wants to know what he can see, or rather, if his perspective has changed any. The narrator was trying to show the blind man what a cathedral is like, but in the end it's the narrator who experiences a glimpse of a different life, without his judgmental blindness.


Works Cited:

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011. Print.

Photo of a Blindfolded Person. “Honoring Your Literary Blind Spot.” Behler Blog. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.