Looking Forward Rather than Behind
“I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth.” (Baldwin 121) A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin both work as literary reminders that living in the past is not emotionally healthy, and that pain from the past permeates into present day life. The texts beg the question: Can the past ever be fully forgotten or overcome? These two pieces of literature include the events from the past that change each of the characters in an emotional way. Egan and Baldwin created stories that offer similarities to each other because of the textual evidence that reminiscing in the past leaves characters emotionally distressed.
Egan’s critically acclaimed novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, offers different perspectives that gives readers more textual evidence about how events in the past …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, Baldwin introduces Sonny as the brother of the narrator who is battling heroin addiction. The two brothers seem to have a disconnection and the past is to blame for that. Sonny seems to be misunderstood because of his passion for music. The brother does not understand Sonny’s love for music and disregards Sonny’s love to play the piano. In a letter to his brother Sonny wrote, “I don’t want you to think it had anything to do with me being a musician.” (Baldwin 103) Sonny’s brothers inability to understand Sonny’s desire for music drove Sonny to a low level which resulted in drug use. The experiences in the past that haunted Sonny affected him so much that the constant use of heroin was the only way to get out of the hole he was in. Thinking about past experiences affected the way Sonny functioned in an atrocious way because the road to move past the bad experiences and events that happened in his life was
“I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth.” (Baldwin 121) A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin both work as literary reminders that living in the past is not emotionally healthy, and that pain from the past permeates into present day life. The texts beg the question: Can the past ever be fully forgotten or overcome? These two pieces of literature include the events from the past that change each of the characters in an emotional way. Egan and Baldwin created stories that offer similarities to each other because of the textual evidence that reminiscing in the past leaves characters emotionally distressed.
Egan’s critically acclaimed novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, offers different perspectives that gives readers more textual evidence about how events in the past …show more content…
At the beginning of the story, Baldwin introduces Sonny as the brother of the narrator who is battling heroin addiction. The two brothers seem to have a disconnection and the past is to blame for that. Sonny seems to be misunderstood because of his passion for music. The brother does not understand Sonny’s love for music and disregards Sonny’s love to play the piano. In a letter to his brother Sonny wrote, “I don’t want you to think it had anything to do with me being a musician.” (Baldwin 103) Sonny’s brothers inability to understand Sonny’s desire for music drove Sonny to a low level which resulted in drug use. The experiences in the past that haunted Sonny affected him so much that the constant use of heroin was the only way to get out of the hole he was in. Thinking about past experiences affected the way Sonny functioned in an atrocious way because the road to move past the bad experiences and events that happened in his life was