Sonny's Blues Comparison

The differences of stories Does racism still exist today? Some people would say no, yet there is some certain people would say yes. This is because the people who say yes are considered themselves as minority group of people in the United States. Because of their skin color, they are treated differently, unfairly. In the story of “Sonny’s blue” by James Baldwin and the excerpt Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, both authors have addressed the social crisis for African American. Although the points that both authors indicate are very similar to each other, the environments that they focus on, the struggles they have experienced, and the fear they have faced are dissimilar due to the different time periods in both stories. The story …show more content…
Both texts have explained their fears to the society. Although both texts have illustrated the same fear that they are afraid of in the society, both texts do not have the common perspective to solve the fears. In “Sonny’s blues”, the author Baldwin uses church as his example to demonstrate the fear of African American. In the texts, he uses the scene of church to emphasize the “darkness” of their lives. The moment when the adults quiet down and left the kids in blind indicate how fearful they are, yet they do not want to bring the fear to their kids since they think the kids are too young to accept the reality. (39-40) In contrast to “Sonny’s Blue, the father in the Between the World and Me wants to indicate the reality to his kid. As he wrote, “And I am afraid. I feel the fear most acutely whenever you leave me. But I was afraid long before you, and in this I was unoriginal. When I was your age the only people I knew were black, and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid. I had seen his fear all my young life, though I had not always recognized it as such.”(14) In this text, the father is willing to share his fear with his son. He doesn’t want to hide it, because he thinks it benefits his son if his son knows the reality. So his son can escape from the trap that a lot of African American would fall in. Both texts have indicated the fear of the society, yet both handle their fear …show more content…
Although both stories are happened in the ghetto neighborhood, both settings are happened in the different location and under different element of inequality. In the story “Sonny’s blues”, the setting is happened in Harlem, New York. This place has predominantly African American residents. It is also a place that you can hardly find any white American. In the text, the author Baldwin describes the environment in Harlem as worst condition. Specifically, Sonny’s brother uses his algebra students as an example of how the environment would influence them as they grow up. Furthermore, he uses the term “darknesses” to describe his students would face-first darkness is the environment of the reality, and another darkness is the unreal imagination or dream. (37) In this text, it illustrates the lack of environment is caused by the traditional practice of African American- which African American ends up in jail eventually during that time. On the other hand, the excerpt Between the World and Me , the setting is happened in Baltimore, Maryland. This place also has more African American, yet there is also white American live in the neighborhood. In the excerpt, the author Coates questions about the police brutality. He questions why there are so many shootings that particularly against African American. He then gave out the names of the innocent shootings that was