Old Souls in Scar Ridden Bodies
It is simply a part of life; no amount of fuss will stop the ticking hands of age. Growing old is the story told by every human born to live. In “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin, the reader follows the story of the musician Sonny as told through his brother’s perspective. Sonny is a recovering drug addict and his brother, the narrator, is a morally rigid school teacher. Throughout the narrative the narrator introduces us to various characters and situations with very specific vocabulary to create specific themes in the story. One of these themes that stood out to me the most was the contrast of age. Events of pain are used to metaphor loss of innocence in the characters the father, the bar woman, and the narrator. …show more content…
During the observation of a bar woman serving customers, I understood this in the symbolism of her image. The narrator describes her as, “when she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semi-whore”(Baldwin, 1696). The young girl she once was, full of opportunity, is now transforming into a woman who must do what is necessary to survive. Sadly she must surrender her dreams and acquire the back-breaking burdens of responsibilities. With every new day a new bill appears in the mail. This is her reality. This is the reality of many people. This reality is a long and boring taxed …show more content…
He grew to become a bigger man when his youngest child had passed. Because of his child’s passing he wrote to Sonny. In Sonny’s response the narrator had a revelation; “My trouble made his real”(Baldwin, 1709). The narrator realized that life is not as great as he had thought to be. By feeling the true pain of a hard life it caused the narrator to become more sympathetic to others’ hardships. This change of character, from selfish and stubborn to caring and open, is aligned with that of a mature person. Especially because of the nature of the event this lesson is one the narrator will not abandon no matter the circumstance. After all, books can be forgotten, but a scar will never disappear. The narrator learned a valuable lesson about human nature because of his own traumatic experience.
The more one knows the more one grows. In “Sonny’s Blues” the author was sure to illustrate that. Although there are still many more characters that embody this theme, some of the most important and symbolic to the story were those discussed in this paper. Regardless however, every single character had or currently was experiencing pain. Because of such circumstances all characters appear to metaphor how people become older because of the experiences they live; some of the most influential experiences being ones that
It is simply a part of life; no amount of fuss will stop the ticking hands of age. Growing old is the story told by every human born to live. In “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin, the reader follows the story of the musician Sonny as told through his brother’s perspective. Sonny is a recovering drug addict and his brother, the narrator, is a morally rigid school teacher. Throughout the narrative the narrator introduces us to various characters and situations with very specific vocabulary to create specific themes in the story. One of these themes that stood out to me the most was the contrast of age. Events of pain are used to metaphor loss of innocence in the characters the father, the bar woman, and the narrator. …show more content…
During the observation of a bar woman serving customers, I understood this in the symbolism of her image. The narrator describes her as, “when she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semi-whore”(Baldwin, 1696). The young girl she once was, full of opportunity, is now transforming into a woman who must do what is necessary to survive. Sadly she must surrender her dreams and acquire the back-breaking burdens of responsibilities. With every new day a new bill appears in the mail. This is her reality. This is the reality of many people. This reality is a long and boring taxed …show more content…
He grew to become a bigger man when his youngest child had passed. Because of his child’s passing he wrote to Sonny. In Sonny’s response the narrator had a revelation; “My trouble made his real”(Baldwin, 1709). The narrator realized that life is not as great as he had thought to be. By feeling the true pain of a hard life it caused the narrator to become more sympathetic to others’ hardships. This change of character, from selfish and stubborn to caring and open, is aligned with that of a mature person. Especially because of the nature of the event this lesson is one the narrator will not abandon no matter the circumstance. After all, books can be forgotten, but a scar will never disappear. The narrator learned a valuable lesson about human nature because of his own traumatic experience.
The more one knows the more one grows. In “Sonny’s Blues” the author was sure to illustrate that. Although there are still many more characters that embody this theme, some of the most important and symbolic to the story were those discussed in this paper. Regardless however, every single character had or currently was experiencing pain. Because of such circumstances all characters appear to metaphor how people become older because of the experiences they live; some of the most influential experiences being ones that