Analysis Of Sonny s Blue By James Baldwin Essay - 1004 Words

â€Å"Sonny’s Blue† by James Baldwin is a story about two brothers who grew up in poverty. One brother went on to become a teacher, while the other pursued his dreams to become a musician and finds himself in prison due to drug use. The story begins with the narrator finding out about Sonny’s arrest. It’s easy to see his shock and almost disbelief. It takes the narrator a while to write to Sonny, but eventually he does, and they regain communication with one another after over a year of silence. Sonny is released from prison and goes to stay with the narrator and his family. He is staying clean, and he continues to pursue his dreams of making music. The narrator also finally sees that Sonny is very talented and that music really was his calling. The two brothers are very different, though they grew up in the same setting. They have different ways of escaping Harlem, they have different aspirations and goals, and they have different personalities and views on life. From the beginning of the story, it is clear that the brothers have different views of Harlem and how to become successful. The oldest of the two, the narrator, who remains unnamed, became successful after returning from war and became a teacher. He wed and had a family. Sonny, the younger brother, was successful in a sense because he got out of Harlem, but at the same sense, he fell into drug use and wound up in prison, trapped behind bars. The narrator sees the drug use and the poverty in Harlem, but he chooses toShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 916 Words   |  4 PagesJames Baldwin’s story â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† tells the tale of two African-American brothers trying to survive in 1950s America. Both struggle with darkness in their lives, from drugs to bottling up emotions. The following sources were found Literature Research Center’s website. Each of the four sources will be evaluated for the quality of their information, as w ell as their usefulness on the topic of darkness in â€Å" â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†. Flibbert, Joseph. Sonny s Blues: Overview. Reference Guide to ShortRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 933 Words   |  4 Pagesstory. Blues is a genre of music that is often used to express a sad mood. The contradictory lives of the two brothers contribute to the theme of being safe and take risks. In this story, James Baldwin writes about two brothers who were raised together. As time passed, they separated from one another and lived completely different lives. â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† by James Baldwin addresses the themes of finding comfort in music, dangers of addiction and the suffering of two brothers. First, Baldwin uses theRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 1578 Words   |  7 PagesJames Baldwin’s short story â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† was a great tale of the struggles shared between two brothers in Harlem in 1957. This story is about two African American brothers who, unfortunately, grew apart as the aged. The plot shows the struggles the two brothers faced as they grew up in Harlem, and in return, the two drastically different paths they perused. James Baldwin was an African American who grew up in Harlem in the 1930s and 40s. Baldwin was the oldest of nine children, and grew upRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues Essay2104 Words   |  9 PagesSeveral dialectics are at play in James Baldwin’s short story â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† including a dialectic between the narrator and his beloved brother Sonny involving their opposing responses to the sense of oppression and limitation that arises from living in Har lem. This dialectic and its resolution closely parallel Baldwin’s masterful use of Blues, Jazz, and Gospel music. We follow the narrator and his brother Sonny as they traverse the complexities of their individual and interconnected Harlem livesRead MoreAnalysis Of `` Sonny s Blue `` By James Baldwin1474 Words   |  6 Pages Music can be the lead to freedom from darkness. The story â€Å"Sonny’s Blue† by James Baldwin takes places in Harlem around the 1950’s. The story is about two brothers. One of the brothers is the narrator of the story whose name is unknown. The narrator tells the story of the struggles in Harlem but mainly the struggles of his brother with drugs, and his passion for jazz music. Through out the story the narrator avoids giving a sense of his own struggles with himself. However, in the end the readerRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny Blues 1753 Words   |  8 Pagesiniquity, gloom, or without light. In the short novel Sonny Blues by James Baldwin, the word â€Å"darkness† appeared frequently throughout the reading. I think the significan ce of darkness of this particular situation of this book that Baldwin is trying to present is fear and suffering. It shows how the characters are in the state of panic and fear, of the situation they are in and all the sufferings they have to go through. Connecting the Baldwin to the novel, Harlem; where the story takes place isRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 1366 Words   |  6 Pagesand dark ultimately guides Sonny and the narrator in their journey to overcome their internal struggles. In the short story Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin uses darkness and light to show struggles and, transformation as both brothers teeter between the different shades of the blues, using music as a way to bring them both to redemption. Often times, when light is used in stories, readers can very easily relate the idea to happiness and following the right path. Baldwin uses light to illustrate whatRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 995 Words   |  4 PagesJames Baldwin presents an emotional journey through Harlem in the 1950’s with his short story, â€Å"Sonny’s Blues.† From the beginning, the story is in medias res when the unnamed narrator is informed of bad news concerning his younger, troubled brother, Sonny. Throughout the story there is an ocean of emotions witnessed between these two brothers as they battle hardships from their past and present time. The setting plays an important role in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† to an extent where it is practically a characterRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues Essay1154 Words   |  5 Pagesntroduction: James Baldwin, author of Sonny s Blues, once said, I grew up with music...much more than with any other language. In a way, the music I grew up with saved my life (Session 3 Inquiry: Rudolfo Anaya and James Baldwin, 2015).   Blues becomes Sonny s drug and his addiction to it his salvation.       Even though the adults refrain from lamenting their sufferings directly to the children and telling them about the darkness, the child-narrator still intimates its marks in their facesRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues 1292 Words   |  6 Pages James Baldwin was raised in poverty in Harlem where, at the age of fourteen, he became a preacher in the Fireside Pentecostal Church. After high school he decided to become a writer and with the help of the black American expatriate writer Richard Wright, won a grant that enabled him to move to Paris, where he lived most of his remaining years. He wrote a variety of novels mostly about the intellectual trials of black men in a white, racist society and homosexual themes. James Baldwin wrote â€Å"Sonny’s

The Picino Productions Portrayal of Shakespeare’s The...

The Picino Production with Al Picino, Jeremy Iroris and Joseth Fiennes (2004) of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is one that has remarkable visual and performative choices that alter the way in which certain characters may be portrayed on paper. In this performance, Portia is racist as she insults the Prince of Morocco because he is a man of color. Portia’s performance is presented in a jovial manner even though the implications of her actions are of a serious matter. Portia chuckles with Nerissa in the midst of revealing her opinions about her suitors. This becomes an inside joke for the two women, especially Portia because the men think she is vested in wanting a suitor through the will of her father. This conversation takes place†¦show more content†¦His interior is displayed on the outside in the presence of Portia by his white robe. The robe symbolizes his innocence and humanizes the Prince past the outer layer that Portia sees. The interpretation of the directors in this scene reveals the reality of Portia’s character. Staging their conversation in a public space juxtaposes Portia’s feelings in public as opposed to her feelings in private with Nerissa. In presenting the private conversation as jovial, Portia’s disinterest and uncaringness for her possible suitors is evident. Likewise, the choice of dressing the Prince in white in the presence of Portia shows the production’s attempt to bring out the Princ e’s inside and in a sense making him appear â€Å"white† for Portia to change her mind about him. By doing this, the production allows the audience to understand the racism in Portia as she still makes hint to his â€Å"fairness† or lack thereof. The production does a great job in contrasting Portia’s private life and her public life which shows Portia’s racism. In contrasting the public and private sphere, the production strengthens the contrast between the Portia and The Prince’s inner and outer identities and the way in which these identifications are affected. In the choice of clothing and expression in the scenes mentioned above Portias racist and selfish nature is in direct contrast to the Princes humility and earnestness to please

Art Craft in Nikolay Gogol’s “The Portrait” Essay Example For Students

Art Craft in Nikolay Gogol’s â€Å"The Portrait† Essay The short story of N. V. Gogol â€Å"The Portrait† is built on the opposition of art and craft concepts to each other. Many Gogolists noted this in their works. The opposition of these two concepts arises from the beginning. Pictures in the shop, where Tchartkoff accidentally wandered, cause admiration of the people and the artists perplexity. He sincerely does not understand what exactly attracts the people in these simple pictures, in which everything is caricatured, implausible, deliberate, unfeeling. The protagonist mentally named them, â€Å"simple dullness, steady-going incapacity, which stood, through self-will, in the ranks of art† The Portrait. With his artist instinct, Tchartkoff snatches from the all portraiture truly tableaus — it is no coincidence that he stops in front of the portrait of the old man and freezes. Still not suspecting that, in front of him is not quite an ordinary work, Tchartkoff feels the power of the brush of the artist who painted the portrait. The nature of these pictures differs, the nature of the inspiration itself, by the will of which they were created. Creativity (pictorial, musical, architectural, literary) — is a kind of attempt to overcome disharmony, arising as a result of internal contradictions of a person or rejection of the surrounding reality. When creating a work, an author transforms his tormenting doubts in artistic images, engaged in a dialogue with himself and the addressee. Art is designed to harmonize the human soul (an author and a probable reader) and its surrounding reality, that is why true works of art are always perfect and harmonious in the unity of all their structural elements. This is the main difference from graphomaniac experiments in the literary, from music, satisfies the unpretentious requests of the masses, paintings created by order — from what is now called popular culture, pop, kitsch. Art — the creative impulse of the soul; craft — a means of earning. Art is alive by nature; craft, outwardly pretended by creativity, — dead. The creator by nature, Tchartkoff catches exactly this difference. But to feel, understand creativity, be talented and serve the arts — not the same thing. Tchartkoff loses his remarkable abilities in pursuit of fashion, money, fame. As soon as life gets confronted him with a choice of art or craft, he chooses the second. The sparkle of his talent gradually fades away. At the end of the first part of the story we are faced with an angry man, who understands that he has exchanged his talent for a luxurious life and honors, in which, to his regret, a talent couldn’t be developed — too much distracting vanity. Also, wealth and fame provide comfort, dull the senses, exacerbated in difficult situations. The ability of delicate sensibilities and awareness of the imperfection of reality causes disharmony to some extent necessary for the creative process. Tchartkoff can not resist the temptation and buys himself a fame and glory for money, which dropped out from under the frame of a mysterious portrait. At the first time, his gift of the artist still makes itself felt: Tchartkoff tries not only to fulfill orders, but to create — he enjoys working, with a dying breath he catches the shades, does not notice how time is running. However, the lady who ordered the portrait does not want to see what it really is, she wants her daughter to be different, not the same as in life: without slightly yellowish skin, without a faintly visible blue under her eyes, without dark spots on her face. In other words, the customer wishes her daughter to become â€Å"an absolute,† perfection. But the external perfection is cold and dead, it does not become alive, life-giving. It does not become art. Tchartkoff tries to resist, seeks to give the portrait more similarity with the original, But not so much to remain faithful to his calling, as â€Å"lest any one should accuse him of actual barefaced flattery. † The Portrait. At this moment, when he is working on the first custom order, Tchartkoff seems to be at a crossroads. Being, like the hero of â€Å"The Queen of Spades,† at the crossroads, Tchartkoff chooses one of the two possible ways. A quick success does not bring him happiness, it is a mirage, an illusion that crumbles to dust when compared to real art. Sent from Italy, the work by one of Tchartkoffs friends of youth strikes not only him, but also all without exception: When Tchartkoff entered the room, he found a crowd of visitors already collected before the picture. The most profound silence, such as rarely settles upon a throng of critics, reigned over all. Adventures Of Huck Finn Estimation EssayTchartkoffs story is only the first part of the story, from which we learn almost nothing about the portrait itself, acquired by a young artist. We do not know who is depicted in the portrait, how the portrait ends up in the shop, where Tchartkoff wandered, when and by whom it was painted. The only thing that can be said, — that the portrait was painted by a true Artist: â€Å"Dusty and defaced as the portrait was, Tchartkoff saw, when he had succeeded in removing the dirt from the face, traces of the work of a great artist. The portrait appeared to be unfinished, but the power of the handling was striking. The Portrait. One thing surprises: the portrait is also a work of art, why there is no desire in it, an inner predisposition to harmony, why does it provoke envy, anger, destruction? The picture is unusual, strange, â€Å"They (the eyes) fairly gazed out of the portrait, destroying its harmony with their strange liveliness. † The Portrait. There is no harmony in the portrait, although it is written by a talented artist. But the master who created it, says: â€Å"I will only say that I painted him with repugnance: I felt no liking for my work, even at the time. I tried to force myself, and, stifling every emotion in a hard-hearted way, to be true to nature. † The Portrait. The portrait depicts a gombeen-man (this, as well as the history of the creation of the portrait, is told in the second part of the story), possessing a strange dark force, â€Å"That’s how I ought to paint the Devil! † The Portrait — the artist thinks about the old man. The devils power, enclosed in a portrait frame, destroys the harmony of the picture. The work of art stops being great, the portrait becomes only a window through which the forces of evil can find ones way into the world. The portrait of a gombeen-man destroys not only its own harmony, harmony of one picture, but it seems to rebel against art in general: in the first part of the story it tells us the story of the ruined talent of Tchartkoff, in the second — the story of the creator of the portrait, his struggle with the devils power, which enslaved his will and talent: working on a picture for the church, he had bestowed the usurers eyes upon all the figures. The Portrait. The impure force takes possession of the artists soul, he can not get rid of its influence. The devilish force in â€Å"The Portrait† is not naughty — it desperately and gloomily tries to destroy the Artist, prevent to bring harmony to the world that came out under his brush. For a while, genius and art are enslaved by the devils power. However, the true art and the desire for harmony in it are still stronger. True to his vocation, the artist moves away from the worldly vanity, lives as an ascetic, at last reached enlightenment, creates a wonderful picture: â€Å"At the end of the year the picture was ready. It was a really wonderful work. Neither prior nor brethren knew much about painting; but all were struck with the marvellous holiness of the figures. † The Portrait. Thus, a true artist, true to his vocation and path can be broken for a while by the evil spirit, but to overcome — never. The novel â€Å"The Portrait† by Nikolay Gogol — the story of two artists which have been tested by the diabolical temptation: Tchartkoff by glory and money, the creator of the portrait by the ability to portray â€Å"the spirit of darkness. † One of them remains true to himself and serves the arts, the other — loses his talent, and then himself. You have talent: talent is the most priceless of God’s gifts† The Portrait, Ð ° â€Å"An intimation of God’s heavenly paradise is contained for the artist in art† The Portrait, therefore art is above all, stronger than the devils power. It does not tolerate a fussy chase of fame, money, success, it requires hard work and dilution of the master in his work, full immersion in creativity. Art gives strength to resist destruction and evil, to withstand the devils temptation. It helps to preserve or restore harmony in the soul of the creator and people.

Social Security Association Essays - Social Security,

Social Security Association The Social Security Act was created because of two separate factors, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Depression. B efore these two events , which shaped the United States to what we know it as today , security for senior citizens had c o me from another source. In this time , prior to the 1930's , America was almost entirely an agricultural nation. A typical life in this period was grow ing up on the farm working the land until people were too old to do it any longer . Once this occurred , extended famil ies would take care of family members until they had passed away, so there was no need for social security. But, as all good things must end , so did th e fairy tale where blood was thicker than water. The Industrial R evolution was what had started it by making the extended family and the family farm less common sources of what was financial security. Then, the Great Depres sion finished off this metamorphosis , so to speak , by making things so economically difficult that it was every family and family member for themselves. Thus, the Social Security Act was born. On June 8th, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt first spoke of his idea of a social security program to Congress. To tackle the actual creation of such a policy , the President appointed , by Executive Order , the c ommittee on Economic Security. The committee was told to examine the entire problem of economic insecurity and then devise a plan to help those most in need. In early 1935 , the committee made its report to President Roosevelt and by January 17 th , he had introduced the findings of the committee to both houses of Congress so that their idea could be considered. Soon , the houses of Congress could come to a majority decision as the Social Security Act was signed into law on August 14 th , 1935. One of the first things that this act did was establish a bipartisan Social Security Board made up of 3 members who were chosen specifically by the president. The original members of this board included John G. Winant, Arthur J. Altmeyer, and Vincent M. Miles. The duties of the SSB encompassed such things as delegating to the public how earnings were to be reported and the benefits that would be available to them. For Social Security to be effective , the United States government had much more to do. The biggest thing on this to-do list was to register all employers and employees by the deadline January 1 st , 1937 . It would be then that they would start receiving credits towards their old age insurance benefits. To complete this task, the government contracted with the United States Postal Service to deliver applications to the American people. Over 35 million SSN cards were issued via this mass registration between 1936 and 1937 alo ne. Through the Social Security Act , monthly benefits were to begin in 1942. So , from 1937 up until this time, the U.S. paid out single lump-sum payments to retirees. The first man to receive such a payment was Ernest Ackerman, a retired Cleveland motorman. Acker retired the following day of the beginning of this act for which he received a payment o f only 17 cents. This amount was far below the average of $58.06 at the time . The first amendments to the Social Security Act took place in 1939. The amendments added two new benefits, which included payment s to the spouse and underage children of a retired worker , and to the family of a worker in the event of a premature death. The 1939 amendments also increased the benefit amounts which had also quickened the start of monthly benefit checks from 194 0 to 194 2. The next set of amendments were enacted in 1950. These specific amendments were to increase the amount of the benefits which a t the time were still very low. In fact , until 1951, welfare assistance for the elderly exceeded the amount of Social Security benefits. A COLA or cost-of-living-adjustment was first