sonnys blue
"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for. (49)" This thought is what is reflected in both "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin and "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather. Both Baldwin and Cather illustrate the problem of a young man growing up and taking on the responsibility of finding out who they are and what they want out of life. In these stories the theme is most prevalent, developing the story and helping the reader form their own opinions on how they feel about their own individuality. No matter how hard someone tries to decide someone's life, it is up to the individual to decide what kind of life they want to live. In "Sonny's Blues" Sonny was the youngest child in his family and after his parents died when he was young his big brother made a promise that he would look after him. Unfortunately, Sonny chooses the wrong path at first and gets involved in drugs and has to go to a rehabilitation center to get better. After he gets out his brother asks him "What do you want to do?"(47), to which Sonny replies "I'm going to be a musician. (47)" Sonny's brother doubts his aspirations from the beginning and even tells himself that "(he) never played the role of the older brother quite so serious
Sonny decided that he wanted to be a musician, and the distraction of his brother was not going to stop him in his quest to be one. Once he had a piano to practice on he did everything possible to reach his goal of performing in a jazz band. Overall, both stories reflect how people have their lives influenced from different sources. In "Sonny's Blues" Sonny was influenced by his brother, Harlem, and his love for music. In "Paul's Case" his father, his teachers, Cordelia Street, and his love for the good life influenced Paul. Ultimately, both boys made the right choice in deciding what kind of life they wanted for themselves and limited the influence from other places. ly before (47)." Sonny's brother is a teacher and you can tell by his instincts how much he want to teach Sonny things about life in general. By playing the "roles" of parent, big brother, and teacher, Sonny's brother constantly stresses how he wants his brother to turn out. In the end Sonny's brother should have listened to himself when he told his mother that "(Sonny is) a good boy and he's got good sense (45)" so that he would of trusted Sonny more to make his own decisions. Paul was a bit younger and had different circumstances that stopped him from completely reaching his goals. With the money he went to New York and stayed in a hotel and dined extravagantly and basically lived like he had always seen how the soprano's that came to Carnegie Hall lived. Paul had went to school and told his classmates of how well he knew these members of the stock company and when his classmates were obviously bored with the stories, he would tell his wild dreams of how he was "going to travel for a while; going to Naples, to Venice, to Egypt (408)." At the end of the story with Paul's quest to "find himself" coming to an end with himself sleeping on railroad tracks, he
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Approximate Word count = 1252
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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