Creativity can be used to express the history of one's life and culture. Thorell Tsomondo suggests, "the artist historian is a kind of poet-prophet . . . bound at once to tradition and to change" (195). Sonny's story contains broken dreams and monumental anguish, which may have caused or perhaps were the result of his heroin addiction. In playing the piano, Sonny becomes a storyteller, and he tells about the struggle he and his audience daily experience: the realities of poverty, crime, and oppression. Even as he recreates the tale of his life, he must crea

The power of "progress," its advancement working to the commoners' detriment, and its potential for out-of-control mayhem are all crystalized very nicely. Charlie, the pretentious tramp, is outiconified by an image-breaking machine, more worshipped and more evolved than the highest man (Charlie's nervous, sweating boss) and yet more abusive and vulgar than the lowest ruffian: the device feeds Charlie bolts which have accidentally been left on its tray, thus forcing him to literally ingest progress (my interpretation from summary in Kamin 1984: 114). Machinery devours him by forcing him to devour its own excesses: it is only a short time later that Charlie is, as has been noted, himself devoured by the machine age in the geary maw of a huge construction device (ibid). Later, he is driven completely mad by his job of tightening gears to the point where he becomes a human machine, unable to stop his involuntary tweaking (with pliers) of anything knoblike.

Modern Times, for whatever it's worth, was seen as more political a film than Chaplin's previous efforts; quite frankly, its indictment of a segment of society made it that way. The New York Daily News' Kate Cameron saw the film as straight entertainment, but was of a minority; "more politically and aesthetically . . . conservative" critics, notably, made up that camp (Maland 1989: 155). Liberal commentators, such as the New Theatre's Charmion von Wiegand, were quicker to see the movie as "acutely [aware of] the changes which are occurring in the body of our society . . ." Conservative viewers, stressing the Tramp's humorous aspect, were quite telling in their emphasis on this, for when The Great Dictator came about, they would decide that there was more to worry over in Chaplin's ethic than fear of machines. But that is another chapter in the life of the icon.

te a new sound to push forward and escape the reality. Sonny "lead[s] his audience to a heightened, shared awareness of their cultural identity" when he gives his "heroic, bardic performance" with Creole and the band (Thorell 196). The music that Sonny creates is an expression of his African-American history not just in Harlem but in the society they live in as a whole. Since this history is not just his personal story, but a relative story of a culture of minorities and subjected to repression by a nation ruled by the white majority, the audience knows exactly what he's "talking" about with every note emitted from his piano.

Creativity becomes a means to escape the reality of repetition also, that of "houses exactly like the houses . . . [and] boys exactly like the boys" they come across again and again in Harlem (Baldwin 71). There will always be hope of a better place, and of a better life. Seeing the cycle of faces and lives dampens the hope, though, so with no means of physically removing oneself then mentally a method must be created to flee. For Sonny, the method is music guiding the dull roar of reality inside his mind and soul into an intelligible song. For the song to also pull the same roar from the listener and allow a temporary release from its hold there cannot be a compromise on creativity; the song must surprise

Some common words found in the essay are:
Modern Times, Harlem Sonny, Roland Barthes', Thorell Tsomondo, Harlem Baldwin, Sonny's Blues, Tracey Sherard, Beside Charlie, Wes Gehring, Theatre's Charmion, sonny's blues, deep water, heroin addiction, modern times, eliminating lunch, deep water drowning, music sonny, blues jazz, conservative, escape reality, water drowning, eliminating lunch eliminating, lunch eliminating lunch,
Approximate Word count = 2134
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)