Failure Johnathan Duffie “Sonny Blues,” by James Baldwin, is a story about an aspiring African American jazz musician named Sonny from Harlem, who gets addicted to heroin, and now is in a vigorous fight with himself to avoid another darkened path of destruction. Sonny’s brother is determined to help Sonny get his life back on track while at the same time battling his own emotional rollercoaster. The central idea is failure; the conflict overshadows the story as it shows how both brothers are scared to fail. Baldwin uses failure as a central theme, a physical setting and internal conflicts to tell this story. The central idea is failure.
It is at this point, the narrator finally lets go and deals with his own sadness. Certain events in the narrator's life such as the deaths of his uncle, father, and mother have turned the narrator into an unfeeling man who can not forgive his brother Sonny for falling into a life of heroine addiction. Throughout the story the narrator is angered by the the choices his brother makes such as not attending school, drug use, hanging out in nightclubs, and eventually his arrest. The narrator's anger is expressed in one scene where he goes to his brothers apartment and tells Sonny “that he might as well be dead as live the way he was living”(Baldwin, 2007). It is not until the narrator's death of his own daughter Gracie does he try to reconcile with his brother Sonny through a letter to the prison.
He sees the world in very dark and angry terms, his terms. Mainly because of his mother’s death from cancer when he was young and because of that and all the change it had brought on in his life, Lee is not willing to change or to listen to anyone. His character morphs and matures throughout the book, but the changes are very subtle. The reader mainly notices the changes when Lee does something that he would not have done before he moved, just like his volunteering to help someone or figuring out the consequences of his actions. The Blue Helmet reminds the reader that all actions have consequences, and that you must take responsibility for your actions and the final consequences.
The two movies ‘The Black Balloon’ and ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ have similar story lines and two main characters called Gilbert and Thomas faced with similar issues involving their disabled brothers. In the films, Gilbert and Thomas are faced with the expectations of caring for their brothers, which they don’t want to accept at first but are pressured into it by their family members, but later discover their true feelings. At first this creates many problems for the boys in their social and personal life, which they struggle to cope with. Both boys find a girlfriend, and they help the boys to understand their frustration, feelings and responsibility. Thomas’ and Gilbert’s families both have similar aspects about their families, but also have many different ones.
Sonny’s brother is older and he should know better that people ought to follow their dreams and do what they like to do in life so far as it isn't illegal .Baldwin tells us how Sonny's brother gets into an argument with Sonny when their mother dies. Sonny’s brother acting as a parent asks Sonny what he wants to do and Sonny tells him music. He doesn’t take Sonny serious because to him, you can't make a living out of music meanwhile people do make a living out of music. And he doesn't understand that music is the only thing Sonny wants to do. He tells Sonny that people can't always do what they want to do but Sonny who understands the world better argues that people ought to do what they want to do if not what do they live for (119-122) .I think Sonny is right, people should be able to follow their dreams .I’m riding with Sonny on that one, everyone should be able to follow their dreams because to me, I don’t think you can be happy in a career you’ve never liked.
Only a few pages into the book and one will know that the relationship between Ruddy and Tommy is different from the generic father-son love relationship. Ruddy is disappointed that even though he has always done what Tommy wanted, “I’ve given ‘im every damned thing he ever asked for.” (7) Tommy is still not open with him “But why doesn’t he tell me everything?” (7). In fact, Ruddy goes a bit to the extreme and “regard his son somewhat in the same light that he held the criminals he questioned” (7), and at this age many teenagers keep to themselves and usually are distant from their parents because they are either to controlling or are smothering them, however, neither of these seem to be the case here. Ruddy tries to avoid these thoughts by claiming his son has never done anything wrong, but the very assurance that Tommy has done nothing wrong makes him think he has “Tommy hasn’t… done anything wrong.” (7). As the story proceeds, Ruddy is promoted and assigned to Brentwood Park and learns that Tommy has studied Brentwood and knows more about this area then Ruddy does of his son.
The young boy is frightened by his uncle’s abusive behaviour and tries to avoid having any sort of contact with him: “If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow until we had seen him safely housed” (24). Throughout the story the young boy has several mixed emotions. He is frightened by his uncles’ drunkenness and confused by his sexual desires of Mangan’s sister. The young boy had never talked to her but could not stop thinking about her: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand” (25). He does not think that he will ever work up the
The character, had to tolerate smelling the whiskey in his father’s breath. The image used in the poem,like death,may also show that the boy probably thought that such behaviors from his father seemingly had no end; it was something he had to tolerate and fight against as long as he could. At a young age, he realized that it was no easy having to deal with an alcoholic for a father. “Could make a small boy dizzy” expressed how intoxicated his father really was but it is also suggest the boy’s respect and fright for his father’s structure. When reading the second text, one learns that losses the
Stanley does finally express loyalty to his father when he tries to protect him by hiding the suicide note that Arthur had wrote confessing of his murder of Margaret. Family Loyalty isn’t strong in the Ellis family- Stanley had a difficult childhood and hates his mother for the way she treated him when he was younger. The Ellis family don’t have a very good relationship with each other, Loyalty
Dicky attempts a comeback but unfortunately fails because of his drug addiction. He tries to prevent his habit and all of the crimes he commits because of it throughout the documentary. Unfortunately this once proud boxer cannot stay clean when he attempts to. He is arrested on multiple occasions for violent behavior. He always talks about how he could have been a legitimate contender in the sport of boxing if he continued to train and stayed clean.