Literature Critique is in an evolution!

Well, after at least three drafts of possible thesis statements and further investigation of the two stories: "Sonny's Blues" and "The Management of Grief" I have come to a conclusion.
I started out to compare two characters in two stories and how the authors present characters that deal quite differently with strife. Well,"Sonny's Blues" provides both characters I desire to analyze. So, here is my draft with the first paragraph and thesis. I am sure the paper will continue to take a life all it's own, which will be welcomed and will not come as a surprise at this point.





A.V. Woolston

Professor Hueners

English 210

20 March 2007

The Human Condition; Peace or Purgatory?

Life has its joys and difficulties. Some people have more than their fair

share of the latter. Yet, how one reacts and responds to struggle and strife may be

the litmus test for what is constructive and what brings true understanding and

change. James Baldwin, the author of “Sonny’s Blues”, presents a story of two

brothers leading drastically different lives, yet each meeting their own reality in

individual terms. Sonny’s oldest brother, a man who has tried to live his own life

in pursuit of conventional ideals of success, narrated the story. Sonny seemed to

fly in the face of structured living. Sonny dreamed of becoming a musician and

while he pursued this dream, he succumbed to periodic drug use. The older brother

was driven to realize the middle class dream of education and “normalcy.” The

story guides the reader through the drama of Sonny’s drug addicted lifestyle and

brings the reader full circle to a place where the older brother somehow “gets” the

idea that Sonny is indeed a musician and a tormented soul full of empathy for

others. Baldwin created characters within his story that provide the reader with

very different personalities and by offering such colorful roles and individuals

who respond to personal struggle quite dissimilarly, the author confirmed the idea

that everyone struggles with misfortune in their own lives and that everyone has a

different approach in dealing with their own subsequent pain.








Works Cited

Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable ed.

Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York, W. W. Norton and

Co., Inc., 2006. 81-105.