This story takes place in New York City on the early 1950’s - 1960’s in a neighborhood in Harlem. A neighborhood plagued by poverty and crime. “We hit 110 Street and started rolling up Lenox Avenue. And I’d known this avenue all my life, but it seemed to me again, as it had seemed on the day I’d first heard about Sonny’s trouble, filled with hidden menace which was its very breath of life”(pg. 181). By this time segregation and racism was still part of this people’s life they had to take drastic measures in order to acquire equality. Families had a desire for economical and social growth in order to live happy and peaceful. This atmosphere was the one that surrounded Sonny’s mind and the one that took him to change and be different from others. Even though he looks Harlem as the place he has left behind it was still part of him. He wanted to avoid living that life and that was why he took the drug-addiction path, a way to live another life instead of confronting the real one.
“For more than two hundred years, African-Americans have participated in every conflict in United States history. They have not only fought bravely the common enemies of the United States but have also had to confront the individual and institutional racism of their countrymen”. (Lt. Col. [Ret] Michael Lee Lanning, author, "The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell"). Freedom was the fullest desire, they lived in a constant unfairness. Sonny tries to change his lifestyle but no matter what he does, he still has hope. Even though Sonny has anger about the life he wants to fight and be able to show him self and others that he can be different and be a free individual and that there is a meaning in tragedy. This story is showing the two sides of African American life, privileges vs isolation & pain. Sonny decides to accept the suffer, to do something, to give it a meaning instead of avoiding it or just living like everybody else. That is why he decides to search for the deep pain and wants to go to the military life; the only way to really understand and live a different life.
My man - Billie Holiday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXzq4MVPXsk
It cost me a lot
But there's one thing that I've got
It's my man
It's my man
Cold or wet
Tired, you bet
All of this I'll soon forget
With my man
Jazz originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities. As other types of music categories Jazz makes you relax and see life very peaceful. I would say that for Sonny this was a breath that allow him to continue living. Music for him was a way of communication a way to answer questions about society and racial relations in America. Instead of using what everybody uses “WORDS” , he expresses in a unique way, by the beep of the sound. He shows his darkness (melancholy and depression), in the darkness where he lives by making his music an affirmation of what his life is.
In this song there is hope, is a woman expressing love and admiration for a men, but with this story I interpret it as a a men that has a desire to go against everything because he has a world where he belongs, he has to defend himself and live in the real world.
Bebop is a type of Jazz but with a faster tempo and is based on improvisation. Politically and socially music represents a way to rebel, to make your thoughts be part of your life and others life. For Sonny, music is an expression that can describe or set a mood in a situation. At the end of the story, Sonny’s brother understood while Sonny played the piano the suffer he has always being carrying, “It’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness”.
Well-done! However, you needed to include your source for each research response. We will discuss the answers to this assignment in class tomorrow. I look forward to your participation!
ReplyDeleteGrade = 24/25