Compare And Contrast Sonny's Blues And The Rich Brother

The brother is the person who has the most information about the family. His knowledge of his uncle’s account and conversation with his mother contribute to the overall completeness of the story that would have been missing otherwise.

Eminent psychologists have made convincing arguments for the effect birth order has on personality. In addition, laymen can cite innumerable examples of domineering, pragmatic, reliable older siblings contrasting with those fitting the "youngest stereotype" -- irresponsible, spoiled, and selfish. Such character traits often cause lifelong conflict between siblings. In his short story "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin shows a profound example of such sibling friction. Baldwin paints a realistic portrait of an older brother, Richard (the narrator), always steady, predictable, and in control, and Sonny, a musician and recovering heroin addict who looks at the world through

He happens to be jealous of the attention Doodle gets and remains embarrassed by Doodle's difference and also annoyed at the fact that he had to take Doodle everywhere with him. Barely tolerating the fact that Doodle was different from everyone else and strived to teach him "normal" things but not for Doodle's own good. "So I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow", Brother says (417). This arises the source of deep shame for Brother. This shows Doodle's extreme vulnerability, while showing just how disturbed Brother is by the idea of Doodle's difference.

Things like walking and swimming. We find out about Brother’s unacceptance of Doodle when he called him “a burden in many ways.” The main character had been longing for a brother for a long time. When he finally got one, he was disappointed at the way his wish turned out. Another proof we get that Brother isn’t very accepting of Doodle is when Doodle first crawled, and was brought outside the bedroom, Brother thought that Doodle “for the first time, became one of us [them].” This quote indicates that Brother had the idea at first that Doodle wasn’t really part of the family. Doodle was cooped up in a bedroom for three years, and that did detach him from his family, but he was still a part of the family. For Brother, Doodle should’ve always been there emotionally if not physically. Brother also at times comes out as being mean to Doodle because Doodle wasn’t the brother he had expected. An instance was when Brother scared

The “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst Is about Brother and Doodle are Siblings. Brother is disappointed by Doodle. This leads him to do many cruel things to Doodle. Over the course of the story, Brother changes a lot. James Hurst describes Brothers’s change in the story, from being overly prideful of himself and ashamed of Doodle, which leads him to do many cruel things, to realizing that his pride and shame lead to the death of Doodle.

He is surrounded by wealth, coming from a "prominent, well-to-do" family and living within the "consoling proximity of millionaires" (7, 10). Besides this prominent admiration of money, Nick is also impressed with the American quality of independence, conceding that "almost any exhibition of complete self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute" from him (13). These first few confessions illustrate the atmosphere of the entire novel, an environment in which extravagance was popular and social goals were aimed at achieving wealth and mastering one's identity.

This idea relates to the story of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and all of his brothers, where family competition is a big component to the meaning of each story. Most biblical and present day examples of sibling rivalry are due to jealousy between one and another. In The Rich Brother, Donald is perfectly content with his life. Even though he is mostly wandering around aimlessly, he is genuinely happy and is optimistic. Pete on the other hand is successful; he has money, a family, and has a real role in society. Yet, he is still somewhat empty and striving for a feeling of completeness. By seeing his younger brother who he perceives as stupid, immature, and a nuisance, as happy as he was, Pete became jealous of Donald’s happiness and contentment with his non-materialistic life. Even though Donald wasn’t successful in any configuration, he seemed fulfilled and that upset Pete. Even after Pete left Donald alone at the end of the story, Pete still felt incomplete, and he seemed to regret leaving his brother out to die. Wolff was trying to get the reader to see that Pete would never live a satisfied life because of how he always looked at the glass half empty. Whether he thought of picking Donald up from the religious farm as a way to spend more time together, rather than a burden, he could have turned the experience into a joyful one. If Pete had been more optimistic

"Sonny's Blues," by James Baldwin, explores the strained relationship that two brothers the unnamed narrator and Sonny have and how the narrator slowly begins to recognize Sonny's relationship with music. While the narrator is initially baffled by Sonny's dream to become a musician, towards the end of the short story, he recognizes that Sonny depends on music and that it is a driving force in his life, possibly one of the only things that keep him alive.

In the Journal Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, there wasn’t a name for the narrator. The narrator was related to the boy Sonny. He was his brother. During Sonny’s young age, he was a troubled kid in Harlem. He got arrested for selling drugs and heroin. The narrator was a teacher who taught algebra. He knew that one day his students could end up just like Sonny. After school, the narrator saw Sonny with some of his old friends. His friends were always high and they must have been supplying Sonny with drugs. The narrator never wrote Sonny while he was in prison until his young daughter grace dies. The death probably made him realized that life was too short and he should communicate with his brother. Later, after Sonny got out of prison he joined

Furthermore, Sonny's Blues follows a man as he deals with his brother, Sonny, whose ambition to become a highly-acclaimed musician causes him to fall into the ceaselessly tragic world of drugs and crime. The damaging psychological effects of parental conflict are seen within Sonny, and in turn this affects the narrator. To elaborate, Sonny's father saw a lot of himself in Sonny and as a result, he and his son constantly argued. Sonny's father used alcohol in order to find "something a little better", eventually dying while intoxicated. Later in Sonny's life, his mother passes away, leaving Sonny without any parental figure, and the narrator with the heavy responsibilities that come with being Sonny's only caretaker.

In understanding the complex nature of the American Dream, Tom is the most egotistical of them all. His family has enormous wealth. Tom represents “old money” and the intergeneration transfer of wealth; which he offensively exploits. He lives in East Egg where the old aristocrats live. Tom is also a hypocrite, and his constant use of racist comments towards other ethnic groups and those less fortunate than himself indicate to me the reader that he feels he is superior.

In "The Rich Brother", everyone could assume that Pete was the rich brother. I didn't see it that way. I figured out that Donald was the rich brother in this case. Pete does have a better life with greater materials, but I saw that Donald appreciated the finer things in life. Pete had two daughters, a sailboat, and a successful life as a real estate agent.

In the short story of Sonny's Blues the brothers serve as two sides of one man. that man being the narrator has two sides, a correlation of ying and yang. Sonny is the darker side of the narrator. throughout the short story the flashbacks serve as a reminder to how similar the two brothers are. While their lives have taken separate paths, the brothers are united in their conflict of race, of never having been able to escape Harlem. Harlem has affected both brothers, but in different ways. the story highlights the two sides of the African-American during the segregation era." Sonny, the darker side, has turned to music, but when music doesn't get him through the hardships of his life, he turns to heroin to help him ease the pain and suffering.

A materialistic guy, somewhat content, financially stable with a family in a nice home. It would look as if he had it all together, but in reality he does not. I feel as though Donald gives Pete a different perspective of life which is displayed on page 358 when he begins to contemplate the outcomes of Donald ’s decision to give Webster the $100. He begins to question his initial position

This is a story of a young jazz musician (Sonny) from Harlem, NY who gets addicted to heroin, is arrested for using and selling drugs, and returns to his childhood neighborhood after his release from prison. He moves in with his older brother (the story’s narrator) and his brother’s family. The two brothers sort of reconnect after a very tense few weeks during which both try to deal with their anger towards each other. Drugs are a central part of the story, but it’s also about family, music, and trying to overcome life’s struggles.