The Blues Essay

Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.

Different from other forms of music, blues was only recorded by memory and passed down through generations through live performances. The blues began in the North Mississippi Delta post Civil War times. It was heavily influenced by African roots, field hollers, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups. This eventually developed into music that was set up in a call-and- response way so that the singer would sing a line and he would then respond with his guitar.

As Bryan Crable notes, Burke and Ellison had the closest intellectual and social relationship when Burke was writing A Rhetoric of Motives—and, I would add, when Ellison was writing Invisible Man. Crable points out that the Rhetoric is “the only one of Burke’s books to cite Ellison,” in large part because Ellison’s 1945 essay “Richard Wright’s Blues” (which called Wright’s just-released memoir Black Boy “a nonwhite intellectual’s statement of his relationship to western culture” that illuminates a “conflicting pattern of identification and rejection” à la Joyce, Nehru, and Dostoyevsky) had a major influence on Burke “only one month into serious work on his now-canonical text” (“Blues” 263–64, Crable 47–48). The claim that the friendship was important for both Burke and Ellison is certainly true, intervening in a longstanding scholarly conversation on the Burkean influences apparent in Invisible Man (and other works of Ellison’s) that paid little attention to the ways in which Ellisonian ideas in fact inspired Burke’s work as well. Even with this helpful addition of Crable’s, though, the scholarly consensus seems to suggest that Ellison employed Burke’s philosophies of literary form in his composition of Invisible Man, while Burke developed his “thoughts on the rhetorical dimensions of race” based on Ellison’s insights about the conflicts between “individual identity” and “racial identity” (Crable 47–48). All of this is correct, but its understanding of the Burke-Ellison

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration. Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to function at work or school or cope with daily

There are several types of depression some of them are but may not be limited to: Major Depression one is said to experience this most days of the week. Bipolar Disorder, these individuals experience mood episodes that can result in high energy to low depressive periods. Seasonal Affective Disorder is said to affect one mostly during the winter months when one is unable to obtain as much sunlight due to the days growing shorter. Postpartum Depression is a major depression that may affect some women in the weeks and months after birthing a child. Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder may affect some women at the start of their menstrual cycles each month. 'Situational' Depression may affect an individual when they are having trouble managing a stressful event in their life, such as a death in the family, a divorce, or losing a job. People with psychotic depression have the symptoms of major depression along with "psychotic" symptoms. For some one having atypical depression, a positive event can temporarily improve your mood (WebMD, 2014). This disease is devastating for both the individual it affects as well as his/her environment.

The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of

In the story of “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, the narrator, an algebra teacher is devastated when he finds out about his brother going to prison for selling and using drugs. Sonny’s older brother, the narrator, is confused and doesn’t know how to handle the situation because of how shocked he is. He finds out before his algebra class and his students remind him of when Sonny was younger, he realizes his students could someday end up like Sonny because of all the hardships and obstacles to face growing up in Harlem. Giving the conflict of Sonny’s struggle with his heroin addiction and life struggles. James Baldwin uses the narrator as someone unidentified or unknown to convey a personal and closer relationship we have towards Sonny, the protagonist. The author does this so that we don’t focus

James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is an interesting as well as an enlightening story. Baldwin is successful to describe Sonny’s life struggle through the analysis of Sonny’s relation with the family members in a poor neighborhood of Harlem and his mission of becoming a musician to free himself from the drug addiction. Definitely characterization is the strongest part of the story because Baldwin has effectively presented the main characters; Sonny, his brother and their mother, through in depth psychological analysis, Sonny’s revolutionary actions and the stream of consciousness. Likewise, setting sits as the other important aspect of the story, where Baldwin successfully picks the poor neighborhood of Harlem in the post world war II scenario and links it to the

Generally, anyone can develop a type of depression (yahoo.com 1). Most cases of depression go unrecognized and are just considered bad moods (depression 475). There are many types of depression and many severity levels of the disorder. Typically, a person who is depressed will have a unipolar or a bipolar disorder. Unipolars suffer only from depression. This can be major or dysthymia. Bipolars can have severe ups and downs in mood, clarity of the mind, and energy levels. They also experience manic episodes-, which are extreme highs and can have a low at the same time (Quinn 1).

“It’s repulsive to think you have to suffer that much” (Baldwin 132). Many would argue that in life, pain outweighs pleasure. Freud contends that although we are unable to reconcile with the truth because it frightens us, each and every one of us has an unconscious desire to die. Death, according to Freud, is the ultimate escape from the sufferings and hardships which define human life and reality. In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin confronts this dark truth about human nature in his character, Sonny. Sonny’s suffering becomes so unbearable that he refuses to accept it as an inevitable condition of the human experience; he refuses to “take it”: “’But nobody just takes it,’ Sonny cried, ‘That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to’” (Baldwin 133). Rather than directly embrace death, Sonny seeks relief and control in other, alternative forms. At first, Sonny

All people want respect from other people, right? They all do because being respected means that people appreciate you and will be kind to you. In Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird and The Rules of the Game respect wasn’t given to the elder or the younger. No matter what age you are you always deserve respect. I will be comparing and contrasting these two stories and explaining why they are important pieces to the story.

The blues. We all get it at one point or another, and it can be helpful to know someone who can relate or knows what you’re going through. But some people aren’t natural talkers or can easily share their feelings. So what do they do? Some turn to the movies or television shows, others read books, and then there are people who just have to sing it in a song. So what exactly is the blues? How did it come about? Does it have subgenres like rock and roll? Who are some notable artists and what are some of their notable pieces?

Can we blame the decline of the blues on our Prozac mentality? Remember when Neil Diamond gave us permission, “You and me are subject to the blues now and then.” I want my blues. How am I ever going to know when I am feeling good if I’m never sad or blue?

People of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life have felt depressed and unhappy at some time in their lives. These periods of sadness usually pass after a short time, but for some people, this feeling can remain for weeks, months, and even years. (1) This prolonged state of unhappiness is called major (or clinical) depression and is characterized by a persistent sad or "empty" mood, loss of interest in favorite activities, difficulty concentrating, and many other symptoms. It is not simply a mental state but an illness that interferes with the way people feel, function, and think.(2)

and green. Blue as discussed earlier was represented as the color of the God and other religious concepts, so the major incorporation of the color blue in the reliquary chasse indicated the spiritual significance it carried. Envisioning blue on the chasse unified people to Jesus Christ. Many of the reliquary chasse of the 12th century narrated a story; this individual one narrates the crucifixion of Christ. There are several key figures engraved throughout the exterior of the chasse, however since the crucial scene of the execution are shown on the front face of the chasse, that indicates that this chasse was primarily to be seen from the front rather than the sides. If viewed from the front, the top has three figures designed on it. In the center is the God the Father and on his either sides are two unknown saints. All three figures are represented in mandorlas however in different colors. The God of Father is displayed in the blue mandorla while the saints are shown in green mandorla. Here we can interpret a sense of hierarchy because the God of Father is shown in blue, which represents a divine color, however the saints are represented in green that is a mix of blue and yellow. So, blue still exists and represents divinity, yet the mixture of blue and yellow to produce a different shade of blue signifies that the God of Father is above and more important than the saints.