Waving Through A Window Analysis

He realizes that music helps him escape his sufferings tries to tell his brother how passionate he is about playing jazz music and his brother is not taking him seriously. The narrator believes that Sonny should be a classical pianist, but that is not what

When Sonny moves in with the family, he is given the expectation to finish college and stay out of trouble. Sonny has other ideas though and skips his classes to go to the local jazz club and play music. When the narrator first learns of Sonny’s antics he is very disappointed and is frustrated that Sonny continues to pursue a musical career. He believes it is part of the reason that Sonny has had so much trouble in the past and doesn’t believe it is a positive thing for his brother. Sonny is immediately kicked out and the two go for another extended period of time until talking again. Eventually the narrator has another change of heart and invites his brother to live with him again and Sonny agrees. The two struggle to communicate so one day Sonny invites the narrator to come watch him play at the jazz club and it is then that the narrator truly understands his younger brother. He is watching Sonny play with a group of musicians when he sees “Sonny’s face is trouble” (Baldwin 254) with the difficulty in

The narrator states, “I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in Earth[...]And he was giving it back, as everything must be given back, so that, passing through death it can live forever” (47). Sonny uses his blues as his personal form of expression. His blues gives back the memories he grips so that it can still feel alive. Although, it may be gone it will never be forgotten. Sonny’s music helps his brother understand his choice to be a musician. This communicates a very powerful message because Sonny verbally telling his brother he didn't understand, did not even work. Sonny’s music also gives his brother the gift of being able to see his mother's face again, to feel the hard times his mother encountered in her life, to see the road where his grandfather had died, and also he to see his daughter again, as well as feeling his wife's tears again (47-48). Sonny's blues weren't just blues, the idea of his blues being much more than that is expressed as he let go of his feelings it brought back the impossible feelings and images that were once gone for his brother. Under this circumstance, Baldwin shows the power of the non verbal language of music. The narrator finally understood all he had to do to understand was listen as seen when he says, “he would never be free until we did” (47). Him listening to Sonny’s

In the text’s final act, Sonny’s brother agrees to accompany him to see him perform with fellow musicians and as Sonny plays his piece, the brother realizes that through song, he “[hears] what [Sonny] had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth” (Baldwin 140). In this instance, Sonny expresses his pain and frustration through his music, which his brother finally understands that Sonny cares about music because it grants him a voice where he normally would not have one. Again, considering the perspective of the story, the fact that the brother hears Sonny’s pain signals the effectiveness of Sonny’s form of communication. Whereas Sonny was previously characterized as not talkative, this later moment seems to challenge that notion by proposing that although he may have appeared to not be talkative in a verbal sense, Sonny reclaims his voice through music. The text includes this transition to depict how relationships between people can be improved simply by utilizing communication, especially through nonverbal forms. To further substantiate the claim of Sonny’s new voice through music, the text claims that Sonny “began to make [the song] his” (Baldwin 140). By making the song “his,” Sonny attains ownership of his

The narrator goes to a club to watch Sonny and his band play. He begins to understand how deeply his brother feels and thinks, “I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument with the breath of life, his own.”(Baldwin 102) The music gives Sonny a chance to release his hopelessness and depression. Even though the narrator believes Sonny could have done more with his life if he had turned to classical music, he understands that Sonny is being true to who he really is. The anonymous brother, however, has not found

Baldwin utilizes an extended metaphor in the latter portion of his short story in his efforts to depict Sonny’s relationship with the music he plays. This metaphor begins as the narrator realizes that Creole, a member of the band that Sonny is playing with, is trying to help Sonny get over his rustiness and hesitation in playing the piano. Baldwin illustrates this by comparing it to Creole urging Sonny into a body of water, reassuring Sonny that “the deep water and drowning were not the same thing” with his trumpet playing (1715). Baldwin concludes this metaphor as Sonny gains his footing in the performance; Creole relinquishes the control he had on the band and is not “trying any

What has not yet realized is that heroin is in fact the thing controlling him. What his brother has tried to obstruct him from is how the more dependent one gets, the more the drug and its providers takes control of their users. Ultimately, the price of this brief feeling of control is an ocean of even more pain and suffering. Fortunately, Sonny found yet another way to cope with his pain. Sonny is once again able to set aside his tortured mind and find happiness and peace through the keys of his piano instead of destroying his life with heroin. The narrator is finally able to witness his brother in true bliss and in addition, discovering the power of Sonny’s blues: “and it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it, I saw [Isabel] again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise” (Baldwin 140). Music will always be there to help with his problems like expressed by Gary Bartz: “Music is my religion. Music is the only thing that has never failed me People let you down, music won't” (Bartz 2). Although the narrator tried to help his brother become the same respectable man that he has built himself up to be, he can finally accept that, Sonny is unique in his own way, finding happiness in the music he plays. Overall, all the narrator wished upon his brother was happiness. Similar to what Freud predicted, Sonny found solace in escaping his everyday hardship with, not death, but music, which gave him the same lifting feeling of

This theme is brought through the song by showing multiple literary devices. Such as “I'm the one at sail, I’m the master of my sea”. This metaphor shows the realization and empowerment that oneself can give in a depressing situation. This simile “Falling like ashes to the ground, Hoping my feelings they would drown” compares his feeling of sadness and depression to ashes, and wanting them to drown and vanish, from his life. This line, “All the hate that you’ve heard has turned your spirit to a dove” explains how all of the hate that he has experienced and gone through has turned his feelings around, and decided to look on the bright side of things. Personally I think this is a great

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a story of how a distant and conflicting relationship between two brothers is saved by the powerful message within music. In “Sonny’s Blues” the music portrays a very powerful message. The story begins with Sonny being arrested for heroin use. Sonny’s older brother is a school teacher and did not want to believe that the news was true, “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I’d already seen so many others” (Baldwin 293). Sonny used his music and drugs to distance himself from all the negativity in his life.

Sonny’s passion in life was his love for music. This kept him going through his difficult times, “sometime you know, and it was actually when I was most out of the world, I felt I was in it, that I was with it, really, and I could play or didn’t really have to play.” He invited his brother to watch him play at a nightclub. Through the music Sonny played his life’s obstacles and triumph. His brother finally understood what Sonny went through and will continue to go through.

Initially, he had refused to acknowledge his pain and suffering instead, he choose to ignore them. His suffering was immense and this is evident when he says "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. . . . Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream" (Baldwin 12). After listening to his performance, he was able to uinderstand the power of music and its importance to Sonny in dealing with his addcition problem. From that time, he became more understanding of Sonny and he was able to learn to strugle and endure his pain and suffering. Initially, he never undersatood what pain and suffering was and how it can be overcome. He finally realized that, suffering can be transformed into a communal art like music and from there it dissappears completely. Through Sonny’s music, the narrator was able to understand his life and pain and accepts himself. In addition, their connectiuon in music becomes a catalyst and genuine epiphany for the

Music acts as a psychiatric-therapy session to bring peace to those who suffer. The protagonist implies that he cannot endure the awareness that his brother went to jail for drug use, and also for questioning his friend about being intoxicated. Although Sonny is not present in this scene, the music is a sense of interference for the narrator, and further relates to Sonny avoiding his problems of the cold reality in Harlem.

In the novel A Room with a View there are two main settings that not only contrast in location but also in atmosphere. The author, E.M. Forster uses Florence, Italy and Summer Street, England to exaggerate the differences in the main character’s state of mind influenced by the people and places around her. The restricting culture of early 1900 Europe in which the story takes place also plays a role in the varying settings as the author strives to convey his purpose.

Constantly rejected by and invisible to his peers, Evan feels alone and insignificant. He sings the song “Waving Through a Window” as a way to convey his feeling of

As the story begins, Olsen receives a call from her daughter’s schoolteacher asking her to come to the school to talk with her about Emily’s problems. Olsen draws the reader in as she addresses the teacher in her thoughts. She wonders, "Even if I came in, what good would it do? You think because