In the novel, October Sky by Homer Hickam, Sonny’s parents have two different views on what Sonny should be when he is older, his dad, Homer Hickam Sr., says a coal miner, but his mom, Elsie Hickam, says he can be anything he wants. Although Sonny’s dad wants him to be a coal miner, Sonny wants to build rockets and him mom understands that, so therefore his mom understands Sonny better than his father. Sonny lives in a coal mining town and most men or boys who live in the town are or are going to become coal miners. It is a tradition in their society. If their father is a coal miner, the boys in the family become coal miners. But, Sonny doesn’t want to become a coal miner. Sputnik inspired him to build rockets. His mother believes that Sonny should be able to be whatever he wants, no matter what his father does. …show more content…
The only thing I knew for sure was my mother did not see me going into the mine.”. ( Hickam 14 ) Elsie believes that Sonny is better than to go into the mines. She believes that he is too good and too smart for the mines. But, Homer Hickam Sr believes that he should go into the mines like he did. Elsie doesn’t give up and tries to do everything she can so Sonny can get the future he wants. Elsie believes in getting a better future and not wasting it on mining. She values education and becoming something. Sonny wants to build rockets so she will support his decision and help him with that. “You've got to get out of coal wood, Sonny,’ Mom said, ‘Jimmy will go. Football get him out. I'd like to see him a doctor, or a dentist, something like that. But football with him out of Coalwood, and then he can go and be anything he wants to be”. ( Hickam 50 ) Sonny’s mom knows that Coalwood withholds people from reaching their full potential. She believes that anywhere but Coalwood would be better for both of children to
In 1883, the first carload of coal was transported from Tazewell County, Virginia, on the Norfolk and Western Railway. The railroad opened a gateway to the untouched coal beds of West Virginia. Towns were created as the region was transformed from an agricultural to industrial economy.(West Virginia Mine Wars) The lure of good wages and housing made the coal mining appealing to West Virginians, but all good things come at a price. In the novel Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina gives us an inside look at what really happened to the small town of Annedel, West Virginia. Whether the four characters that tell the story are fictional or based in part on actual events that took place, it hits home considering where we live. The story is based on four different perspectives of four citizens struggling to survive under the reign of a powerful coal company. I am sure anyone from this area has had a family or knows of someone who has worked in the mines. If you sit down and talk to these older people who worked in the mines they all have compelling tales of events that have been handed down from generation to generation.
Storming Heaven is Denise Giardina’s second and award winning novel, published in 1987. The historical novel is a fiction-based recount of the bitter labor conflict that took place in southern West Virginia during the early 1920s, otherwise known as the West Virginia Coal Wars. The author tells the story of the real conflict faced by miners through the eyes of four main characters, each from different walks of life, with their own different point of view. The story told about the real life hardship faced by coal miners and the ensuing conflict is a subject narrowly covered by The American Journey. Although the story that is told through the main characters is fictionalized, it provides a historically accurate portrayal of the events that unfolded during the early 1920s. The book does a great job of covering not only how the coal miners cohesively withstood the hardship placed before them by the invasive coal companies, but also the tactics used by the coal companies to ensure their business interests took precedence over more humane living and working conditions.
In chapter five, the author wants to convince his mom to allow him to return home from Valley Forge. However, his mom boldly denies the author’s request and talks about the sacrifices she made to send him there. As the author recalls his conversation with his mom, he remarks, “With no intervention - or the wrong intervention - [young boys] can be lost forever. My mother made the decision to intervene - and decided that overdoing it was better than doing nothing at all” (95). The author expresses that his mother deliberately “made the decision” to change her son’s life for the better. To avoid making her son “be lost forever” because of bad choices, Joy decides to intervene and step into the author’s life to block the bad choices. In this scene, Joy tries her best to prevent the author from making bad
...school. Under those circumstance, Sonny’s brother disprove the idea of being a musician. Therefore, even though narrator did not support Sonny dreams in the end he did accomplish his dream as a musician. Although the relationships are based on different events, it shows the same point that both narrator did have loves for their daughter Emily and Sonny. As a final point view family member was not be able to support cause of lack of circumstances in the family.
In both "Sonny’s Blues" and "The Rich Brother", one of the two brothers encounters success through his life whereas the younger one does not follow the same path and constantly disappoints the other. Pete and Sonny’s brother unconditionally love their own brothers for numerous different reasons and they feel an obligation to the other. They believe that it is their duty to take care of Donald and Sonny, but at the same time they cannot or at least in the beginning understand what drives their brothers in life and moreover the reasons that push them to make the choices they are constantly making. Although Sonny’s bad decisions put him through a lot, he finally reinvents himself and proves to his brother his value. Unfortunately Donald does not evolve enough to meet his brother’s expectations. Both young brothers fail in their lives but for very different reasons. Sonny’s drugs addiction puts him to jail and Donald’s quest for the faith of his soul results in many issues with Pete. Nevertheless, Sonny’s brother sees and witnesses what his brother is really capable of, while sadly for Donald, Pete definitely cannot live with his brother’s way of living. "Sonny's Blues" and "The Rich Brother" are perfect examples of how brothers relationships are: full of love but paved with insurmountable obstacles at the same time. At the end of Sonny's story, both brothers can finally "see" each other and are able to live together, while unfortunately for Donald and Pete, it is impossible for them to reach an understanding.
from the teachers point of view; she tries to judge the Cunninghams and the Ewells from
As "Sonny's Blues" opens, the narrator tells of his discovery that his younger brother has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Both brothers grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood rife with poverty and despair. Though the narrator teaches school in Harlem, he distances himself emotionally from the people who live there and their struggles and is somewhat judgmental and superior. He loves his brother but is distanced from him as well and judgmental of his life and decisions. Though Sonny needs for his brother to understand what he is trying to communicate to him and why he makes the choices he makes, the narrator cannot or will not hear what Sonny is trying to convey. In distancing himself from the pain of upbringing and his surroundings, he has insulated himself from the ability to develop an understanding of his brother's motivations and instead, his disapproval of Sonny's choice to become a musician and his choices regarding the direction of his life in general is apparent. Before her death, his mother spoke with him regarding his responsibilities to Sonny, telling him, "You got to hold on to your brother...and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him...you may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you're there" (87) His unwillingness to really hear and understand what his brother is trying to tell him is an example of a character failing to act in good faith.
According to his brother, who narrates "Sonny's Blues," Sonny was a bright-eyed young man full of gentleness and privacy. "When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he'd had wonderfully direct brown eyes, a great gentleness and privacy. I wondered what he looked like now" (Baldwin 272). Something happened to Sonny, as it did to most of the young people growing up in Harlem. His physical journey growing up in the streets caused a great deal of inner turmoil about whom he was and what kind of life he was to have. One thing for sure, by the time his mother died, Sonny was ready to get out of Harlem. " 'I ain't learning nothing in school,' he said. 'Even when I go.' He turned away from me and opened the window and threw his cigarette out into the narrow alley. I watched his back. 'At least, I ain't learning nothing you'd want me to learn.' He slammed the window so hard I thought the glass would fly out, and turned back to me. 'And I'm sick of the stink of these garbage cans!' " (Baldwin 285).
With the gradual advancements of society in the 1800’s came new conflicts to face. England, the leading country of technology at the time, seemed to be in good economic standing as it profited from such products the industrial revolution brought. This meant the need for workers increased which produced jobs but often resulted in the mistreatment of its laborers. Unfortunately the victims targeted were kids that were deprived of a happy childhood. A testimony by a sub-commissioner of mines in 1842 titled Women Miners in the English Coal Pits and The Sadler Report (1832), an interview of various kids, shows the deplorable conditions these kids were forced to face.
The story begins with the narrator’s brother, Sonny, being arrested for using heroin. When the narrator discovers what has happened to his brother, he slowly starts to relive his past. Up to this point, the narrator had completely cut his brother and his childhood from his life. He disapproves of the past and does everything in his power to get rid of it. The narrator had become an algebra teacher and had a family who he moved to get away from the bad influences on the street. As a result, it is shown in the story that he has worked hard to maintain a good “clean” life for his family and himself. Readers can see that he has lived a good life, but at the toll of denying where he came from and even his own brother. For years, his constant aim for success had been successful. However, as the story progressed everything he knew started to fall apart.
Even though the narrator and Sonny grew up in the same house being raised the same they both took different paths in life. The narrator was the ambitious son that was not a trouble maker. He was the good child that had good grades in school and wanted to be successful by putting out hard work to get it. Sonny, on the other hand, was the bad that was not very ambitious through hard work but through his music.
This issue becomes a conflict for the two siblings that grows tension among each other. Sonny expresses to the narrator that he wants to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator explains, “It seemed- beneath him, somehow. I had never thought about it before, had never been force to, but I suppose I had always putt jazz musicians in a class with what Daddy called “good-time people” (pg. 86). In my opinion I think the narrator feels appalled that his brother wants to become a jazz musician because he thinks of them as people who hang around clubs and clown around. Both siblings don’t see eye to eye, the narrator sees it as Sonny wasting his time and Sonny sees it as being his career. The exposition of the narrator finding his younger brother in a newspaper resulted on reconnecting their relationship. Also, the conflict of the two siblings was their argument of not seeing the same
Abraham Lincoln once said, "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today" (www.quotationspage.com). Ironically, one actually can. The narrator in "Sonny's Blues" chose to care for Sonny and accept his responsibility as an older brother. On the other hand, Eileen in "Fever" chose a different path by leaving her family and pursuing her own ambitions. Conclusively, one realizes that despite all the responsibilities a person has, the element of choice determines what happens.
Under capitalist societies, the only thing one owns - according to Karl Marx - is their ability to work. In a society that revolves around profit and private ownership, a person can only sell their labor. This is the type of society in we see the story, “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin operating in. This type of society is one the main reason for such a big difference between the two brothers in this story. Sonny, the narrator's brother, is a jazz musician. A jazz pianist to be more precise. The narrator comes from a military background, with now stable housing and work situations. Compared to Sonny, a drug meddling musician in Harlem, the narrator, a math teacher and family man, seems to be the more successful out of the two. Just the beginning
Coal was an essential of life, especially concerning warmth and food preparation, for Victorians. The use of coal has a longer history than many suspect; predates the Victorian Era by hundred of years. The Victorians spent a great deal of time not just using various coal products, but also spent a long time thinking and disagreeing about a wide range of issues that concerned such an essential product for their way of life.