No matter how many times it can seem broken, family relationships always have a considerable amount of significance in a one’s identity. Abandoned by their mother and father at a young age, brothers Lincoln and Booth live together in Booth’s small apartment while Lincoln provides the paycheck that goes into the expenses. Pushing aside his past of hustling through three-card monte, Lincoln secures a job of acting as Abraham Lincoln at an arcade. Unlike Lincoln, Booth spends his time as a thief, and dreams of emulating his older brother’s past success by mastering the three-card monte. Regardless of their struggle to get out of poverty, the brothers stay together and support each other and their living situation in their own ways. Despite …show more content…
their symbiotic relationship, Booth constantly attempts to gain power over Lincoln, as their contradicting stances on hustling, economic support, and appearance demonstrate the tension between them; Suzan-Lori Parks uses this power struggle to emphasize how sole reliance on family relationships leaves no room for an outline of personal identity. Throughout the play, Booth frequently attempts to convince Lincoln to teach him how to properly do three-card monte; this desperation to learn from him ironically demonstrates how Lincoln is the only resource that Booth can rely on to achieve his dream of becoming a more powerful hustler than Lincoln was. Initially, Lincoln refuses to show Booth how to hustle three-card monte, and refrains to simply pointing out Booth’s flaws: “I’m just saying you wanna do it you gotta do it right and if you gonna do it right you gotta work on it in smaller bits, thatsall” (Parks 18). Although Lincoln’s initial refusal to touch the cards seems to be indubitable, Booth’s obsession with mastering three-card monte gradually influences him, as he eventually picks up the cards again and says to himself, “Still got my moves. Still got my touch. Still got my chops. Thuh feel of it. And I ain’t hurting no one, God. Link is just here hustling hisself” (56). Lincoln’s return to the cards demonstrates Booth’s temporary pull of power, as his obsession with three-card monte even lures the initially reluctant Lincoln back to the cards. However, Booth’s power over Lincoln does not last long; Lincoln ultimately demonstrates his power over Booth when he wins Booth’s inheritance over three-card monte. Even if Booth had won against Lincoln prior to putting his inheritance on the line, Lincoln’s card skills and power ultimately prevail. When Booth kills Lincoln, he says, “Ima go out there and make a name for myself that dont have nothing to do with you. And 3-Cards gonna be in everybodys head and in everybodys mouth like Link was” (110). In contrast to Booth’s claims, his skills with the cards are completely reliant on Lincoln’s expertise; without Lincoln, Booth not only still lacks the skills, but also has no potential to improve or succeed. Despite his attempts at overpowering Lincoln through three-card monte, Booth ultimately fails; Parks uses this failure to demonstrate Booth’s inability to improve without Lincoln. Booth and Lincoln’s ideas on how to become economically stable differ in that Lincoln prefers to have a stable job, while Booth turns to riskier options; these clashing viewpoints on economic power illustrate Booth’s attempt at prevailing over Lincoln’s economic stability. Despite the low pay, Lincoln is satisfied with his job at an arcade in which he dresses up as Abraham Lincoln while customers get to pretend to assassinate him. Although Booth never expresses blunt disapproval of Lincoln’s job, he implies that he prefers Lincoln’s old three-card monte career. When Lincoln claims that his job is his living, Booth replies, “But you ain’t living” (35). While Lincoln earns a weekly paycheck for the house, Booth spends his time providing for their set up by shoplifting. For instance, Booth describes his recent experience at a department store: “That store takes in more money in one day than we will in our whole life. I stole and stole generously. I got one for me and I got one for you. Shoes belts shirts ties socks in the shoes and everything” (28). Booth clearly has experience in shoplifting, as he brings several items home for both himself and Lincoln. Although Booth may be able to shoplift as many items as he would like, he is unable to trump the vitality of Lincoln’s economic power. The importance of Lincoln’s regular paycheck is most clearly demonstrated by Booth’s heavy reliance on it. When Lincoln loses his job, Booth gradually begins to lose his trust in him: “Yesterday you lost yr damn job. You dont got no cash. You dont got no friends, no nothing...” (87). Booth’s frustration at Lincoln expresses his need for the stable environment that Lincoln provides with his paycheck. No matter what Booth is able to shoplift, he desperately needs the true stability that comes with having an actual job. When Booth shoots Lincoln, he not only kills his only brother, but also kills the secure setting that came with Lincoln’s paycheck. Booth himself cannot get a normal job, as he lacks the labor skill that capitalism requires. Ultimately, Booth’s weakness is only emphasized as he demonstrates complete reliance on Lincoln’s regular paycheck. When it comes to appearances, Booth seems to put much more value on them than Lincoln does; however, Booth’s focus on appearance does not make him appear more powerful, but rather emphasizes his lack of substance. Booth demonstrates the focus he has for appearance when he shoplifts suits for himself and Lincoln. After trying them on, Booth says, “Ima wear mine tonight. Gracell see me in this and she gonna ask me tuh marry her” (28). Booth believes that by wearing a suit, Grace will want to get married to him. In other words, Booth believes that by showing Grace that he owns something that makes him look wealthy, Grace will come back to him. The suit represents a high social status for Booth; however, owning the suit does not provide Booth with true economic stability or superiority. Lincoln highlights this reality when he says, “They say the clothes make the man. All day long I wear that getup. But that dont make me who I am” (29). Although Lincoln was actually speaking of his Abraham Lincoln costume, his point about how the costume does not actually make him the assassinated president effectively counters Booth’s stance on clothing. By wearing the costume and impersonating Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln himself is not viewed in a better light by society, nor does he take on the positive characteristics of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, the costume actually makes Lincoln look more poor, as it shows that he has to resort to a low-paying and degrading job to earn his living. Behind the shoplifted suit, Booth is left with nothing; not even the right labor skills to get his own job. The high social status he dreams of is completely fabricated by his shoplifting and reliance on Lincoln’s paycheck. In reality, without his crafted appearance, Booth lacks any sort of substance, while Lincoln at least has enough to earn a living. Throughout Topdog/Underdog, Parks uses the power struggle between Lincoln and Booth that comes with their differing views on throwing cards, economic stability, and appearance to illustrate the lack of personal identity that is consequent from complete reliance on family relationships.
With Lincoln dead, it is impossible for Booth to master three-card monte and pursue his dream of becoming a skillful hustler. Additionally, without Lincoln, Booth has no potential to truly become economically stable with a legitimate job due to his lack of labor skills. Although Booth directs a considerable amount of attention on appearance, his efforts only fabricate an identity that is impossible for him to have, thus emphasizing his lack of substance. Through Lincoln and Booth’s relationship, Parks illustrates the ups and downs that come with an unbalanced family relationship. Lincoln, who is saddled with responsibility, and Booth, who wants a chance to outshine his older brother, represent a family dynamic in which the younger one relies too much on the older brother. Although Booth would never be the one to admit or even recognize this reliance, his ignorance of it only extends its severity. Having family relationship define the most significant parts of one’s identity is important; however, it should not be overvalued at the expense of
individuality.
Comparison of the two shows that both overcome struggles to accept the idea that family history needs to be preserved, shared, enjoyed, and made use of to obtain the most promising future, free from the ghosts of the past. Each character has a steadfast will––a will that Berniece and Boy Willie both demonstrate through their conflict with one another––as well as a level head and a loving heart, which is shown through their conclusion to keep the piano so long as it is being used how it was intended. Failure to let go of the past is just as detrimental to the future as failure to make use of it properly; as with Berniece and Boy Willie, a balance between the two forces is necessary to attain the most productive future and leave the most lasting legacy.
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.
In the two-short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff there’s two brothers in each story, one brother who’s genuinely successful and the other brother in which is struggling to try to pull their life together. In the short story “The Rich Brother” the two brothers Donald and Pete, Pete the older brother is living the life people could only dream of. He has a family, a house on the beach, a sailboat, and he has money from being a real estate. Meanwhile, his brother Donald is single, homeless, irresponsible, and does not have a stable job. On the other hand, in “Sonny’s Blues” the younger brother Sonny struggles from a heroin addiction which eventuality gets him put into prison, and the narrator from the
The two characters come to the realization that they do share a brotherly bond, and that the narrator cares deeply for his brother even after all the time apart. The narrator says, “I don’t give a damn wh...
Two people with two completely different characteristics have something alike. Both Dally and Johnny are mentally tough because of their parents. Johnny and Dally’s parents both do not care for them and could care less about them. For example, during Dally’s childhood he went to jail, been in a gang, and has been in many fights and his dad still would not care for him even if he won the lottery. Dally also talks about his dad's disgrace towards him in the car with Johnny and Ponyboy, “‘ Shoot, my dad don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in a gutter...’”(88). Dally could easily live without his dad and he does for the most part. Dally just hangs around with his friends and stays at their place. Similarly, Johnny's parents use him like a rag doll to blow off steam, “his father always beating him up”(14). The gang knows what happenes in Johnny’s house. Once Ponyboy was witnessing, “Johnny take a whipping with a two-by-four from his old man”(33). Ponyboy talks about how loud and mean Johnny's mom is and,“you can...
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
Do you have any friend or relatives that are considered to be broken or disorganized family? Do you know that many disorganized family are likely to ties with their extended family? If you know any broken or disorganized families, you may realized that a broken family usually faced many difficulties, such as financial problem, missing family members, and they tend to be unhappy comparing to others. Moreover, missing a father figure in the house for a child could cause numbers of problems. In the novel “Looking for Work” the main character and also the author who named Gary Soto, a nine year old Mexican American boy, he was from a disorganized and broken family. That Gary desire to live out a life style just like the standard white American
...k from semester in New York, Sheff asks a question about how one can explain a child that his older and beloved brother steals money from him.
Baldwin’s story presents the heart breaking portrayal of two brothers who have become disconnected through respective life choices. The narrator is the older brother who has grown past the depravity of his childhood poverty. The narrator’s profession as an algebra teacher reflects his need for a “black” and “white,” orderly outlook on life. The narrator believes he has escaped life’s sufferings until the death of his daughter and the troubling news about his brother being taken in for drug possession broadside him to the reality of life’s inevitable suffering. In contrast, his brother, Sonny has been unable to escape his childhood hardships and has ended up on the wrong side of the law. While their lives have taken ...
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.
III. Individual Dreams Vs. Family Responsibilities - A central conflict in the play arises when there is disparity between the individual's dreams and his/her familial responsibilities
In “Up the Coulee,” Hamlin Garland depicts what occurs when Howard McLane is away for an extended period of time and begins to neglect his family. Howard’s family members are offended by the negligence. Although his neglect causes his brother, Grant McLane, to resent him, Garland shows that part of having a family is being able to put aside negative feelings in order to resolve problems with relatives. Garland demonstrates how years apart can affect family relationships, causing neglect, resentment, and eventually, reconciliation.
The narrator allows Sonny to move into his apartment. By allowing Sonny to live with him he has allowed to trust him again. For example, the narrator explains, “The idea of searching Sonny’s room made me still. I scarcely dared to admit to myself what I’d be searching for. I didn’t know what I’d do if I found it. Or if I didn’t” (pg. 91). This shows how the narrator had the opportunity to search his brother’s room, but had the ability not to. Tension grew among brothers while living under one roof. This starts the climax of both arguing in the apartment. The narrator doesn’t understand why his brother wants to be a musician. This argument was built of emotion both had and not yet discussed among each other. Such as the narrator expressing his anger towards his brother’s drug use and Sonny’s frustration towards the narrator not understanding his plan to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator states, “I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence – so long! – when he had needed human speech to help him” (pg.94). The argument with his brother made him realize that he abandon his younger brother when he needed him the most. He realized that if he would have spoken out and talk about his drug use that he wouldn’t have to go
The eldest brother who is also the narrator of the story gives the reader a glimpse into their lives and the struggles that he and his younger brother Sonny go through. Through the narrators eyes Baldwin does a wonderful job showing how the brothers grew up to lead different lives but are both still struggling from the hold that poverty in Harlem has on them. Baldwin shows how both “the narrator and Sonny are both imprisoned and also free in exactly opposites ways” (spark note). For example, Sonny has physically been imprisoned due to his addiction to drugs but was able to escape from Harlem and create his own life through music. Whereas the narrator is physically free but trapped in the housing projects of Harlem which he clearly hates. It is Baldwin’s unique style of writing that has the characters asking themselves the question, “Does one embrace the hand that they are dealt in order to live or does one bow down and allow it to consume them?” Baldwin shows how each brother at different times in their life allowed for it to do both. For instance, in the beginning Sonny seemed to be consumed by his suffering which led him down the path of drugs but by the end he had embraced it and let his suffering playout through music. The narrator on the other hand seemed to embrace everything that he was dealt and did the best he could to better his life.
The short story, "The Rich Brother," by Tobias Wolff represents the same concept that everyday people all over the world encounter. This portrays how having siblings can be an enormous part of a persons life. The rivalry between siblings is often very competitive, but at the same time similar to magnets. When they are not connected it may seem they are independent and whole, but when examined closely it is obvious they are really relying on each other to function properly. Although Pete and Donald's life are separate and completely different, they are in fact very dependent on each other.