“ I wear my personality on my sleeve, for sure, and my look constantly changing am I” (Halsey). James Baldwin’s 5th novel “If Beale Street Could Talk” was published in the early 1970’s. The book is a love story between two young adults, one in jail, and the other carrying his baby. The two young adults, Tish and Fonny. Fonny, the one in jail and Tish, the one carrying his baby, both struggle with society’s treatment towards black people. Time away from the ones you love can make a huge difference in personality. One example of the theme is when we saw Tish’s mom be accepting towards Tish’s mom was probably more accepting towards Tish, when Tish told her she was pregnant, because she probably knew the amount of stress she must’ve been going through after Fonny had been locked up. “You did right. And I bet he grinned all over his face, didn’t he?... yes. He sure did… then she did touch me, she took me in her arms and she rocked me and I cried” (32-33). This quote states that although Tish’s mother knows that Fonny is in jail, she still tries to support her daughter. In anyway she can. This is one example on how time can change the ones love as well as the people that are close to you. It can also change personality. …show more content…
Throughout the book you can see them go from a happy couple, to a broken couple in search for kindness and help. “The man came up behind Fonny, and it was time to go, Fonny smiled and raised his fist like always” (6). “His face changes then, he laughs. He makes a mocking gesture with one fist” (181). These quotes state that in the beginning Fonny had faith that he was going to get out. But as the story progressed you can see that he has taken it in, no longer trying to run from it. This is another example of how time can change the ones you love and the ones you’re close with. We just don’t know until we witness our own
The aspect that affected her the most often would be the conflicts that occurred to her family throughout the story, which she would realize that freedom
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
Crazy neon lights, crowded walkways, the sweet aroma of Memphis barbeque, and the sound of soft blues and rock n roll is a taste of what Memphis’s Beale Street is made of. Memphis Tennessee is a home for exciting things to do within the surrounding metropolitan area. But first, what specifically brings civilians to Memphis? Memphis is a prime destination for tourist and residents of Memphis because of the great time, inexpensive attractions to visit, but most importantly Beale Street. Beale is a famous street located in downtown Memphis that is connected by three co-joining streets. Memphis’s Beale Street is one popular destination spot in downtown Memphis. On these streets are many tasty places to eat, local shops to visit,
The author clearly shows how his childhood effected his adulthood, making in a living example of what he is writing about allowing the audience to more easily trust what he is writing about. Instead of using factually evidence from other dysfunctional family incidences, the author decides to make it more personal, by using his own life and comparing family ideas of the past to the present.
Can love conquer all? In If Beale Street Could Talk the author, James Baldwin, challenges this question. The story revolves around a black family living in New York on Beale Street. Clementine, who goes by Tish, is a young woman who is deeply in love with a young artists, Fonny, who has been arrested for a crime he has not committed. Tish has come to know she is pregnant, pushing both the families to do the unthinkable to to get Fonny out of jail. The couple has their love for each other long with the love of their families to overcome the ordeal. However, the family struggles against the issues of racism, justice and prejudice. With the power of love, Tish and Fonny are able to overcome the issues that society throws at them including racism, justice, and prejudices.
He does not know about his father well because he hardly spoke with him. While others describe his father as handsome, proud, ingrown but for him his father looks like an African tribal chieftain. He feels that his father is the harshest man he has ever known. Baldwin never felt glad to see his father when he returned home. Up until this point, Baldwin was not fully aware of the outside world, but after his father’s death, he understood the meanings of his father’s warnings, he discovered the weight of white people and felt awful to live with them. His father’s temper was a mercy of his pride to never trust a white person. His father’s death changed his life. He started working in defense plants, living among southerners, white and black. After he became independent, he started to experience racism. Similarly, Brent Staples, writer of “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” had also not experienced racism before he arrived at the University of Chicago. When he was first away from home, he was not familiar with the language of fear because, in Chester, Pennsylvania, the small angry industrial town, he was scarcely noticeable against a backdrop of gang warfare, street knifing, and murders. As a result, he grew up as a good boy. Both the writers experience racism when they were exposed to the outside world. Consequently, Baldwin experienced it when he
Environments can influence life choices, actions, emotions, along with much more. Those influences can be positive or negative. Two people can grow up in the same environment but can prevail in different ways. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” takes place in Harlem, NY. The short story shows the narrator, who remains nameless, experiencing numerous of emotional struggles. It is an unquestionably poignant story, presenting countless endeavors. In specific, the narrator’s brother suffers from drug addiction, there multiple family deaths, as well as deteriorating relationships. Though there are troubling times, “Sonny’s Blues” is a genuinely heartwarming story.
During her teen years, she was abused and lonely. She gave birth to her first child when she was only sixteen years old. She was in her first marriage when she was only nineteen years old. After three children, two marriages, and a breakdown, she realizes that there is a lot more to life than her current circumstances.
2. Another common theme was the everyday frustrations that mount and greatly affect the families of ASD children. Catherine many times felt she had to leave the room while her children had meltdowns when working with workers. Another example of everyday frustrations would be her son’s constantly crying for hours. When we hear a child cry for a period of time we feel stressed, we want to help the child and find out why they are crying? For Catherine and her family this frustration was a constant, all of us can see how extremely taxing this would have been! (Toini)
James Baldwin, author of Sonny’s Blues, was born in Harlem, NY in 1924. During his career as an essayist, he published many novels and short stories. Growing up as an African American, and being “the grandson of a slave” (82) was difficult. On a day to day basis, it was a constant battle with racial discrimination, drugs, and family relationships. One of Baldwin’s literature pieces was Sonny’s Blues in which he describes a specific event that had a great impact on his relationship with his brother, Sonny. Having to deal with the life-style of poverty, his relationship with his brother becomes affected and rivalry develops. Conclusively, brotherly love is the theme of the story. Despite the narrator’s and his brother’s differences, this theme is revealed throughout the characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue. Therefore, the change in the narrator throughout the text is significant in understanding the theme of the story. It is prevalent to withhold the single most important aspect of the narrator’s life: protecting his brother.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin’s metaphors relate the emotions of his characters. His writing makes the experience of living in Harlem as a black person in the 1950s real for the reader. Moreover, “Sonny’s Blues” is a story that is universally relatable on human level, as the emotions and relationships Baldwin reveals are not unique to the story’s
James Baldwin tells a story about an African American man named Sonny. The setting of the story takes place in the projects of Harlem New York during the nineteen fifties. The story is narrated by Sonny’s brother and in this story the narrator describes the hardships of growing up in the projects. Sonny was the family screw up for he fell into the life of crime and drug uses. Sonny fell into the life of crime for he grew up in Harlem where he “turned hard... the way kids can… in Harlem” (Baldwin 49). Sonny was especially into heroin or referred to as horse in this story. Because of his drug use he was always in and out of jail “He had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin” (49). Harlem and the society had and impact on the African Americans for they never had the same opportunities to succeed before the civil rights act. Even the narrator who was the good and smart kid who had a college education and who was sober could not afford to live outside of the projects. It seems as if nothing would work for every escape lead them back to the projects. Sonny tried every thing to escape poverty, but never could escape it. Sonny said “I don’t want to stay in Harlem no more, I really don’t… I want to join the army or the navy, I don’t care” (60). Sonny was so desperate to escape poverty that
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
The author, Betty Smith, taught her readers to push through any obstacle in life, through the books conflicts, setting and research. Francie had always felt distant from her mother. This is demonstrated from the plots conflict in the story. Betty Smith wrote, “Johnny grew in weakness and went further
How could a character’s life actually be influenced in a story? At the beginning of the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Miss Emily’s father has just died, making it hard for her to actually accept it until she meets Homer, a man from the north. She begins a relationship with Homer even though the whole community reader does not actually approve of it. Finally, at the end of the story, the reader finds out that Homer is dead and leaving the reader to believe that Miss Emily murdered him. In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” he reveals just how much every event in the character’s life influences them through the use of theme, conflict, and character.