Obstacles In Ray Charles's Life

Ray Charles is the definition of a Self­Made American. Throughout his life, Charles tackled numerous obstacles proving to the nation that anyone can come from anywhere and with a great deal of work, accomplish any and all tasks that one might dream of. Born in Albany, Georgia in the 30’s at the bottom of the social pyramid, Charles suffered tremendous losses at a very young age. He grew up very poor, alone, and without support. Even worse, Charles went blind at the tender age of 7, adding a seemingly endless string of difficulties to his life. Furthermore, Ray struggled with acquiring an education, fighting a drug habit, and most importantly, the pursuit of happiness. Through all of the fires of this problematic upbringing, a diamond was forged. Ray Charles combined a solid work ethic, a can do attitude, and a little bit of

luck to create a legendary recipe that will forever be remembered. Among countless other accomplishments, Ray Charles is widely responsible for the creation of the genre of soul music. Additionally, Charles could often be found on the top 10 Billboard charts for songs in other genres such as R&B music as well as Pop. He remains the first and only black man to ever earn a grammy award and a number one Pop hit with a Western song. More notably, he is the first ever recording artist to release a Billboard top 10 using the piano as a primary instrument. This paper will show how Ray Charles is the epitome of what a Self­Made American represents for his rare ability to overcome tragedy, and embody the American Dream, as well as the idea of everlasting self­creation.

From the very second he was born, Ray Charles was facing challenges greater than the vast majority of the U.S. today. He was born in Albany, Georgia at the very start of the Great Depression. Although it is no secret that the depression was terrible all over the nation, Ian MacCann stated that

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“Georgia was hit nearly twice as hard as the rest of the U.S.”(p98). In contrast with other states in the 1920’s, Georgia was already facing a crisis known as the boll weevil; a sort of beetle that destroyed cotton fields, causing the prices of the crops to plummet. As a young infant born to a fully African American family in these circumstances, one can only imagine the hardships they must have faced. People in theses circumstances, at this time, had no support from the government or anyone else for that matter. At the time of the Great Depression, MacCann declares that “fifty percent of the African American population was unemployed” (p99). These numbers are shocking to say the least by any standard. The fact that Ray’s parents, Bailey and Arethra Robinson were able to bring in any money at all was nothing short of a blessing. As any true Self­Made individual, Ray Charles clearly started with nothing.

Death is an inevitable truth that all inhabitants of this Earth have to face at some point. This is a reality that Ray Charles discovered at far too young of an age. The author of ​Charles, Ray

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, Laura B. Tyle,

reveals that at the budding age of only five years, “Ray Charles paralyzed from the horror, watched as his brother, age 4, drowned in a laundry tub” (p430). Although he wasn’t capable of such a thought process at the time, this would forever be a defining moment in Ray’s life. It taught him how fragile of a thing life can be and that family should never be taken for granted under any circumstance. As awful as his story is, this is only the very beginning of his struggles with the death of his family members. Laura B. Tyle also explains that “at the age of 15” Charles his mother passed away, followed by the death of his father “only two years later” (p430). As his father always seemed to be absent, Ray had little to no parental influence by the age of 15 and legally became an orphan at 17. At such a young age, Ray Charles was already far too experienced with the harsh realities of death and abandonment that he was forced to face. With no role model, no support, no guidance, and no one to love him, Ray was entirely alone in this cold world.

Although it is true that everyone must face death at one point or another, very few individuals ever have to endure. Sometime in his young childhood, Charles began to develop a condition known as

Glaucoma. According to Stacey L. Blachford, “Glaucoma is a group of eye disorders that results in vision

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loss due to a failure to maintain the normal fluid balance within the eye” (Blachford, 484).

Blachford later goes on to explain that “the loss of vision can be prevented if it is caught early enough” (p 484). Whether it was detected or not, it would have been impossible for Charles to receive the necessary treatment given their financial situation. By the time he was 7, Ray had to have right eye removed, where he soon after “became completely blind” according to Laura B. Tyle (p430). For the first few years of one’s life, little to no memories are retained. Considering this idea as well as the fact that Ray was blind at the age of 7, witnessing his infant brother drown was one of the very few things he ever remembered seeing. The series of hardships that come with being blind are so great in number that no average person could truly comprehend what dealing with blindness is actually like. Becoming blind completely hinders one’s ability to have an independent lifestyle. At only the very beginning of his life, Ray Charles was already facing a ceaseless period of tribulation so great that most would succumb to an unrecoverable state of

depression.

Soon after becoming blind, Charles was sent to “the St. Augustine School for the Blind, in Florida” where he quickly learned how to maneuver through the obstacles that came with learning how to read in Braille (p.484). As a young blind child, he was not held to the same academic standard as seeing people his age, which left him with an abundance of free time. Charles used much of this free time to learning how to play a variety of instruments. In her essay ​Charles, Ray,

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Laura B. Tyle explains that “Ray

began to play the piano, clarinet, and the saxophone” (Tyle, 430). Rather than being unmotivated and depressed as one under such circumstances would be prone to, Ray demonstrated an impressive work ethic of relentless practicing which resulted in him mastering multiple instruments, but most notably the piano. On top of being a skilled musician, those who heard is singing often considered him to have a “perfect pitch” (p430). The rawness of the suffering Ray endured lead to depth of feeling unparalleled by any other musician at the time. The emotion conveyed by Charles can be truly felt when listening to his music. Never doubting his own abilities, Ray carried himself with an effervescent, optimistic outlook on life that inspired those around him.

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Shortly after Ray Charles graduated the Saint Augustine School for the Blind, Ray drifted all around Florida “performing with country and western bands” (p430). At this point in his life, Ray had decided that his calling was to be a musician and to share his gift with the world. Traveling Florida was something that would later prove to be beneficial as he added country music to his repertoire much later in his career. While in the road in Florida, he turned to heroin to distract him from the “recurrent nightmares he would get from witnessing his brother drown so many years ago” (Tyle, 441). It is not at all uncommon for people who endure tragic experiences to turn to drug abuse in absence of proper therapy. Ray’s case was no different. This addiction is something he would struggle with on and off again until the later years of his life. After determining that he had exhausted Florida of opportunities, Charles used his savings to relocate himself to the opposite side of the nation in search of greatness. Winding up in Seattle, Washington, he “formed a band called the McSon Trio” that eventually gained enough popularity to own its own television show (p442). While in Seattle, he also created multiple records for “the Swingtime Record Company”. Seattle is where Ray really was able to get some attention from notable individuals around the nation such as Percy Mayfield and Henry Stone. Rather than being content staying Florida, Ray’s unrelenting ambition wouldn’t allow him to do anything other than search of success, wherever it may be.

In the 1950’s, Ray Charles truly started to develop his own unique style of music, that set him apart from the rest of musicians at the time. “In 1954, a recording session with Atlantic Records combined gospel with rhythm­and­blues and established Charles’ ‘sweet new style’ in American music” (Tyle, 432). He had created his own genre; Soul Music. Nicknamed “the Genius” (McCann, 96), Ray exhibited a wide variety of tracks. On some he can be found slamming on the sharp keys of an electric piano while others are exclusively “late­night moanin’ Jazz”. Influenced by many, yet copying no one, Ray Charles gained mass popularity with an art form created entirely by his own abilities. Spending the the vast majority of the “1950s on the road” (Charles, 432), Ray Charles quickly became a name well known throughout the

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nation for his one of a kind music and versatile areas of expertise. Later winning 10 Grammies from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, he had established himself as a dominant music force of the time. Through his own determination and ambition, Ray Charles earned rather honorable monikers,

“the father of soul”, as well as “the genius”.

To say that Ray Charles is a talented musician is an understatement to the greatest extent. A true diamond in the dust, Ray defied unimaginable terrors and reinvented himself as a true visionary who did not need eyesight to see. Ray saw a much deeper meaning in life that could ever be captured by the human sense of sight. Overcoming being born into terrible poverty, losing the little family he had, and the struggles of blindness, Ray Charles created something nothing short of miraculous. Through his extraordinary ideals and confidence in his own abilities, Ray Charles grabbed the American Dream by the throat and with his own two hands performed his way to become a perpetual exemplification of what a

Self­Made American should be.