Week Three

Reading One: "Sonny's Blues"

1. Read the first few paragraphs and then stop. What potential for conflict do you see here? What do you expect to happen in the rest of the story?

Within the first few paragraphs of the story I see a conflict of wonder and sorrow of a man toward another man that was floating back into his life. The narrator will come into contact with Sonny throughout the story.

2. What is the inciting incident or destabilizing event? How and why does this event destabilize the initial situation?

Sonny went to a rehab for drug users. The two brothers are related by blood but strangers by mind. The two brothers have to learn to understand and read each other through the two different types of languages they communicate with. We can see how the narrator feels anger towards himself of not trying hard enough to understand Sonny and is trying to really find out who Sonny is.

3. How would you describe the conflict that ultimately develops? To what extent is it external, internal, or both? What, if any, complications or secondary conflicts arise?

I feel the ultimate conflict within the story are the two brothers coming together to understand and communicate with each other. They both view life different, lived life different, and communicate themselves different. The issue is both external and internal. The two brothers must discover themselves and their values in life and learn each others communication to learn about each other. Some secondary conflicts that arose would be the death of the narrators daughter, Sonny's old friend who was in drugs with him, the story of his father seeing his fathers brother die, their mother dying, and the narrator's wife's family living with Sonny after their mother past and the narrator went back to serve in the war.

4. Where, when, how, and why does the story defy your expectations about what will happen next? What in this story--and in your experience of other stories--created these expectations?

This story takes place in New York, Harlem and Greenwich Village in 1957. This story is an example of the average day life. People discovering themselves and learning how to communicate with others, because there are so many different communication ways within the human race. The story kept me motivated to read and I could not put the book down; I just had to know what was going to happen next. I feel this story is a great layout to show future teachers the cruelty within life that their students will face, the different ways to communicate with others and to understand them, and to provide a candle at the end of the road; that nothing is just black and white. We must discover and enhance our experience and knowledge and find our own muse to life.

5. What is the climax or turning point? Why and how so?

The climax of this story would be when  the narrator and Sonny met up in New York when Sonny got out of rehab. Sonny went to go live with his brother, the narrator, and they began to regret their distance and really tried to understand each other. They had to go into each others worlds just to communicate with each other even though they are blood related brothers.

6. How is the conflict resolved? How and why might this resolution fulfill or defy your expectations? How and why is the situation at the end of the story different from what it was at the beginning?

The conflict is resolved, because the narrator agreed to go with Sonny to the nightclub and hear him play in the band. The narrator finally put every knowledge and feel to the side and really listened to Sonny playing the piano; this then helped the narrator to enter Sonny's world and to understand who Sonny is and his life. There is always a conclusion to everything, you just have to be brave enough and optimistic enough to put all guard down and just listen for the truth to spring up. The difference between the beginning and the end of the story is the understanding of the narrator is to Sonny. The narrator had no idea who Sonny really was or what happened to him. At the end of the story the narrator was able to understand Sonny's communication and really listened to Sonny play is whole life through a piano. Every little moment, detail, and emotion.

7. Looking back at the story as a whole, what seems especially significant and effective about its plot, especially in terms of a sequence and pace of the action?

I think the narrators daughter dying was a significant and effective sequence and pace of the action to the plot of the story. The two brother were strangers and then after the narrators daughter dyed the two brothers came together to get into each others worlds and understanding.

8. Does this plot follow any common plot pattern? Is there, for example, a quest of any kind? Or does this plot follow a tragic or comedic pattern?

I believe this plot has a quest within the story; however, there are many tragic events within the pattern of the story. There are stories of people dying and drug abuse; therefore, the narrator and Sonny had barriers to climb to get to the end of a quest of building their family/relationship.

1. We hear the story from the older brother’s point of view. How do his values and experiences affect his view of the story?

The older brother's point of view gives the audience only a brief insight to the struggle of Sonny's life. As the narrator (older brother) is confused in the story the readers are confused, when the brother discovers something out the audience are right with him in the discovery. I feel as the audience we were in the mist of Sonny's life, for that is were the brother stood most of the time within the story.

2. Compare the older brother’s profession with Sonny’s profession. What do those professions suggest about how the characters’ personalities differ?

The older brother's profession was an algebra teacher and Sonny's was a musician. These two professions come from very different but yet very similar worlds. The older brother only could see and know life through knowledge and what people said. Sonny's profession was the communication aspect of life to talk to others, through his music. Sonny's knowledge of the world and himself was through experience where as the older brothers knowledge of the world and himself was through books or what was taught. However, these to professions are similar for they both tell a human beings life story.

3. What does the narrator’s mother ask him to do for Sonny? Does the older brother keep this promise?

The mother of the narrator ask the narrator to promise to keep Sonny safe in life; even though he made this promise he did not follow through with keeping the promise. The two brothers lived life and communicated in different ways, so they drove each other out of their lives till time came to bring them back together as a family and to really understand and know each other.

4. The story begins in medias res. How does this affect the reading of the story?

I feel that this story would not have been the same or struck the audience in the same way if the story did not being as a medias res. The story began with arousing the audience attention to keep reading and to figure out what the struggle was with Sonny. 

5. Read Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool” (page 720). Is Sonny’s behavior similar to the 7 pool players?

Sonny's behavior is similar to the 7 pool players. Sonny and the 7 pool players are rebellious and adventures. They make mistakes, they live life, and they enjoy what was given in front of them to discover who they are in this world.

6.Using Freytag’s Pyramid, identify the five parts of the plot. 

Exposition to Rising Action to Climax to Falling Action to Resolution