While reading “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin, something that was big that came up was the use of drugs. That is something that is big now and at anytime because it can affect anyone. When reading  Baldwin brings up that sonny is gone “ What’s going to happen to him now? I asked again. They’ll send him away someplace and they’ll try to cure him he shook his head. Maybe he’ll even think he’s kicked the habit, then they’ll let him loose… that’s all.” (21) He is saying it in a way that has a lot of truth to it.  They bring up a big problem that could happen to anyone. Burning up Sonny drug problem is a good thing many don’t want talking.
Month: April 2019
Response to “Sonny’s Blues”-(KO)
Reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin for the second time did open a new understanding for the story. When I first read I guess I wasn’t fully putting all my attention into learning and dissecting the story properly but this time around i made sure I did. One thing that i wasn’t able to figure out and i vaguely remember my Highschool teacher asking this question of “ Who’s Telling the Story?”. And this is still a question i have after reading it again, I’m not sure who’s the person telling the story or what their relationship is with Sonny. Maybe it’s more obvious than I noticed but i don’t find it as transparent as to who is the narrator in this story. One part in the story that i found resonated with me was when Sonny’s brother went to the club to watch Sonny play that then there was a new found respect for his passion of playing music. Seeing this reminded me of my family, for a very long time I felt like I had to have a career that would guarantee a stable future. I want to make movies and a career like that doesn’t always prove success, but when my teachers told my parents i was a good writer and very creative i think that made them open more about the possibilities of my career choice.
Sonny’s Blues
The part that moved me in this story was when at the end Sonny is at the bar playing music with his friends. Sonny’s brother while listening, memories come back to him. ” I saw my mother face again and felt for the first time how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. I saw the moonlit road where my father’s brother died.” He remembered the sad feeling his parents were going through while listening to the brother who also didn’t grow up with a happy life. In Addition, there was another part where Sonny’s brother went to visit his brother they were arguing and Sonny took his brother outside. “Then he pushed me to the door and the other people looked on as though nothing were happening, and he slammed the door behind me. I stood in the hallway, staring at the door. I heard somebody laugh in the room and then the tears came to my eyes.” His brother cares a lot about Sonny, he is trying to make him a better person, but Sonny looks like he doesn’t care about his brother’s feelings. Furthermore this line of the text moved me because earlier his mom told him that watch out for his brother when they are no longer in this world, but he replied as if nothing bad will happen to Sonny and the relationship of each other. But the mom’s words were right at the end that there will be difficult times but try to always look out for him.
“Sonny’s Blues” Reaction
As i’ve read through the work of James Baldwin in “Sonny’s Blues” I came to the conclusion that we can all be set in the same body of water but its actually up to us to teach ourselves how to swim. I also came under the impression that you could be the best swimmer of the lot but still fall prey to the dangers of the sea. This idea came into my head after reading something that the protagonists mother says when talking to him about his brother, where she states.” It ain’t a question of his being a good boy”…. “nor of his having good sense.” What this says to me is that his mother already has a good idea of the fact that in life things can happen to even the best of us. Branching off of that idea, I had come to make the connection that the best of us can fall prey to what is known as the “darkness”. This darkness clouds one’s judgement and leads them on a decline. This can be seen where the protagonist is speaking with a friend of his brothers, where he states, “they’ll let him out. And then he’ll just start working his way back again. You mean he’ll never kick the habit. Is that what you mean?” This idea is one even seen in shows demographically aimed for children. This idea of one being lead or leading themselves on a constant decline. The tragedy of this however is the fact that when compared to reality it can seem all the much better since in the show there can be an element of saving the person on the decline where in real life or reality, that’s not always the case for some.
Response to “Sonny’s Blues”
While reading “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin, I found that I related to the speaker, a lot, mainly in the beginning when he reads about his brother being on drug as well as picked up in a raid. When he sees “ that kid he hated” who use to hang out with Sonny and chose to begin speaking to him about Sonny’s drug problems it hit close to home. Reading“ What’s going to happen to him now? I asked again. They’ll send him away someplace and they’ll try to cure him he shook his head. Maybe he’ll even think he’s kicked the habit, then they’ll let him loose… that’s all.” (21) You realize that it’s  a process that is spoken about so nonchalantly by this guy to Sonny’s brother, a process that it seems like he’s been through himself before he didn’t seem to trust in the process of either “ listen to let him out and then it’ll just start all over again that’s what I mean” (21). He is saying it in a way that has a lot of finality to it once to her when addict always heroin addict. It just shows the harsh reality that is drugs in the control that they can have over a person, no matter how brilliant their mind is or how much they love something in particular like Sonny when I came to his music. Even though it had such a sad start did have a very nice ending, especially when he goes to the nightclub with Sunny , he gets to see Sonny’s world with music and how it wasn’t a bad thing to start with.
response to “Sonny’s Blue’s”
In the story, Sonny’s Blue’s by James Baldwin, I immediately noticed that the author has a way with words. What I mean by that is that the words that James Baldwin use create vivivd imagery for the reader. In the first few pages, we learn a lot of information regarding Sonny, the main subject in the story. We learn that Sonny is the younger brother to the author, and that he obviously cares very much for Sonny. We also learn that the narrator is an algebra teacher. But the thought of his brother being locked up, over heroin abuse, as well as peddling, seems to be interfering with his work. The narrator has a very deep love for his brother Sonny. This is made clear when the narrator recalls how he was there when Sonny was conceived, and also was present when he spoke his first words. One passage that I found particularly interesting is on page 36. ” The silence of the next few days must have been louder tab  the sound of all the music ever played…he went as far a she navy would carry him. The narrator tries to understand why his brother would want to leave Harlem, especially to join the Army, when he made it clear he has a passion for music, the piano in particular. I admire this story because it expresses raw emotion, for what it is. It’s realistic, and the conversation between these brothers is something that all siblings can relate to. That is sometimes not being sure how to express emotion to others, even though you both know deep down that you love each other. That is one of the things that stuck with me, while reading this short story.
Revision One Essay
Tell your fellow Americans that the school system is trash, and guess what most Americans will agree with your statement. There are a lot of reasons why in the United States K-12 schooling is low standard. Depending how you slice it, the public school education system in the United States conditions students to be gullible and mindless consumers. The consequences for both school and society shows that we students and teachers are potentially devastating in contribution to the system.
Someday people will cling to the hope that the school system will change, and view its service not as something that sucks and that they hate, but as something that is actually nice and that they don’t hate. In my life as I experienced K-12 schooling I noticed that when I was in middle school, each of my classes I attended we didn’t learn anything in class because the teachers couldn’t handle the students. There was only one particular class where the students didn’t misbehave and that was with our homeroom teacher.
A lot of teachers in our schools don’t know how to teach and make the students enjoy school. Of course the students also need to cooperate with the teachers, however it is the teachers responsibility to guide and make the students behave in class. There are also times in school when students get bored sitting for hours just listening to teachers. As John Taylor Gatto the author of “Against School” states in his article, “One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head.(1)” The author also says when he was in school he was bored just as most kids during school. This also shows why most kids during school don’t want to learn, and listen to the teacher. This leads to the reason why the students do whatever they want in class because they are bored, or not interested during class when the teacher is conducting their lesson.
The goal for schools needs to be making sure that our children who are the future that they are in good place where they learn and continue progressing in school. Construct a school system where students are enjoying school with activities that involve moving around and cooperating with other students. Sitting for hours in chairs is boring and make students sleepy. Create social efficiency, the purpose of education is not to produce citizens, but productive workers that can succeed in life.
As I quickly learned in my experience, schools throw in unnecessary exams, and focuses more based on tests instead of making sure students actually learn something. “We have, for example, the great H.L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence…”(2)Â Thus, Gatto states that the education system doesn’t fill our young generations with knowledge as an alternative, they give us pressure with passing common core, regents, or other exams. Therefore, the modern schooling needs to be modified and reconstruct how they want to test the students learning.
In our American public school system, schools make our students to be gullible and mindless consumers. If the system would change and try to make our children into real thinkers who will benefit later on effectively is just a hope. Of course there are some people who benefited from our schooling, however there have been more who dropped out of school too. The change would help make students not being bored in classroom, but being involved in activities, and develop skills like teamwork and social efficiency with other students. Taking out of unnecessary exams that pressure students into passing them instead of testing their real knowledge. As a change this will only be a hope that our future won’t stay gullible and mindless consumers.
Response To “Sonny’s Blues”
While reading this, I found myself relating quite a lot to it. Primarily in the way that James Baldwin describes the relationship between the two brothers. When he describes the situation that Sonny found himself in, with drugs and all, I couldn’t help but relate. It hit hard when he stated, “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I’d already seen so many other.” You never imagine someone so close to you falling down this road, possibly ruining their life. I had a friend who fell down this road and we were so far from each other for me to even help her through this. But then even if I was I would think just like Sonny’s brother, “I haven’t seen Sonny in over a year, I’m not sure I’m going to do anything. Anyway, what the hell can I do.” You can only help people who see the wrong in what they’re doing. The part of the story that interested me the most was when Sonny and his brother are at the nightclub. At the nightclub, his brother gets a glimpse of his world.  This is when Sonny’s brother finally realizes that Sonny’s love for music was not such a bad thing after all. You can see how moved he was by this side of Sonny when it states, “I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel’s tears again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise.”
Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin
In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, he shows how music is a distraction that takes away suffering, addiction, and feeling alone. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, the passage that was relatable to me was on page 45, the second paragraph because a song to you could have a totally different meaning to someone else. Every song has a meaning but it’s up to you to find the one that you can relate to. “And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations”, shows something that the musician is feeling that we can’t because there’s something they are feeling that we can’t ever feel. “But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air”, many artists deal with pain through their music which heals a piece of them and their music is reaching out to others showing which shows them they are not alone. When I’m feeling stressed out or just want a break from the world I put my headphones on and close my eyes like nothing is around me. Music is a art form that comes in different shapes and sizes no matter where your from we all listen to the same art. Music brings everyone together no matter your background or race.
Reasons Why School is Stupid
Saalik Jackson
      School is stupid. There is no better way to put it. It is outright ridiculous. Now you’re probably wondering to yourself “Oh my God how could you make such a claim?”. Well  pay attention. I stated that school is stupid, not education. Education is something very important in society. People must learn in order to contribute to society and function in the real world. However, although I education is necessary, some of the ways it is executed are not. It has many flaws. These flaws in the education system cause students to care less about learning and more about passing.
      School and education are often two things that go together but are not the same. Education is the process of learning anything. School happens to be society’s attempt at teaching people. At times this works, but other times it proves to be ineffective.Typically students attend school the same time each day for 5 days a week attempting to learn about things they don’t care about. After a while it starts to feel forced . At the end of the day school’s like prison. No seriously take a moment to think about it. A group of people are confined to one building each day.These same people are forced to endure whatever is thrown at them. In my experience that’s what it felt like. When I was in high school some teachers did not seem to reach students. It’s not like they never wanted to connect to us,however, they could have done more.the forced schooling and condescending authority make school and prison alike. That’s what it felt like to endure the monotony that was throughout high school. School is a regime that society has begun to condone. Imagine only being able to use the restroom at the leisure of someone else. On top of that, teachers and staff take on a roll similar to that of correction officers. The students are expected to take whatever negativity or disrespect from those authority figures. That’s pretty messed up right? These qualities are what makes school so ridiculous. The most ludicrous thing about school is that curriculum is forced upon them. High school should be slightly more like college. Students should have more of a choice of what to learn while at the same time learning the basics of certain material. For example,if a student does not wish to have a career that requires the use of mathematics, then they should not have to do a lot of math in school. They should only have to learn the core and most essential part of a subject that is not prominent in their careers. Students should not have to learn prodigiously about things that do not and most likely will not pertain to them. It starts to feel forced and therefore unappealing to the students. It actually is not fair. There should be different programs for different students. These programs should serve as something that guides students in their part to a successful career in what they are interested in.
        John Taylor Gatto In his article presents the idea that school isn’t as wondrous as many people may think. There are flaws in the Education system . At times teachers don’t perform to the best of their ability or do what they should. This includes reaching the students . When I say reaching the student, I mean actually trying to get them to learn. This does not mean it is entirely the teachers responsibility. There are times when students do not want to learn. However, it is up to the teacher to make them desire to learn. As teachers, they should be making their best effort to reach students.They should make an attempt to find ways that make learning a good experience for them. A way to make learning a better experience for students is to give them an incentive. The incentive serves as motivation for the students. If the students lack motivation then they will not learn. A perfect example of an incentive for students is extra credit. In addition to giving an incentive, teachers should also show students how relevant the work is outside of a classroom. Teachers should use the work to show them how they can use it in their daily life. For example, I was taught an equation that teaches people to calculate how much exercise they need to do in order to burn a desired amount of calories. Things like that should be taught in school rather than the things that can not be used outside of a class room. This was one of the only things I learned in school that I found was something meaningful.  I was able to see the value in what I learned because I could understand it’s relevance in people’s lives. This just goes to show that if teachers make it clear to students how the work can be used in their lives, then the students will start to see the importance in it. Once they see the importance in the work they will most likely be more motivated.
  To summarize, education is something very important in society. As people we all make erroneous assumptions and have questionable actions. It is our imperfections as humans that make it vital for us to learn. Students tend to learn most effectively when they know it is something they need. The education system at times fails to reach their students because they do not motivate them effectively.  That’s why although school may be stupid, education is not.
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