User talk:Atcovi/ENG225/Trauma and Art - Discussion Board Eight

James Baldwin Biography
1924 (New York)-1987 —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:11, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Never forgot about his "black man in white America" experience.
 * Tough stepfather, drowning in poverty - yet used his mind to study in the library at age 14.
 * Was a preacher in his early years, then moved out at age 18 to work on the New Jersey railroad.
 * Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953
 * Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961), as well as two novels, Giovanni’s Room (1956) and Another Country (1962)
 * Created "socially relevant, psychological penetrative" literature.
 * Traveling abroad made him realize the reality of his own white America, so he returned in the 1950s to take part in rights for black people.
 * The Fire Next Time (1963) - times magazine winner.
 * If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) - made in France after his friends, including MLK Jr., were murdered.

Sonny's Blues
https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/Baldwin-Sonnys-Blues.pdf
 * Read about Sonny in the newspaper. Speaker is a teacher and was the teacher of Sonny.
 * "popping off needles" implies drugs, not sure though.
 * boys in the courtyard were mocking while a boy was whistling his tune. It was Sonny's friend.
 * He hated his friend for some reason - and his friend didn't get caught alongside Sonny because he "stays away from people".
 * The friend hasn't seen Sonny in over a year, so there was not much he can do.
 * Accounts for a bar [page 20]
 * Sonny smoked weed or was caught with opiates. Sonny's friend figures he'll be off the hook pretty fast. The narrator doesn't hate Sonny's friend anymore and gives him $5 for subway rides. The narrator departs from the steps

[pg. 22] —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:29, 24 October 2023 (UTC)


 * The narrator didn't write a letter to Sonny for a while, but he wrote a letter to him [coincidentally after his daughter died].
 * The letter apologized to the narrator, telling him what happened dealt with an 'escape' and it's not because he is a 'musician'. He wanted to meet him in New York.
 * Sonny is the narrator's little brother.
 * They finally meet in New York after a 7yr difference.
 * While they are looking at the city [Harlem] again, the narrator reveals he is no longer a school teacher.
 * It was a beautiful reunion at the narrator's housing project.
 * Sonny and his late dad didn't get along well because they were 'alike' (had the same sense of privacy).
 * Page 26 talks about the "privacy sense" where the adults are drifting to slumber while the kids are there, but quiet when the light turns on as they are not allowed to know what happened to the past of their adult counterparts (or else they will get a beating).

[pg. 7] —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 11:40, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

[pg. 10] —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 19:42, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
 * The mom talks about his dad's little brother, who died in a hit-and-run by racist white men.
 * His mom tells him he HAS to be there for his brother, Sonny.
 * His mum's funeral, Sonny wanted to be a musician - not a drummer though, he wants to play jazz. The narrator resists his aspirations to no avail.
 * Sonny wants to go out of harlem and is willing to join the military to accomplish that.


 * Sonny stayed with Isabel, entrenched in his piano. Isbael's mom found out, from a letter, where Sonny has been venturing off to in opposition to school: a white girl's apartment. Sonny felt his privacy totally violated and his piano-passion to be a source of grievance.
 * Sonny ran off to the navy and fled to Greece after this. He returned to New York, where the narrator was mad at his seemingly 'useless' way of life. One day, the narrator tells Sonny that he might as well be dead for the way he's living - to which Sonny assured him that he was 'dead' and kicked him out of the house.
 * "Read about Sonny's trouble in the spring" - talks about 'Little Gracie' dying in the fall to polio.

[pg. 13] —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:20, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
 * One time, when Sonny was staying at their house for 2 weeks - the narrator was tempted to look into Sonny's room. The narrator was then mesmerized by some potent singing across the sidewalk from his house (an old-fashioned revival meeting with religious singing and chants) [google page 12].
 * Sonny comes up to the narrator and asks him if he wants to come with him to a joint in the 'Village'.

[pg. 15] —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 02:22, 29 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Sonny goes on to compare the girl's voice to heroin. He details his experiences with heroin and reveals the truth to his brother, that he wanted to leave Harlem to escape the drugs.


 * Nightclub: meets Creole. He knew he was in Sonny's kingdom. Goes in depth of Sonny's performance: how it looked stammered at first but then went natural on Am I Blue. The narrator felt very touched by Sonny's piano playing. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 12:09, 29 October 2023 (UTC)