“On the sidewalk bleeding” Essay Introduction - Andy, a 16 year old gang member in Evan hunter’s story “on the sidewalk bleeding” wanted to be respected as a royal, But he got stabbed by a rival gang member. When Andy got stabbed he was in a alley-way walking to the store to get some cigarettes , which was a bad choice because he was walking wearing a gang related jacket at 11 pm. After he lay there dying like a piece of trash he didn’t know he was dying and was thinking of his girlfriend and how mad she would be and that’s when he started wishing he was just Andy and not a royal. The author describes Andy’s last hour of life to show that courage is not all just about being a gang member and being tough courage is also about making the right choices. When Andy was first stabbed a drunk guy finds him and Andy is asking him for help but he can’t talk cause of his wound and then the drunk guy starts talking to him asking him if he wanted a drink but doesn’t say anything so then the drunk guy starts yelling at him and tells him he can’t drink anyways and walks off. Andy then starts thinking that he can’t be dying as it says in the story “Guys get cut all the time in rumbles. I can’t be dying. No, that’s stupid. That do not make sense at all”. He said cause that’s what Andy thought being courageous was being in a gang and being tough and …show more content…
The boy said “i don’t want to get mixed up in this. He’s a royal. We help him, and the Guardians’ll be down on our necks”. Then Andy started thinking why they were scared of the guardians if he would always stand up to them because he thought that’s what courage was he thought being in a gang was
Rudd was brutally beaten in the face after being called into a bar brawl on Christmas day. After receiving multiple facial injuries as well as a skull fracture and being hospitalized, the police officer was only eager to get back to work. Rudd told interviewers from his hospital bed “I have no hesitations getting back to work,” (“Courageous Police Officer”). The courage of the policeman had been seen as remarkable and heroic. Many people would take a traumatic event like such and use it as a way to resign from their job but Rudd simply said that it is what he does and he would not trade it (“Courageous Police Officer”).
The creators of this movie used several effective, and often subtle, methods to illustrate the hope found in Andy and his surroundings. Andy was always portrayed as a clean-cut and well-groomed prisoner with his shirt always buttoned and his hair always combed. This self-respect was in great contrast to the other prisoners who were portrayed as dirty, stereotypical prisoners. The common prisoners also had vocabularies and grammar that were far inferior to Andy’s. The distinctions between Andy and the common prisoners showed that Andy was different, those differences were that he had hope.
It is clear that sometimes Andy abused his powers to do what he thought was right and this was based solely off of Andy’s opinion. We see that he lived with regret for the mistakes he made and but in the end, he is still a superhero. The way this superhero story is told is different than most superhero stories, but the thing to take away from this is that a superhero is someone that has the intentions to save the world. Superheroes sometimes make mistakes and do action not based on the best efforts, but that doesn’t change who they are. They are still a superhero. In this story, Andy had good intentions, but sometimes his opinion wasn’t the same as the people around
The narrator mentions how he's telling a story from the past by saying, “As a teen, I could’ve beamed / the crown, walked in w/out / the beat down custom,”. The author is describing to the reader's how he is telling a story from his past as a teen. He mentions how he could of been in the gang but, choose not to, which wasn't normal at that time. The beat down custom is usually what is suppose to happen. He dodged the custom and choose to avoid the gang through the pressure of his cousin “who claimed Two-Six, / the set on the next block decked in black & beige.” (20-22). With all the influence on his block and from his cousin, he never gave in and never wanted any part of any gang. The narrator was strong enough to resist what everyone around him was doing. It's hard to try to not fit in when everyone around you is doing what your not. I can personally say I wouldn't have the power to do myself but would fall into the gang life due to my surroundings. If my cousin and everyone around me was joining a gang and was a norm at the time, I would also do so. The narrator stood up for what he thought was right and ignored the pressure. The narrator wasn't interested in what he described but, “preferred games to gangs, / books to crooks wearing hats crooked to the left or right” (23-25). Luckily the narrator wasn't interested in gangs but was in games and books. This not only
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.
Introduction:The road to maturity and adulthood can be a long and difficult road for teens, especially when it comes to decision making and changing your view on the world. The popular short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, written by world-renowned author, Evan Hunter in 1957, displays this perfectly. Hunter uses the protagonist, Andy, to illustrate his development from adolescence into adulthood as he shifts from a state of ignorance to a state of knowledge, from a mindset of idealism to realism and from a selfish personality to a selflessness personality. Hunter expresses the major theme of coming of age through this protagonist character who is seen shifting from a state of adolescence to a more matured state of adulthood throughout the story.
The most obvious and simplest struggle in “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” is man vs. man. “He [Andy] had been stabbed ten minutes ago. The knife had entered just below his rib cage and had been drawn across his body violently, tearing a wide gap in his flesh.” This line describes the physical conflicts in “On the Sidewalk Bleeding.” Andy’s struggle with the Guardians involves several fights and rumbles in the past, and is typical of most youth gangs today. At first, Andy believes this will be his only dilemma of the night. “That was a fierce rumble. They got me good that time,” he thinks. At this point, only half an hour before his death, Andy is fully conscious and only worried about the big cut on his stomach that he expects is going to hurt in the morning.
In “On the Sidewalk, Bleeding” (Evan Hunter) the main character Andy, is stabbed by a rival gang member and left to die in an alleyway. As a result, it would be assumed that the member of the Guardians would face a gruesome consequence. Yet, if looked at in closer detail, it can be inferred that he will not face any kind of comeuppance. One indicator of this theory is how Andy states: “That was a fierce rumble. They got me good that time,” (Hunter 1) right after his stabbing. This is concerning as his first reaction is not one of sadness or surprise, but congratulation to the enemy. To put into other words, his reaction shows that he is familiar with these situations, or more specifically a part of them. But, if that is the case, why is he
Richard N. Albert is one critic who explores and analyzes the world of “Sonny’s Blues”. His analysis, “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”” is an example of how one can discover the plot, characterization and jazz motif that builds this theme of suffering. Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients that make up the plot: the initial situation, conflict, complications, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reads in the newspaper about Sonny’s arrest for using and selling heroin.
In the short story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, Andy suffers with the inner conflict of his self-identity
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
One of the earliest lessons he ever learned was from his mother. She told all four of her boys to never let people think they were afraid and that they were never to become victims. This is shown with each word that Canada uses in his title. The first phase of his life consisted of “Fist”. He recalls the time when he first moved to Union Ave and he was trapped inside his apartment because he hadn’t established himself in the neighborhood. He would sit up in his 3rd floor apartment and jealously looked on, as all the other kids would play in the streets. One day his older brother John had enough and walked outside to face his fate. The rest of his brothers followed and eventually each got beat up as a pass to the streets. None of them showed their fears or their pain, a lesson that they first learned from their mother. This was only one of many steps/ factors in becoming an established individual not to be reckoned with. Age was the other factor to be considered. The older you were, the more respect you got from others. There were the young adults, who were the biggest and badest on the block. They weren’t usually around to defend their turf because they all belonged to a gang, however everyone knew they ruled all. Next were the mid-teen boys who were the “real rulers of Union Ave (18)” They were the ones who enforced the rules. The lower categories were the early teens and the pre teens. The early teens were just learning the rules whereas the pre teens couldn’t go off of the sidewalk. Geoffrey belonged to the lowest rung, the sidewalk group. As time wen...
Andy goes back to school and talks to his basketball coach about how he feels about Rob's death and how his fiends and family feel about the accident. In addition, they discuss Andy's sentence because Andy keeps punishing himself for Rob's death. Everybody at school was crying during Rob's memorial service. Grief Counselors from downtown come to the school to try to get the kids to share their feelings.
People are scared to help him because they think once they tell the cops the guardians will find them and hurt them. "He‟s a Royal. We help him, and the Guardians will be after us." Whenever one of the strangers think about helping Andy they see the royals then rethink about actually helping him. Another reason the strangers wouldn't want to help him is because they think the guardians will found out and be after them. The couple doesn't want to get involved with the gangs because they think they might get killed getting involve with the gangs. Andy tried his hardest not to be remembered as a royal but as soon as the cop seen Andy's royal jacket the cop immediately wrote this. "He took out his black pad. He opened it to a blank page. “! Royal,” he said." Even though Laura was telling the cop Andy's name it seemed like he was just ignoring her and writing down royal. Andy tried with all his effort to not to remembered as just a royal. Andy cared about this so much he tried to take his royal jacket off while he was bleeding so this caused him a lot of pain from doing