From this review:
"Nothing I say in this review can bring justice to master storyteller Cecily Von Ziegesar, whose research comes from her own life as an upper eastside, New York City teen. She has a reality-based knack for bringing cigarette-and-pot smoking rich kids into three-dimensional color. As naughty as these characters seem on every page, they are revealed to be real kids wanting to fit into accepted, meaningful lives as much as sleek clothes..”
Rich girl Blair Waldorf is about to discover what it’s like to not get her way. Almost seventeen, she has careful plans: to lose her virginity to steady beau Nate and get into Yale. But life has alternate designs. Her mom is marrying a bald-headed dweeb and his dreadlocked son and slobbery dog are moving in. While her mom plans her wedding on the day of Blair’s birthday, Nate starts dodging her instant messages. Blair’s worse fears are coming true : Nate is losing interest. Then she has a total breakdown at her Yale interview, resorting to tears and cheek-kissing – humiliating herself and blowing any chance of getting in.
In the meantime, Blair’s ex best friend, perfect-girl Serena is mixing with artsy West-siders, competing with Blair and others in their all-girl school for a prestigious film award. But Serena has her own problems. She is casually dating a West-sider named Dan, who is becoming obsessed. Can his sulky love poems win her heart?
Nothing I say in this review can bring justice to master storyteller Cecily Von Ziegesar, whose research comes from her own life as an upper eastside, New York City teen. She has a reality-based knack for bringing cigarette-and-pot smoking rich kids into three-dimensional color. As naughty as these characters seem on every page, they are revealed to be real kids wanting to fit into accepted, meaningful lives as much as sleek clothes. This second GOSSIP GIRL book in the New York Times Bestselling GOSSIP GIRL series is an edgy page-turner.
*Fun Notes: In the book, Gossip Girl is an anonymous online character who reports on the latest events in the lives of New York City’s richest teens at her site www.
Sonny’s Blues written by James Baldwin appears to suggest that family and faith are important aspects in someone’s life and that each person has a different way of dealing with their own demons. The author writes with an expressive purpose and narrative pattern to convey his message and by analyzing the main characters, the point of view of the narration, the conflict in the story and the literary devices Baldwin utilizes throughout his tale, his central idea can be better understood.
In both “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Weary Blues”, music serves as a form of catharsis; in “SB” Sonny is able to escape his troubled life, and in “WB” the Negro man expresses his sadness about his difficult life. The portrayal of music differs in that it’s more of a joyful presence in “SB” but a grim and depressing one in “WB”.
In James Baldwin’s short story, Sonny’s Blues, he describes a story of pain and prejudice. The theme of suffering makes the readers relate to it. The story is told in the realistic point of view of Sonny’s brother. The setting and time of the story also has great significance to the story. From beginning to end, the story is well developed.
...g for only a few minutes, Sonny starts to truly feel the music. The narrator can hear the clarity and freedom echoing from Sonny’s fingers. The narrator envisions Creole telling the other band member and the audience “what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen.” (pg 148) Through the Blues, Sonny has the means to fill the air with life; his life” (pg 145) and the narrator starts to really hear the music. Sonny’s dangerous, drunken blends of music and raw notes from the heart cause the narrator to remember the great misfortune of his parents and the death of his beloved daughter. The narrator realizes why Sonny chose the life he did: unsafe and sorrowful, but infinitely more satisfying in the end.
Several passages found throughout "Sonny's Blues" indicate that as a whole, the neighborhood of Harlem is in the turmoil of a battle between good and evil. The narrator describes Sonny's close encounters with the evil manifested in drugs and crime, as well as his assertive attempts at distancing himself from the darker side. The streets and communities of Harlem are described as being a harsh environment which claims the lives of many who have struggled against the constant enticement of emotional escape through drugs, and financial escape through crime. Sonny's parents, just like the others in Harlem, have attempted to distance their children from the dark sides of their community, but inevitably, they are all aware that one day each child will face a decisionb for the first time. Each child will eventually join the ranks of all the other members of society fighting a war against evil at the personal level so cleanly brought to life by James Baldwin. Amongst all the chaos, the reader is introduced to Sonny's special secret weapon against the pressures of life: Jazz. Baldwin presents jazz as being a two-edged sword capable of expressing emotions like no other method, but also a presenting grave danger to each individual who bears it. Throughout the the story, the reader follows Sonny's past and present skirmishes with evil, his triumphs, and his defeats. By using metaphorical factors such as drugs and jazz in a war-symbolizing setting, Baldwin has put the focus of good and evil to work at the heart of "Sonny's Blues."
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues tells the story of the narrator and his brother and the hardships that they must endure. As Kahlil Gibran States “Out of suffering have emerged the strangest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Gibran). In that very quote the real light is shown as it informs the reader that with suffering comes growth and once the person whomever it may be emerges out of the darkness they may have scars but it has made them stronger. The theme of light and darkness as well as suffering play a vital part in this story. For both men there are times in which they have the blues and suffer in the darkness of their lives but music takes the suffering from them.
Brothers tend to grow apart yet eventually find a way to revive an old beat up relationship. These brothers grew up on the rough streets of Harlem and went their separate ways. Sonny was a drug-addicted musician and his older brother was a high school algebra teacher with a family. The way the two brothers reunite through addiction, memories and strife make their bond seem stronger than ever. Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin, is a story about enlightenment through brotherhood when Sonny and his brother go to the club.
The story “Sonny’s Blues” By James Baldwin is about a jazz musician and his brother in 1950’s Harlem. The story centers on Sonny who uses jazz music as an escape from his depression. James Baldwin captures the art of jazz during this time period. The themes in this short story are perhaps varied, but all of them revolve around some form of suffering. One theme shows how music can promote change and understanding within relationships. A second theme reveals suffering caused by guilt. Yet another theme references the results of suffering brought about by searching for ones’ identity and how that leads to misunderstanding. There are also subthemes concerning racism and poverty.
“Pretty Little Liars”, aired on ABC Family, is a recent television series that I have followed continuously over the past 2 years. This edge of your seat mystery follows the lives of four young ladies searching to find the murderer of their recently deceased best friend, all the while being the prime suspects themselves, and facing threats from an anonymous figure. A myth, in my point of view, is a tale which is created by the adventures that shape a hero. In this series, all four ladies are heros through their journey.
Goldman, Suzy B. "James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music." Negro American Literature Forum 3rd ser. 8 (1974): 231-33. St. Louis University. Web. Apr.-May 2014.
The prologue starts with the description about a girl who likes swimming, SpongeBob, Mexican food, writing poetry and getting her nails painted. To a normal person this sounds like a normal description for a little girl but normal is not the adjective to describe this girl because this little girl has been trafficked (or prostituted) by her 29 year old pimp on Craiglist to adult men. When I read this I automatically felt like someone took a pin and pricked to my chest because I remember being eleven and enjoying getting my nails painted and Mexican food. I was a normal, happy little girl but that same could not said for the girl mentioned above.
The novel, The Outsiders explores the impact of living in a place where fear is the predominant emotion and personality is based solely on appearance, due to the fact that it was during this time when society had placed a label on every individual. Most of the action and conflict is framed by the interactions within and between different groups. The book includes underage violence and drinking, delinquent behavior, and a suicide. But the indelible characters and irresistible story have consistently hooked middle school kids, teens and apathetic readers. This book appeals to teens because that’s
While Alex explores the strange new world of college life, her friends take jobs as lifeguards or perform menial labor at the local deli. When Alex returns the following summer, these new tensions explode at a beach party. While the book has its dark comedic moments, the pages are full of the ennui and nihilism of young adults with nowhere to go.
In the story, Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin uses music, jazz, and hymns to shape the story and show how it shapes Sonny’s life and how music is inherent to his survival. All of this is seen through the older brother’s eyes; the older brother is the narrator and the reader begins to understand Sonny through the older brother’s perspective. Baldwin writes the story like a jazz song to make a story out of his father’s past and his brother’s career choice and puts them together, going back and forth, until it creates a blending of histories and lives. He shows how the father’s past is similar to the narrator’s life; the older brother has conflicts with his younger brother, Sonny. Music heals the relationship.
"Sonny's Blues" is filled with examples of music and how it makes things better. The schoolboy, the barmaid, the mother, the brother, the uncle, the street revivalists, all use music to create a moment when life isn't so ugly, even though the world still waits outside and trouble stretches above. Music and the tale it tells provide hope and joy; instead of being the instrument of Sonny's destruction, introducing him to the world of drugs, music is his way out of some of the ugliness. For Sonny and the other characters in this story, music is a bastion against the despair that pervades stunted lives; it is the light that guides them from the darkness without hope.