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Scott LaHue Prof. Jacobs ENC 1102 April 15, 2014 Escaping the Blues AB Baldwin, James. Sonnys Blues. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W.Norton &, 2013 95-118. Print This source helps because this is the actual story. There are many different ideas that can come through this one story and different opinions on what the meaning is. The author (James Baldwin) arranges the storys events different than most stories. He arranges them thematically rather than just chronologically. He does this to show the building of an understanding between the two main characters Sonny and his brother. James Baldwin tries to make us understand the growing these two brothers are going through. This story is a credible source because its written by the main author. The goal of this source is to provide the basic understanding of the story. This will help with getting direct quotes from the dialogue or actions that the characters actually do. So this is probably the most important source out of all of them. Flibbert, Joseph. "Sonny's Blues: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson.Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. This journal articles main point is to discuss the ways the characters are trying to escape the Harlem blues. The author discusses that Sonnys brother decides to just take it and not do

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anything about it or question. Saying theres nothing you can do about it. But Sonny decides to do something about it to give it meaning. The author also discusses the view that suffering and sorrow are inevitable is the tragic view of life. This article provided me with insight about how the characters try to escape the struggles that their living in. Giving me insight on what they did to cope with what they had to go through. The source is going to help me with my research finding how they dealt with living in a setting they lived in. It lets me know that there are ways out of troubling situations and with enough persistence theres a chance even in a place where there its a struggle to make it anywhere. Hicks, Jennifer. "An overview of Sonny's Blues." Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. This article goes through the points of Baldwins personal life being implemented into the story. This source provides a lot of information about James Baldwin early experiences growing up in Harlem and all during this time. It goes through Baldwin finding himself and recognizing who he is as a person and as an author then going on to publish Sonnys Blues. Baldwin brings in real life situations into Sonnys Blues. His neighborhood was very similar to the one in the story as the one in his life growing up. This article provided me with needed background information about the author and combining it with the story. It shows where the author is coming from when he was writing this story. The goal of this source was to give information about James Baldwin and what he was going through when he wrote this story. This article compares to my other a few sources because it gives a background of the setting and it explains why its set where it was set. This source is

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going to help me because it gives an analysis about Harlem during the time this story was actually written and comparing it to nowadays. So this source is very useful to me for this paper.

Norton, Sandy Morey. "'To Keep from Shaking to Pieces': Addiction and Bearing Reality in 'Sonny's Blues.'." The Languages of Addiction. Ed. Jane Lilienfeld and Jeffrey Oxford. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. 175-192. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 229. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. This journal article goes through the struggles that the characters have internally. The author discusses the struggle of denial that they have, also going into specifics about the culture from where theyre from. The author discusses that the narrator is a man full of fear and using his position as a school teacher to protect himself from being a emotional wreck living in Harlem. The author explains that the kind of denial that the characters have is a strategy for dealing with pain that a lot of adults teach their children. This article provided me with background information about the characters and where they come from. The goal of the source helps give me a background of where they come from and how they grew up. This source is very useful as the author goes through points of why the characters act the way they act and where theyre actions are coming from. "Sonnys Blues." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997 245-262. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

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This journal article provides information about the two main characters in the story. It gives the different views of each others ideas. This article also gives me information about the background of the author (James Baldwin) and explains where he comes from to write this story. It also compares and contrast drug use, the setting of this story, and jazz musicians from their time to our time today. It also goes through the main themes throughout the story. To the suffering of African-Americans in America to the different styles of art during this time. With Sonny playing jazz to express his feelings, the author believed in the power of art to save people from suffering. This article compares to my other sources by it goes into detail about the differences between the two main characters. This article comes from an objective view point. The goal of this article is to go through the different themes throughout the story like suffering and racism. This source will definitely help me go and write my paper because it goes into so much detail about the characters so its extremely helpful to me.