Stella sinned by being a “loose woman”—doing what she had to do to “get what she needed”—

prostitute?

and was redeemed?

Leo sinned by questioning the existence of God;

And was redeemed—by love

“convert Stella to goodness and himself to God”

Sonny sins by doing drugs

Narrator sins by breaking his promise to his mother and not being “his brother’s keeper”

Was redeemed by accepting Sonny for who he was and keeping his promise to watch out for him.

BOTH “SONNY’S BLUES” BY JAMES BALDWIN AND “THE MAGIC BARREL” BY BERNARD MALAMUD ARE
RELIGIOUSLY-THEMED STORIES ABOUT SIN AND REDEMPTION. “Sonny’s Blues” is about two brothers
with a dysfunctional relationship; the narrator is an algebra teacher with a wife and two children. His
younger brother, Sonny, is a jazz musician and a drug addict. When the story opens, Sonny has just been
arrested for using heroin, and the narrator neglects the promise he made to his mother to look out for
Sonny. Malamud’s “Magic Barrel,” on the other hand, features 27-year-old rabbinical student Leo
Finkle. Finkle, searching for a bride, consults marriage broker Pinye Salzman, whose daughter, Stella, is a
“fallen woman.” BUT THE AUTHORS RESIST FOCUSING THEIR STORIES ON THE OBVIOUS “SINNERS”—A
PROSTITUTE AND A DRUG ADDICT. RATHER, THE CHARACTERS WHO SIN AND ARE REDEEMED ARE A
RABBI IN TRAINING AND A ‘RESPECTABLE’ FAMILY MAN. BY DOING SO, THE AUTHORS SEND THE
MESSAGE THAT “IT IS THUS WITH US ALL.”

BOTH STORIES ARE NARRATIVES OF SIN AND REDEMPTION; BOTH DRAW HEAVILY ON BIBLICAL AND
RELIGIOUS IMAGERY. In the “Magic Barrel,” the fact that the protagonist, Finkle, is a rabbinical student,
indicates that this is a story concerned with faith and salvation. The opening paragraph sets up the
religious theme for the story, with words like “Yeshiva,” “rabbi,” “ordained,” and “congregation” (172).
One of the central turning points in the story concerns Finkle’s relationship with God. On a date with
one of the women that Salzman introduces him to, Finkle realized “the true nature of his relationship to
God” (176). He told the woman that “I came to God not because I loved him but because I did not”
(176). This conflict helps to emphasize the religious nature of the story.

a. DESCRIBE PLOT OF MAGIC BARREL

i. Focus on religious language/themes
1. Finkle is a rabbinical student
2. Yeshiva, rabbi, congregation, ordained
 ii. Focus on Leo’s struggle with God
b. DESCRIBE PLOT OF SONNY’S BLUES
i. Focus on religious language/themes
1. “Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues.’”
Critic James Takach points out that Baldwin used the Bible as a
foundation for ‘Sonny’s Blues.’ He identifies ‘Sonny’s Blues’ as an
interpretation of the Biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Prodigal
Son. He also points out the Biblical significance of the “cup of
trembling”: “Like the sinners in the book of Isaiah, Sonny has sinned; he
has, comma, indeed, drunk from the cup of trembling” (117).
2. THE AUTHORS RESIST FOCUSING THE STORIES ON THE OBVIOUS SINNERS
a. Stella would be the ‘obvious choice’ as the sinner
b. Sonny would be the ‘obvious choice’ as the sinner.
3. THE RABBI AND THE ‘FAMILY MAN’ GET REDEEMED.