Paige Smylie

Ms. Okeefe
A.P Literature
01/15/2020

Literary Analysis Paper

Symbolism is defined as the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them

symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. In both readings “ Sonny’s Blues”

by James Baldwin and “ The shawl” By ​Cynthia Ozick ​symbolism played a big part. In very

many ways the symbolism that was shown throughout both these text played a big part on the

characters. By that I mean both the specific items that symbolized something was an important

figure throughout the text. In the “ Shawl” The shawl that was shown in the story was very

significant to the character Madga and this protryaed the shawl to be symbolic throughout the

story, not only to Magda but to other charcters too. The Shawl was symbolized as something safe

or a protection for the characters in the passage. In “ Sonny Blues” The topic of music played an

huge role throughout the text and it also plays a big role in Sonny’s life and is very significant to

him as well. The role of music symbolized an “escape” for the character Sonny.

In the story “Sonny’s blues” by James Baldwin, I feel like the role of music symbolized a

escape for the character Sonny. Music was seen in this passage as a way for him to be a more

better person that what he was previous in the reading. In the text he battles with being addicted

to drugs and this leaves him having nothing to turn to for help. The music symbolizes in the text
something that he can run to and an escape for him, despite oall of the things he’s went through.

Many pieces of evidence shows that in the story. One example could be on page 8, it states “No,"

he said, very sober now, and afraid, perhaps, that he'd hurt me, "I don't want to be a classical

pianist. That isn't what interests me. I mean"-he paused, looking hard at me, as though his eyes

would help me to understand, and then gestured helplessly, as though perhaps his hand would

help-"I mean, I'll have a lot of studying to do, and I'll have to study everything, but, I mean, I

want to play with-jazz musicians." He stopped. "I want to play jazz," he said.” This piece of

evidence idenifies that Sonny was sure what he wanted to do after he had gone through a tough

time. Sonny was dedicated to be an musician because he understands the things you have to do in

order to be one . This piece of evidence shows that the music that Sonny dreams of doing could

be some sort of an escape for him, despite the area and people he was surrounded by.

It mentions plenty of times in the text about Sonny’s upbringing, The neightborhood he

was raised in. ​The neighborhood that Sonny grew up in was really dangerous and very drama 

filled. The streets was basically like a trap for Sonny and his brother. As stated in the text, “​“So we

drove along, between the green of the park and the stony, lifeless elegance of hotels and

apartment buildings, toward the vivid, killing streets of our childhood. These streets hadn't

changed, though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the middle of a boiling

sea. “ This piece of evidence shows how their neighborhood played a big part on how they were

raised. Sonny and his use of drugs were triggered by the streets. The music that was significant

to him was a way for him to express himself towards the ending of the text. As it states, “ Sonny

moved, deep within, exactly like someone in torment. I had never before thought of how awful

the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this
instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a

piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones,

and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to

try and make it do everything. And Sonny hadn't been near a piano for over a year. And he

wasn't on much better terms with his life, not the life that stretched before him now. He and the

piano stammered, started one way, got scared, stopped; started another way, panicked, marked

time, started again; then seemed to have found a direction, panicked again, got stuck. And the

face I saw on Sonny I'd never seen before. Everything had been burned out of it, and, at the

same time, things usually hidden were being burned in, by the fire and fury of the battle which

was occurring in him up there. “ This idenifies how Sonny is allowing music to be his escape

despite his upbringing in a challenging low poverty neighborhood.

Music was symbolized and revealed as Sonny’s escape throughout the text and a way for 

him to let go all of the things in his troubled past. Sonny as well as other characters like “ creole” 

were revealed to have music as an escape and a go to. Said towards the ending of the passage, “ 

Yet, watching Creole's face as they neared the end of the first set, I had the feeling that

something had happened, something I hadn't heard. Then they finished, there was scattered

applause, and then, without an instant's warning, Creole started into something else, it was

almost sardonic, it was Am I Blue? And, as though he commanded, Sonny began to play.

Something began to happen. And Creole let out the reins. The dry, low, black man said

something awful on the drums, Creole answered, and the drums talked back. Then the horn

insisted, sweet and high, slightly detached perhaps, and Creole listened, commenting now and

then, dry, and driving, beautiful and calm and old. Then they all came together again, and Sonny

was part of the family again” This piece of evidence shows that not only Sonny was impacted by
music but also creole was too. He is shown in the text to have an connection with Sonny, as they

both share somethinh dark in there past. Music was an escape for them and it is very symbolic

throughout the text because many readers can relate to this as well.

In the story, “ The Shawl” By ​Cynthia Ozick, I feel like as if the role of the shawl

symbolized as an protection for the character Magda and many other charcters in the story. The

shawl was taken very serious in the passage. When each of the characters go a hold of the shawl

they felt some sort of protection. In the text the characters are in a time of the holocaust, which is

an very powerful event in history that allowed horrors of many. So I felt in this story, the shawl

was some kind of protection towards this harsh time in history. Their were many times in the text

where this was shown. For example in the text it states, “ Magda curled up between sore breasts,

Magda wound up in the shawl. Sometimes Stella carried Magda. But she was jealous of Magda.

A thin girl of fourteen, too small, with thin breasts of her own, Stella wanted to be wrapped in a

shawl, hidden away, asleep, rocked by the march, a baby, a round infant in arms. Magda took

Rosa’s nipple, and Rosa never stopped walking, a walking cradle. There was not enough milk;

sometimes Magda sucked air; then she screamed. Stella was ravenous. Her knees were tumors on

sticks, her elbows chicken bones.“ T​his piece of evidence explains how Magda is carried in a

Shawl and the shawl is seemed to protect her and keep her warm and safe. However, Stella is

jealous of this because, as it also states “ Stella wanted to be wrapped in a Shawl.” This evidence

shows how Stella also wants to be wrapped in the shawl so she’ll have that same feeling of being

safe and warm and treated like a baby.

However , Towards the end of the reading Stella is the one that has the shawl. In the text it states,

“ Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die...Afterwards stella said ‘ I was cold.’

and afterward she was always cold, always. The cold went into her heart. Rosa saw that Stella’s

heart was cold.” This evidence allows you to see that the Shawl has some kind of impact on

Stella because after she loses it she becomes ‘ cold’ and the word cold puts dark emphases on

stella. Maybe after the Shawl is took from her she is sad and depressed. This shows how maybe

the Shawl was symbolized as an safety, a item of safety and warmth. Madga was not only

impacted by the Shawl but Stella was as well.

More examples could be found in the text that shows how Madga feels safe in the shawl, in the

text it states, “ She looked into Magda’s face through a gap in the shawl: a squirrel in a nest, safe,

no one could reach her inside the little house of the shawl’s windings. The face, very round, a

pocket mirror of a face: but it was not Rosa’s bleak complexion, dark like cholera, it was another

kind of face altogether, eyes blue as air, smooth feathers of hair nearly as yellow as the Star sewn

in to Rosa’s coat. You could think she was one of ​their​ babies.” This shows that Magda felt safe

inside of the shawl and Rosa thought so as well, which can be predicted thats why she is

wrapped inside of it.

The shawl was represented to be an symbolic piece in this story, which represented safety or a

protection of the characters throughout the text. More than one character was effected by this this

symbolism. Magda was effected most towards the end as it describes her death after she tries to

go run after the shawl. It describes the painful scene, “ Rosa to run and run to the spot where
Magda had fallen from her flight against the electrified fence; but of course Rosa did not obey

them. She only stood, because if she ran they would shoot, and if she tried to pick up the sticks

of Magda’s body they would shoot, and if she let the wolf’s screech ascending now through the

ladder of her skeleton break out, they would shoot; so she took Magda’s shawl and filled her own

mouth with it, stuffed it in and stuffed it in, until she was swallowing up the wolf’s screech and

tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda’s saliva; and Rosa drank Magda’s shawl until

it dried. “ And this piece shows how Magda died trying to go after something that was significant

to her.

Symbolism was shown throughout both 2 text and both text had plenty of examples to

back it up. The symbolism that was shown in both text was something that was significant to the

character or charcters mentioned. The symbolism was an positive thing that kept characters

feeling like themselves which shows how they were very important .

In conclusion, Both texts “ Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “ The shawl” By ​Cynthia

Ozick, shows symbolism that doesn’t goes unnoticed. The symbolism mentoned in both of these

readings play a big part because they are very significant to the characters in both stories. ​In the “

Shawl” The shawl that was shown in the story was very significant to the character Madga and

this protryaed the shawl to be symbolic throughout the story, not only to Magda but to other

charcters too. The Shawl was symbolized as something safe or a protection for the characters in

the passage. In “ Sonny Blues” The topic of music played an huge role throughout the text and it

also plays a big role in Sonny’s life and is very significant to him as well. The role of music

symbolized an “escape” for the character Sonny.