Tag Archives: Baldwin

by | September 17, 2013 · 2:08 am

If you get confused listen to the music play

In James Baldwin’s short story Sonny’s Blues, Sonny finds relief in playing the piano and creating music. When Sonny gets out of jail he comes back and starts playing the piano. Baldwin shows how Sonny playing the piano not only soothes Sonny, but brings him and his family back together. Baldwin says, “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. I could tell this from his face. He seemed to have found, right there beneath his fingers, a damn brand-new piano. It seemed that he couldn’t get over it. Then, for a while, just being happy with Sonny, they seemed to be agreeing with him that brand-new pianos certainly were a gas” (Baldwin, 117). This quote expresses how much the piano symbolizes. The piano is like fuel for this family. It helped bring Sonny back into the family. The piano also helps Sonny relieve stress from his life. It is an alternative other than doing heroine. 

Baldwin, James. Sonny’s Blues. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1993. Print.

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by | September 5, 2013 · 5:33 pm

Let’s talk about Mise en scene

I know the film is quite different from the reading, but I want to talk about the actual film itself and how it does something a book can’t.

I took a class called Wring on Film last year in high school. Since then I have always thought it was interesting to look at the small details and Mise en scene. The short story “Sonny’s Blues” was filled with many great examples of Mise en scene. When the film begins Sonny is playing the piano. He makes it sounds awful and it is almost painful to listen to. I think that Gregory Scott Jr. had the film open like this because it sets the mood. No characters need to say anything in order for viewers to know that there is something wrong with Sonny. Toward the end of the film the music lightens up and so does the lighting.  The piano music in the background is much softer and easy to listen to. The lighting is much brighter. This is showing that by Sonny going through the “dark” phase in his life he is able to pull through being addicted to Heroine and going to jail.

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by | September 3, 2013 · 1:08 am

What happened to the plot..?

While reading “Sonny’s Blues” the first thing that really stood out to me was when the Brother was reading about Sonny’s arrest in the paper. I couldn’t imagine the shock and the heartbreak that must have gone through his body. The story did a great job of explaining it with the metaphor of the ice cube but actually having to go through something like that seems almost unbearable. He states “I was scared, scared for Sonny.  He became real to me again.” (Baldwin). This explicitly explains a lot about their relationship and adds fundamental information to the story as a whole. Without this scene, the story would not have been as clear as it was. I was shocked to see that in the movie, this scene was not there. The movie or short film failed to show exactly how the brother found out at all. I was disappointed to see how this pivotal point in the story was so blatantly left out.

The other scene that was surprisingly not in the film was when the mother was talking to the brother about their father and his brother. This was also a key point in figuring out why the brothers had the relationship they did. It showed why the brother was so protective of Sunny and the family background of the brothers. Family shapes every person, even in small ways, and not having that aspect of their lives in the movie left out a key element that we got while reading the story.

Not having either of these extremely important elements of the story as a whole in the short film left me disappointed and made me think of the people who watch the video and not actually read the story. I feel like they are missing so much in the video that the story line doesn’t entirely make sense like it does when one reads the story.

Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company (2013): 96-118. Print.

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by | September 2, 2013 · 9:49 pm

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” ~Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

When first watching the film “Sonny’s Blues” in class I found myself frustrated with quite a few of Gregory Scott Williams, Jr.’s interpretations of certain scenes from the book. I focused too much on the specific details in the film compared to the book. However, the second time I watched the film I tried my best to focus on the similarities between the two. What I found, when my mind was clear and not filled with prejudices of their differences, was that the emotion was still there. The feeling of disconnect between the brothers was strong and well portrayed, especially in the scene when Sonny calls his brother from the pay phone. When his brother hangs up on Sonny and leaves the phone off the hook, you can feel the strife between the two. At the end of the story, in the book and film, when Sonny played for his brother I could feel the overwhelming emotion of Sonny’s struggles. Hearing the music in the film made that emotion so much more real. “…There was no battle in his face now, I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go thorough until he came to rest in earth.” (Baldwin 117). His challenges in the beginning of playing resemble those he recently overcame while in rehab, struggling to get through. As he continued to play he became more proficient, as he will with his strength to stay clean as life goes on. No matter the differences between the book and film, Williams did a marvelous job of keeping the emotions true to the book in his film.

 

Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company (2013): 96-118. Print.

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by | September 2, 2013 · 5:14 pm

Oh, The Feels

When it comes to films based off a book or short story, I try to give it the benefit of the doubt. Production teams have to make the project their own while still maintaining the overall theme that the written work presented, which can be very difficult to do. I’ve seen a lot of films that are based off books that I’ve read, and before seeing this short film, there was only ever one movie where I found myself disliking it because it went completely off book, pun intended. I actually like the short story “Sonny’s Blues” because it was about how the narrator was dealing with his brother’s imprisonment and passion for jazz music. The descriptions that were given painted a clear picture about how he was feeling and made the reader feel those emotions as well. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we listen, that he would never be free until we did. Yet there was no battle in his face now, I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth.” (Baldwin 117).  The film was unable to provide anything that would help decipher what the characters were feeling. Sure, the underlying meaning was still there, but that wasn’t enough. The film just focused on the brothers and Sonny’s music. It left out all the other people that Sonny affected and the back story of how the brothers got to where they were, which is what made the story. Like I said before, I try to separate the film from the book, but this was one of the rare moments when I couldn’t because of how different it was and how much of the story was left out.

Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company (2013): 96-118. Print.

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by | August 31, 2013 · 1:50 am

The Struggles Within and Apparently With Film too

The short story of “Sonny’s Blues” is such a rich, deep, and emotional piece of literature. It fills the few pages it graces with the emotional traumas of two estranged brothers and their struggle through their inner turmoil to become reconnected. It is not a story I could easily picture being adapted into any sort of film. Gregory Scott Williams Jr. attempted to do this, but I feel he missed the mark and deflated the true depth and warmth of the story. In Baldwin’s story, after a lifetime of not communicating, Sonny reveals his inner demons to his brother. It is a scene which I feel is pivotal. Sonny divulges “I’ve been something I didn’t recognize, didn’t know I could be. Didn’t know anybody could be” and continues to tell his brother how far down his life spiraled while on drugs (Baldwin 114). Sonny paces the room, grabbing ahold of the window sill, trying to hold on to his sobriety and explaining to his brother the fragile barrier between the two worlds. He desires to stay sober after hitting rock bottom and tells his brother “it can come again, I just wanted you to know that” in hopes that his brother will help him stay strong in his battle (Baldwin 114). This scene is almost obsolete in Williams’ film version. Sonny rants to his brother about why he did drugs, but the audience does not see this connection between the brothers that I feel is so incredibly important to the entire story as a whole. Sonny’s road to recovery cannot become a real and tangible thing without his brother by his side. The film fails to deliver this emotional scene and therefore, for me, fails to tell the story of “Sonny’s Blues.”

Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter Eleventh Edition. New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company (2013): 96-118. Print.

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