James Baldwin Sonny’s Blues http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html

James Baldwin, 1924-1987 b. Harlem, NYC mentored by novelist Richard Wright lived in Paris marched with Martin Luthor King for Civil Rights

prolific: 20+ novels, collections, and non- fiction texts Go Tell It on the Mountain — autobiographical novel taught at university in Mass.

"I grew up with music, you know, much more than with any other language," he said. "In a way, the music I grew up with saved my life." James Baldwin http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html

Louis Armstrong; Charlie Parker (“Bird”) http://aoj.ucdavis.edu/jazzandliteraturehome.html

“Sonny’s Blues” 1957; pub. 1965 in Going to Meet the Man

Point of view First person Tradition of African- American autobiography, narratives of slavery and freedom http://blog.jhary.com/2004/04/james-baldwins-sonnys-blues.html

two sides of African-American experience, assimilation and struggle for one’s own voice http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html

art, creating art, being an artist, struggling with art making something of suffering http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html

Symbolism Ice: damming of emotions Fire: working through the pain; redemption; freedom http://scottengnote.blogspot.com/2007/10/sonnys-blues-james-baldwin-introductoin.html

Plot Definition: the arrangement of the ACTION; a recounting of an event or series of events http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html

Standard plot structure involves CONFLICT

Standard plot structure http://www.infoplease.com/images/cig/writing-well/0028636945_img_2825.png

Examples: http://www.myoops.org/twocw/usu/Theatre_Arts/Understanding_Theatre/plot.gif

Plot structure connections between cause and effect arrangement of moments in time (not all stories are chronological)

Eg. “The king died and then the queen died.” “The queen died after the king died.”

Structure: Beginnings and endings crucial

How does “Sonny’s Blues” begin?

How is it structured?

How does it fit with the standard plot structure? http://www.infoplease.com/images/cig/writing-well/0028636945_img_2825.png

What are the effects of the structure on the story?

Compare Baldwin’s narrative style in the nightclub scene to the rest of the story

“[T]hey all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played “[T]hey all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back . . . [and] began to make it his. It was very beautiful because it wasn't hurried and it was no longer a lament. I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting.”

Ray Charles, “Blues is My Middle Name” http://cai.ucdavis.edu/uccp/sblecture.html