The power of our unconscious beliefs plays a great role in our lives. Life occurs exactly how we order it. Our words, thoughts, actions, and beliefs are all working together to order up the results we are creating. We have the power of creating the life we want, instead of getting what we think we d...

As we encounter the story of "Sonny's Blues", on the surface it is the tale of two inner city brothers, and their perpendicular paths through life. The author, James Baldwin, propels us through this story with intrigue and suspense. However, the most inviting aspect of this story is t...

James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues", has a narrator that attributes to the story its unique pulse. The story consists of two brothers who haven't seen each other in sometime. Sonny, one of the two brothers, gets incarcerated for selling and using heroin. Sonny's brother fin...

The Music of Life Karma How do we understand the language of music? Music is not a language to be learned. Rather it is an emotion that must be felt with the soul. Music in all its forms is heard differently by each and every person based on experience, emotion and fantasy. No matter what cu...

Not many things in life can wear down on a person emotionally as a guilty conscience. A person's conscience tells them when they are about to do something that they will likely regret. Both Lieutenant Jimmy Cross from "The Things They Carried" and the narrator, Sonny's brother...

How do we understand the language of music? Music is not a language to be learned. Rather it is an emotion that must be felt with the soul. Music in all its forms is heard differently by each and every person based on experience, emotion and fantasy. No matter what culture you belong to, every h...

The short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin tells the story of two brothers who regain closeness and understanding of each other after years of being uninvolved in each other's lives. Through these two characters the author highlights the two different lifestyles of the Afr...

Has there ever been someone in your life that you are supposed to care about, but you find it hard to get close to this person because of his or her decisions? In the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin a similar story is told about a brother who finds it hard to care for an...

"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for. (49)" This thought is what is reflected in both "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin and "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather. Both Baldwin and Cather illustrate the problem of a young man...

Sonny's Destructive Behavior Throughout life, ones behavior or attitude is often affected by the environment in which he or she lives. In "Sonny Blues", by James Baldwin, Sonny is surrounded by an urban environment that plays a direct role in determing and shaping his actions and behaviors...

What is personal ethics? Does it have anything to do with family responsibility? We will discuss three different stories in which at least one of the characters shows a good example of personal ethics and demonstrate family responsibility. The characters we will discuss are Calixta, from "The...

In Henry David Thoreau's "Life Without Principle", Thoreau speaks of separating ourselves from society as a whole and living life according to our own works, not society's. He speaks of the ways people earn their living and the many trivial things people will do just to get mor...