Two Girls Experiences In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

1. “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a short story that starts in media res (in the middle of things) with the narrator, who is a high school algebra teacher in Harlem, New York, reading from a newspaper article that his seven years younger brother, Sonny, is arrested for using heroin. After some time, the narrator writes to Sonny after his two-year-old daughter, Grace, dies from polio. The narrator has a flashback to a time his mother was alive to tell him that he had an uncle, but the uncle was killed by a group of racist white men who were drunk. Sonny shut out his brother and lived with his friends whom he treated like his family. The story shifts back to the present and Sonny has been living with the narrator for about two weeks, …show more content…
Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is an eventful story about two girls’ experiences. The story is told from Twyla’s perspective and begins at St. Bonaventure, a children’s shelter. Twyla’s mother, Mary, is a dancer and Roberta’s mother is sick, and for these reasons, the two girls are in a shelter. Twenty-eight days after staying in the shelter, their mothers come to visit on Sunday. Roberta’s mother does not want to shake hands with Mary. As the story progresses, Roberta’s mother comes to take her out of the shelter, and Twyla does not see her again until she sees her at the Howard Johnson’s restaurant. Twyla works at the restaurant and sees Roberta with two guys. As she talks with Roberta she finds out that they are on their way to see Jimi Hendrix. Twyla discovers how rude Roberta has become and she leaves. Twyla, who is now married and has a son named Joseph, meets Roberta in a grocery store and they talk for a while. During the conversation, Roberta and Twyla debate about what happened to the disabled kitchen woman, Maggie, who worked at St. Bonaventure when they were kids. In the future, Twyla sees Roberta is protesting for children to stay in their schools and they get into an argument. At the end of the story, they meet again and Roberta cannot remember what happened to …show more content…
She didn’t say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her Bible-free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it” (143). This quote demonstrates that Roberta is the white character because of the way Roberta’s mother looks down to Twyla and Mary. Roberta’s mother looking down on them is an important detail in this part of the story because it can be read literally and it is also figurative. When a person looks down at someone, it means that they think they are better than someone else. This type of stereotype may be related to white