Dealer's Choice

Since we get to pick what we do for this one, i'm gonna stick to Sonny's Blues and look at all the deaths inside this story, especially his daughter's. I'll also talk about why exactly the narrator chose to contact his brother, Sonny, while he was in rehab. Death is mentioned a lot throughout this story, including the death of the Mother, Father and the father's brother, along with the narrator's daughter. Are the deaths the reason that things went south for Sonny in terms of his drug use? Maybe drugs are what Sonny turned to in order to cope with those loses. Also, when the narrator loses his daughter, it's not until this time that he decides to write to Sonny in rehab. What if he never lost his daughter? Would he have still contacted Sonny? Did he contact Sonny because he's lost everything but Isabel? Things like that make me think, like, why did it take all this time to contact him? Why not contact him beforehand, and let him know about his niece. I know in my life, there are some family that I don't hear from or contact unless something bad happens, but even then, I still think why we go so long without communication. I understand that certain things happen in life that will take two people far from each other, where there is minimal contact, but it opens my eyes here in this story, just because it's an odd time. I mean, I guess on the bright side he still contacted Sonny and reached out to him. At the end of the day that's all that matters, that he attempted to reenter the life of Sonny so that they could reconnect their relationship.

Prejudice in Sonny's Blues

On the content page race was listed as one of the notable prejudices. As race is still an issue today. One thing that i'm gonna look into is the prejudice that musicians are involved with drugs. The reason i'll focus on this is because it was relevant in the time period of Sonny's Blues, the 1950s. Also, it's stated in the reading when Sonny writes to his brother, the narrator. Sonny writes to his brother "I don't want you to think that it had anything to do with me being a musician." Sonny is referring to his drug abuse and how he ended up in rehab. He says this to his brother because I believe that musicians were labeled to drugs in that era due to the uprising of LSD and other narcotics. I think today many people still have that perception. Especially when it comes to a lot of today's hip hop artists. Back then, it was more of the rock bands and then developed more into an assumption of the hip hop artists taking over. Today, all hip hop artists sing about are women, sex and drugs. Thus labeling themselves with drugs and the use of drugs in their lives. Much was the perception of musicians during the 1950s and continuing into today's artists. It doesn't say whether or not Sonny was in a rock band, we just know that he is pianist. However, the fact that he was associated with the label 'musician', he still fell and falls victim to that prejudice. It's hard to escape that label, and the things that are linked to those inside that label, and I think that's why Sonny mentions to his brother not to think that he's in rehab because he was involved in music.

Sister Sister

This was essentially along the lines of watching a tv drama play out in a book. Sister once dated this Mr.Whitaker, then loses him to her sister who marries this man and then shows up unexpectedly on the Fourth of July. Talk about a firework show. I couldn't help but laugh throughout reading this just because of how ironic and funny it was to me as I continuously connected this to many tv series that I see commercials for or movies. In a rather boring life for Sister, things heat up when her sister, Stella-Rondo shows up with her adopted daughter. Things heat up because there's a rift between the two sister. This would lead to the eventual split of the household. Not so much a split, but just Sister electing to leave. Stella-Rondo ends up being the one who elects to turn the whole house against Sister. Stella-Rondo tells Uncle Rondo that Sister thinks his appearance is ridiculous. Thus angering Uncle Rondo and leading him to throw a pack of firecrackers in Sister's room early in the morning. Angering Sister and this was the last straw as Sister would then move into her place of work, the post office. The family claims they will never step foot in the post office, this was a response to Sister taking a couple vases. Sister informs Stella-Rondo that without the post office, she can't stay in touch with Mr.Whitaker. My question, who really gets the last laugh?

The Cask of Amontillado

I didn't find this short story to be as dark as previously suggested by the content page. To me, I find similarities between this story and Othello. As both consist of a betrayal and an attempt on a friends life. In this story, Montresor plans to enact revenge on his friend Fortunato for insulting him. One thing I would've liked to know is how exactly Fortunato insulted Montresor to where Montresor would attempt to take the life of his acquaintance. Visualization for this story was made easy by the talks of Carnival to help picture a setting and understand surroundings as well as the small, four walled crypt that Montresor lead Fortunato into where bones lined the walls. I personally enjoyed reading this as it was easy to follow and there weren't many instances where I got stuck on a certain part of the story. It would've been helpful to know how Fortunato insulted Montresor as well as an exact setting for the story as the place where it takes place is vague outside of knowing that it's carnival season.

The Elephant In The Village

This was an interesting piece. A short story about a man who takes his elephant up a mountain to a village that is home to the blind. The people spend their time inquiring about what exactly is in the village with them as they can hear the elephant eating and breathing and they can also smell him. The people of the village are confused and they begin to argue, compare and contrast. While reading this, I felt sorry for the blind people obviously, as they can't take in the greatness of nature and it's animals. I also looked at it similar to babies when they explore their new world. They crawl or walk around not sure about their surroundings. They feel, and smell and use their senses in order to determine whether or not there is a threat or not. Sometimes in doing this, you find out that sometimes your senses fail you as you think it is safe and then get hurt. Another way I view it is how some people look at other people. Sometimes you look at someone and try to judge based off of smell or sounds but you don't get to know the person and you make the wrong assumption. I don't know who exactly the author was targeting for their audience, but if I had to guess, it was for all walks of people. It makes people think about how they view certain things based off their senses, because sometimes senses can be misleading.

Journal Entry I

In this entry i'll look into a poem, book, or play that I have read and enjoyed and one that I disliked. I'l begin with the one that I disliked. During the fall semester of 2015 I came across a play titled "The Importance of Being Earnest." I didn't enjoy this play due to the fact that it was hard for me to follow. In this play, there is an imaginary character that is created by a woman in the play. When we learn that Earnest is a made up a person, it kind of threw the whole play in a loop and made it confusing as to what I had just read. It really didn't affect me in any certain way as I was indifferent on the play.

Now for the book that I enjoyed. In high school I was told to select a book for a class assignment and to read that book in its entirety, then complete an essay on said book. For my passion in baseball, a book was recommended to me by my teacher. That book was titled "For One More Day" written by Mitch Albom. I enjoyed this book for multiple reasons, one reason being the references to baseball, another reason because it taught me to appreciate time, and appreciate the moments with my family more that what I was. In the book, the boy, Charles Benetto, blows off his mother multiple times. Well, the day comes where his mother passes away. Charles is then faced with his own death, and while he's reminiscing on his life, this takes him back to when he was a kid. Where he sees just how much he missed because he went his own way. The moral of the story is that in the end Charles would've given anything in the world For One More Day with his mother. It taught me to cherish the little moments in life, because you never know when it will end.