Thursday / Friday October 24 and 25 Questions for "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin


Learning Targets:  I can determine two or more themes or central ideas in a text and analyze their development, including how they emerge and are shaped and refined by specific details; objectively and accurately summarize a complex text.
 I can use appropriate and varied transitions, as well as varied syntax, to make critical connections, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
 I can provide a concluding statement or section that explains the significance of the argument presented. I can maintain a style and tone appropriate to the writing task.

 COMING UP:  "The Yellow Wallpaper" vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, October 29
In class:  finishing up the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin.

 On Friday and Monday, you will be responding to three of the following 7 questions in a paragraph format.
Begin with a MLA heading; the title is "Sonny's Blues."
Rubric: each response must be a paragraph of a  minimum of 50 words.
Language conventions: spelling, 
              grammar, punctuation
 Accurate, detailed response.
Share: 2006630
1. Consider this passage:  "All this was carrying me some place I didn't  want to go. . .It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music,  the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace. . ."  What's the "menace"?   What danger is this brother confronting?

 2. What does Charlie Parker represent in the story? Discuss Sonny’s character in relation to his choice of Charlie Parker? (you will need to do some research here to respond to the question.)

 3. . What is the function of the narrator’s description of the streets of their childhood and the housing project in which he and his family live? What do these descriptions tell us about the fates of the generations? Why does the housing project look like “a parody of the good, clean, faceless life”? 

 4. . Comment on the following: “…Sonny was at that piano playing for his life.” 

 5.What could be the reason (S) why the name of the narrator is never revealed in the story? (Think about the vocabular word anonymous.)

 6. . What is the significance of the narrator’s uncle’s death in the story? (you will need to know how exactly the uncle died.)

 7. Explain the importance of the light and darkness imagery, using evidence from the text.

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