Compare or Contrast Sonny's Blues & Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Compare or Contrast Sonny's Blues & - Essay Example ers try to conceal their true identities but they do not understand that they cannot disconnect themselves from their history and that their identity remains intact with their history. Sonny’s Blues characterizes Sonny and his brother as two counterparts of African American race. Sonny wants freedom from suffering while his brother accepts everything and locks his true personality. Both of them try to get rid of Harlem as its environment was criminalizing its inhabitants. According to Baldwin, disaster waits for the dwellers of Harlem and â€Å"some escaped the trap, most didn’t†. Sonny’s brother shows submissiveness by accepting what comes his way while Sonny stands as a revolutionary. In Everyday Use, Walker portrays two sisters, both standing in contrast to one another. Maggie accepts her identity and is submissive while Dee rejects her identity and wants freedom and proves that she is different. She feels that she is oppressed by her past as after telling about her changed name she says, She feels herself oppressed being a part of her race and wants to get rid of her identity. However, she cannot break her linkage to her roots. Both the stories reveal that the African Americans even after gaining freedom go through a phase that is depressing and pressurizing for them as they still consider themselves subjugated or ignored by the society in which, they exist. Some characters try to break their links with the past but they cannot, however, some accept their status and own their history. Sonny and Maggie want to lead their lives by being attached to their heritage and fight with their own selves to know better about themselves. Sonny as an African American boy takes refuge in crime to some extent and later on in Jazz music while Maggie takes refuge in her home and accepts her status and feels herself connected to her history and is the righteous owner of her mother’s belongings for which, she is proud of. Jazz music stands as a source of connection for