Baldwins story Sonny"s Blues was really interesting to me. It reminded me of a book I read entitled "The Corner", the story was a year in the life of an inner city neighborhood, the corner was in Baltimore. The story was similar to that of Sonny trying to escape from the streets of Harlem, without addiction or a record. Like Sonny, most of the characters in The Corner did not escape unscathed from Baltimore, they did not escape at all. Just attempt after attempt to clean up their act, only to fall victim to the drug and street life once again. I find reading about these people sad yet captivating. I found I could not put the textbook down until I finished the story of Sonny and his brother and I found that I actually wanted to read more and find out what happened next. It was sort of a tease, did Sonny straighten up? Did his music provide him an out? Did he remain a victim of Harlem forever? What about his relationship with his brother? Many unanswered questions.......
The story "To Build A Fire" was also another one to captivate me, I was suprized how much I was rooting for the dog in the story and how little sympathy I felt for the man. Does that make me a bad human being or a huge animal fan? I actually think if the man was a nicer person and was not so mean to the dog I would have felt sorry for him, however, it is hard to feel compassion for an arrogant animal abuser. I do hate that he froze to death, a horrible price to pay for anyone, but I was relieved that the dog survived.
Submitted by Margaret Russo
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