Gabe Campbell
H. Salsich
English
21st September, 2008

True Blues;
An Analysis of an Essay About “Sonny’s Blues”
Throughout the essay "James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues': A Message in Music," by Suzy Bernstein Goldman, she is very thorough in her analysis of the story. Throughout the essay, she is in depth with her descriptions and so descriptive to a point where it is as if we’re having the book read and explained to us. Overall, the essay “A Message in Music” is a very detailed, explanatory, and creative essay .
Throughout the entire essay, there is an aurora of knowledge. For example, in the first few lines Miss. Goldman blatantly yet intelligently states that the story is “carrying a vital social message for us today”. To come to a conclusion such as that, vast amounts of thorough reading and analysis would have been necessary. This is something Miss. Goldman seemed to have accomplished because she coolly states ideas such as “Musical terms along with words like "hear" and "listen'' give the title a double meaning” to put the reader in a more notified state to comprehend the essay. Secondly, within the essay, Goldman uncovers and decrypts the characters emotions the might have been hidden to us. For example, Goldman writes, “The shock of recognition forces the narrator to confront his past refusal to accept the miserable truths around him” (Goldman, 21) as compared to, “Their laughter struck me for perhaps the first time. It was not the joyous laughter” (Baldwin,39). Goldman put the original passage under the microscope and prodded it until she came upon the conclusion, much like she did with the rest of her writings. Overall, throughout this essay, vast amounts of knowledge are displayed in the analysis of “Sonny’s Blues”.
Upon reflection of Ms. Goldman’s essay, there were a few qualities that initiated my interest. One quality that Goldman seemed to use frequently was quotations. I personally did not care for this too much because she seemed to use this quite gratuitously. Given the opportunity to fix it, I would have most likely shortened the quotes if not taken a good portion of them out. Lastly, Goldman is very literal yet vivid in her writing. This quality I like because it gives the reader a better understanding of what Goldman is trying to say. For example, when she wrote, ”The second movement opens with the narrator's first letter to Sonny. Sonny's answer, equating drug addiction with prison” (Goldman, 52) she very plainly, yet still using fresh and extraordinary vocabulary to fully immerse the reader into the seriousness of the situation, states her point. Overall, although Goldman’s essay was stained with a few awkward sections, her creative writing style made reading the essay worth wild.
While James Baldwin was very vivid with his writing, Suzy Bernstein Goldman was just as excellent. She broke down every ambiguous sentence and unearthed every possible meaning. Even though there were a few flaws in her writing, the majority of it was faultless. Overall, after examining Goldman’s essay, one prominent point was flaring; the depth and detail she goes into is astounding.



Goldman, Suzy Bernstein. “James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues': A Message in Music.” Negro American Literature Forum (1974): 23 pars. 22 September 2006