James Baldwin s Short Sonny s Blues And Raymond Carver

Being able to relate to people can often be a huge problem. In both James Baldwin’s short Sonny’s Blues and Raymond Carver short story Cathedral. The main focus of the story is realization. In both stories the main characters are challenged with situations in which they must break free of their judgments. Both characters undergo a transformation and views life through the eyes of another character. What are their transformations and how are they similar, how they are different, and what does the transformation does to the protagonist? Likewise, both protagonists’ are judgmental and alienated from the outside world. In Sonny’s Blues both brothers grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood life with poverty and despair. Though the narrator teaches school in Harlem, he distances himself emotionally from the people who live there and their struggles and is somewhat judgmental and superior. He loves his brother but is distanced from him as well and judgmental of his life and decisions. He does not really understand what motivates Sonny to play music until the afternoon before he accompanies Sonny to his performance at a club in Harlem. That evening, as he finally listens to his brother play, he is finally able to understand what Sonny is saying through his music: I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only Mama and Daddy. And he was giving it back, as everything must beShow MoreRelatedLove in Literatur e2486 Words   |  10 PagesHistory†, May mentions agape love, defining it, stating that â€Å"This love is compassionate and giving: the love of neighbor shown by the Good Samaritan† (May pg.177). The use of agape love as a catalyst for positive character development is evident in Raymond Carver’s â€Å"Cathedral†. The narrator of the story, who is ignorant and closed–minded, encounters a blind man whose name is Robert. Robert recognizes the narrators closed-mindedness, but is not repelled by it, in fact he seems drawn to the narrator