Overcoming Obstacles In Sonny's Life

In the year 1957, “Sonny’s Blues” was published. James Baldwin writes about Sonny’s life in Harlem. Sonny starts out as a lost young man who gets himself into trouble but gets help from his older brother throughout the book. In the movie Finding Forrester, published in the year 1999, directed by, Gus Van Sant. Jamal Wallace is living in New York with his mother and older brother. Jamal is a sixteen a young man who plays basketball with his friends and has a talent for writing. One day Jamal is dared to go into Williams apartment to steal something, but gets caught and leaves behind his backpack. In these two time period both the move and the book are in the time zone where there was segregation. Throughout the novel and the movie, both characters demonstrate both unique and contrasting characteristics. In Sonny’s life and Jamal’s life both face obstacles, dreams, and ways to overcome those obstacles.
“Sonny’s Blues” is about Sonny and his older brother (the narrator). It talks about how Sonny comes back to Harlem to see his older brother but the narrator is trying to help Sonny improve his
life choices. Later on the story Sonny and his older brother have a fight about him doing drugs and how being in a band isn’t helping him at all. When Sonny’s brother starts to have a talk with Sonny about his problems they both have a fight and Sonny says that he will
Solloso 1
Page 2 never know what he is feeling. Sonny then tells his brother that he takes the drugs so that he can become happy and enjoy what he has now. After that fight the narrator started to talk about what kind of dreams did Sonny want what was something he would want to do Sonny told him he wanted to be a musician. At the end of the story Sonny invites his brother to see him play the piano. The narrator sees him play and he was shocked to hear him play he felt something in that air, he said, “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others” (60). When the narrator said that in the navel he was most likely feeling joy and was proud of Sonny for being at a place that he was happy and he never saw that happiness in Sonny in a while.
In Finding Forrester, there is a boy names Jamal Wallace who has a talent for writing but he doesn’t tell anyone because where he lives no one really cares about people who write not even his friends. All they think about is playing basketball and that’s what Jamal uses to get along with his friends. Mid-way to the movie Jamal meets with William Forester. Before they became friends his friends made a bet with Jamal to sneak into Williams room and take something. Jamal got caught and left right away but he left his back pack behind and that’s when it all started. From that point on Jamal was getting help from the man he was robbing. After he was getting the help from William, Jamal got invited to attend a private school so he can improve his writing. While he was attending the new school that he got invited to Jamal was already having trouble with one of the teachers Prof. Robert Crawford. Crawford wasn’t liking the way Jamal was writing because it was to good he didn’t think he was the one writing it. When Crawford started to think that Jamal’s work wasn’t his Jamal gave him one of William paper and the school found out that it wasn’t his work. William told Jamal that "The rest of those who have
Solloso 1
Page 2 gone before us cannot steady the unrest of those to follow"- William Forester. Meaning you cannot use what people used to do in the past because things always changes around us so you need to make your own choices.
In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” and the movie Finding Forester, they both have something in common.
Sonny has a hard life coming back from jail but his older brother was trying to change Sonny from the person that was using drugs and having a hopeless dream. For his sake the narrator was trying to be his father. Such as, how Jamal is getting help from his friend William so he can improve his writing to move forward. One part in Sonny’s Blues when Sonny was coming back from prison he went to see his brother for guidance such as Jamal seeing William to help him guild his writing to a better deration from where it was before. Another part in Finding Forester Jamal would write in his journal to get through the hardships he was going through with society as well as Sonny but his way was to use heroin so he could forget things that made him sad as well as for him to become
happy. In conclusion, both of the story’s had things in common. Such as when Sonny wanted to escape reality so he went with heroin and with Jamal he went with writing down the things that bothered him throughout the day. Both the naval and the movie go well with each other because they show ways for the reader to take when they are having a bad time. The two characters have things in common but both have a different way of showing it. Just like Sonny has a life with stress and drugs but with Jamal he just faces trouble with the people around him. In the end both stories have a great ending which touches everyone’s heart.