James Baldwins Sonnys Blues and Tilly Olsens As I Stand Here Ironing - Essay Example

 James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues and Tilly Olsen’s As I Stand Here Ironing In Tilly Olsen’s short story As I Stand Here Ironing and James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues, the theme of love is discussed in length. In this essay, I analyze the two books by comparing and contrasting the theme of family relations and love as shown in the stories. In James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues story, the theme of family relations and love is clearly shown. The mother to the narrator asks him to watch over his brother, Sonny, or rather be the brother’s keeper. Following the death of their mother, the narrator has no other option but to heed to the instructions of his mother and take care of Sonny. However, Sonny’s life appears to be destroyed by his addiction to drugs that caused him to be imprisoned. The two brothers do not seem to be doing well at the start as they are ever quarrelling. Following one particular argument, Sonny asked the brother to “consider him dead” from that point henceforth. When Sonny was taken to prison, the narrator deliberately turns his back on him by refusing to offer assistance that perhaps would help Sonny get out of prison. In doing this, the narrator had betrayed the request made by his mother to take care of Sonny, as well as betrayed the natural blood relations that required him to obviously take care of his brother. However, this situation is not permanent as at the end of the story the narrator comes back to his senses. He realizes that “blood is thicker than water” and, therefore, takes an action that brought Sonny back home. From this point henceforth, the narrator resolves to take care of Sonny no matter what. The narrator becomes his brother’s keeper by constantly watching over him, and hopes that Sonny would one day be out of the darkness of prison and drug abuse. Similar to the above case, Tilly Olsen’s short story As I Stand Here Ironing also talks about family relations and love. Although the mother seems to only have good old memories of her daughter Emily at the start of the story, the end of the story shows that love ultimately triumphs in family relations. Mother’s loss of touch with her daughter is shown by the author by allowing the audience to understand her inner thoughts. For example, the mother recalls how her daughter used to be a “beautiful baby at birth,” a quality that none of her other children’s possessed. However, as the child grew older, mother’s love and admiration to her began to somehow to fade away, and the mother seems to also admit this. The little Emily had to grow up in hardship conditions as the mother had to leave her with the woman in the neighborhood as she went to search for many for their upkeep. Emily’s father seems irresponsible as he ended up separating with Emily’s mother. At some instance, the mother is forced to take Emily to stay with her father relations. On her return, the mother is left grieving of how her daughter has changed from good to worse. The only thing left of her is the good olden days. She must have been mistreated or had nobody to take care of her while living with her father’s relations. She is sickly with Asthma. In fact, to Emily mother, her siblings now seem to be doing much better than Emily. In conclusion, Tilly Olsen’s short story As I Stand Here Ironing and James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues all discuss about the dynamics of family relations and love. Though there comes those moments when brothers, sisters, and their parents disagree, the idea that they share the same blood triumphs and is shown as love in the end. In the first case, despite Sonny’s drug addiction and bad behavior, he is still loved by the mother and the brother as well. Similarly, in the second case, after Emily losing her admiration and adorable quality that she exhibited as a child, the mother still loves her. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is a story focusing on the life of Kathy, a 31 year old woman, at a peculiar boarding school and, later on, her adult life. The setting of the story is in dystopian Britain, a place where human beings are cloned so as to provide vital organs for transplants. Kathy and all here classmates were created to serve as donors, even though the mature Kathy works as a “carer.” She offers both the emotional support to other donors as they are destined to surrender their organs and, eventually, die. The plot rotating around Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, the latter two end up dying soon after donating their organs. It ends when Kathy awaits her fate as she is the next donor. Never Let Me Go is popular not only for its exciting plot, but also for its mode of narration. The author has used first person narration throughout the story where Kathy recalls her story. It begins when she is 31 years old and then we are taken back to her younger years in the unusual school. A theme on advancement of science and technology can be seen in this story and it could be foreshadowing what is bound to happen in the world in the near future. Because of advancements in science and technology, scientists have been able to come up with animal clones. An example is the sheep “dolly” that can be termed as an “artificial” sheep. Similarly, Ishiguro is perhaps trying to show what might happen in the world in the near future where scientists could come up with human clones. Understandably, the idea of organ donation has been in the rise in the entire world in the recent years. Unfortunately, the number of available donors has been low as nobody wishes to lose their organs. In respect to this, the author is trying to point out a future where human clones would be created and nurtured to serve as organ donors to those who desire. For instance, Kathy recalls their nurturing where, “… at Hailsham we have to have some form of medical almost every week-usually up in Room 18 (pg. 13).” Another theme that is evident in this story is that of fate and destiny. It is so unfortunate that all those children who attend Hailsham are a creation of scientists and do not have control over their destiny. Their Creator decides what will happen to them. Growing up in the school, these children remain oblivious of what fate awaits them. However, when they move to the cottage, it becomes apparent to them they are all going to die the moment they donate their organs. Ruth for example is engaged in a steamy love relationship with Tommy but their love cannot overcome the call of fate. They are sooner than later separated when Ruth is asked to donate her organs. Ruth hopes that Tommy and Kathy will form a new relation. She advises them to try and seek their deferral from donating organs so that they could leave long. Their plea is rejected and Tommy losses his life sometime late after organ donation. The story ends when Kathy is awaiting for her fate which is so obvious. In conclusion, I find Ishiguro’s novel to be more or less addressing the plight of human beings in terms of eventual death. We are all born young and fresh to face the world. We engage in several activities such as art, entertainment, and even fall in love with others. A case is Tommy was a footballer and later fell in love with Ruth and Kathy respectively. Unfortunately, their fate is already defined despite all these-they have to donate their organs and die. Kathy in her recollections at almost the end of the novel is quoted saying, “I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won’t lose my memories of them (pg. 221).”Similarly, the fate of human beings is predefined. The Creator, who for this case is God, is the only one who holds the key to human survival. In as much as human may try to request him to extend their lives, it is only him who has final decision. And since all human have to die, there is no chance for postponing one’s death just the same way Kathy and Tommy were denied deferral. Works Cited Baldwin, James. Sonny's Blues and Other Stories. London: Penguin, 1995. Print. Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. , 2005. Internet resource Olsen, Tillie, and Deborah S. Rosenfelt. "tell Me a Riddle": As I Stand Here Ironing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1995. Print. Read More