Sonny's Blues and Big Black Good Man Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sonny's Blues and Big Black Good Man - Assignment Example Sonny, the narrator finds out, had been trying to get away from falling into the trap of drugs, and through this the narrator sees his own shortcomings in trying to deal with his brother; this leads him to change his attitude towards himself as well. He feels no more bitterness towards his brother, as he now realizes that in a way his mistakes were a rite of passage of sorts. Finally, listening to his brother play the piano, he finally realizes that he has been pushing away his brother, and that he needs to be part of Sonny’s life now and listen to him and his music. The story is neither closer to Olaf’s point of view, nor Jim’s, it is basically an attempt by the author to challenge our prejudices and to let us know that even those amongst us who consider themselves to be racially unbiased, like Olaf, are actually racists at some level. This is exactly why Wright has used a stereotypical big black man; it is an image of the black man that is deeply ingrained in the white man’s psyche, an image the typical white man is scared of. Jim wanted to show gratitude to Olaf for introducing him to Lena, and he was merely measuring Olaf’s neck size the only way he knew how, it was Olaf’s prejudice that scared him into thinking his life was in danger. Richard Wright mirrors the reader in Olaf; he takes an exaggerated stereotypical black man and confronts the reader directly with his/her prejudices, showing the reader that no matter how unbiased we might claim ourselves to be, most of us are influenced by racial inclination s. Trevor, I agree that the narrator in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† underwent a lot of changes, with time and experience, throughout his narrative. However, I do not feel that Jim in â€Å"Big Black Good Man† was playing with Olaf intentionally; it was actually Olaf’s own biased and racist thinking that made him believe that Jim was