Another Essay by Teddy

10/7/08

Teddy Purnell

Mr.Salsich

Room 2

We Win Some, We Lose Some

An Essay About the Gains and Losses in “Sonny's Blues” and “Winter Dreams”

In both “Sonny's Blues” and “Winter Dreams”, there are parts in which the protagonist either gains or looses something. In both “Sonny's Blues” and “Winter Dreams”, there are many things that the protagonists care about, but the more things they care about, the more they have to loose. In both “Sonny's Blues” and “Winter Dreams”, the main character must learn to accept their losses and revere their gains. “Sonny's Blues” has more examples of gains and losses than in “Winter Dreams”, however.

Sonny, the main character in “Sonny's Blues”, looses many things, but gains even more. In the beginning of the story, he has already lost himself due to heroin. His brother mails him letters while he is in jail for peddling heroin. Other than his brother, he has lost all contact with his family-he has even lost contact with his best friend. Eventually, he gets over his addiction and gets released from jail. He doesn't meet his friend again, but he does meet his brother, and they have a talk about what he wants to do for a career. He tell his brother that he wants to be a musician, much to his brothers dismay. He gains quite a bit of respect from his brother when he takes him to a local bar that he is going to play in and his brother hears him play. His music is so good that a man named Creole says,”you got a real musician in your family” to Sonny's brother. His brother notices that everyone in the bar knows Sonny. Through a series of losses and gains, Sonny gets his life back on track, which is the opposite of what happens to Dexter Green in “Winter Dreams”.

In “Winter Dreams”, Dexter Green's losses outweigh his gains. First he looses Judy, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He thought he was going to marry her, but he lost her. He gave up on having her, and didn't see her for an extended period of time, which makes him very distressed,”Men like Dexter Green do not cry easily; his tears and the language explaining them therefore point either to melodrama or to a complex significance”, writes Clinton S. Burhans , the author of “Magnificently Attune to Life”: The Value of ‘‘Winter Dreams’’. Later on in the story, he meets Irene, a very pretty woman that he starts dating. After a few months, Dexter gets engaged to Irene. They are to be wed three months later. Just when he thought his life was getting better, guess who popped back into his life. That's right, Judy. He runs into Judy, they get talking, and Dexter says that they cannot be together anymore, the only difference from last time they saw each other is-she loves him back now. This is how Dexter's life goes from great, to good, to atrocious(purposeful repetition).

Both of these stories have an important lesson in life, we gain some, we lose some, life isn't perfect. The protagonists learn this the hard way: through experience. Although they had to be the ones to find out for themselves, they show us what they learned in the form of these stories. No matter how hard you try, something is bound to go wrong at one point or another.