Tristan's Essay

Tristan Yerkes

Mr. Salsich

English 02

October 7, 2008

Winter Blues

An Essay on Loss and Gain in Winter Dreams and Sonny’s Blues

Both Sonny’s Blues and Winter Dreams are stories of gain accumulated by application of loss. Things aren’t always gained through loss, but Sonny’s Blues and Winter Dreams are two perfect examples of gaining from loss. One could say that whenever one experienced loss and suffering, one did gain a lesson, which is expressed in the quote, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Throughout both Sonny’s Blues, and Winter Dreams, Dexter and Sonny gained many lessons from what didn’t kill them.

Sonny was almost killed by his addiction to heroin, rebellious behavior, and the bad crowd he chose to be around, but instead he took the consequential loss and channeled it into his music to let loose the inferno built up inside him. The catalyst to most of Sonny’s trouble with life was his addiction to heroin, which got him arrested, and made him spend time in rehabilitation. Despite the fact that rehab appeared to have had no effect upon him, Sonny started to realize that if he kept his behavior up, he would continue to get in trouble. This realization may not have made Sonny change his behavior, but it got the ball rolling towards his subconscious ultimate goal of becoming a better person. Sonny’s addiction to heroin also helped him to build up the internal storm which would drive him towards finding a way of letting it out, the heroin may have been a temporary way for Sonny to let out the storm, but ultimately it just popped the pustule that needed to be drained. Throughout Sonny’s Blues, Sonny changed behavior from a happy boy with the winter dream of becoming a jazz musician to a young man who wanted nothing but to play the piano and do heroin, to a thoughtful man who just wanted to be close with his brother, each change of character was triggered by some event or thought in Sonny’s life, and changed Sonny’s life in turn. In the first half of Sonny’s Blues, Sonny had obsessive behavior in regard to the piano, which eventually got him kicked out of the house he was currently living in. Even here, we start to see loss and gain as Sonny’s behavior gets him kicked out of the house, but also helps him counteract his feelings with both heroin and piano, starting to find a compromise, on the rise to becoming completely clean. As Sonny becomes more thoughtful, this behavior helps him really think about how he should be behaving, how he should be dealing with his emotions. While Sonny is in the process of building the cocoon he would soon find himself trapped in, he makes the mistake of hanging around the wrong group of people, this mistake most likely led to a large amount of his problems, and also probably led to the salvation of music as an emotional outlet. This shows how he loses by wasting so much time in rehab, getting kicked out of his house, and almost loses his brother, but gains a creative outlet for his emotions. Sonny’s losses may seem great, almost to the point of ruining his life, but what he gained in the end made up for his mistakes, and additionally set him on the road towards success.

Dexter Green had similar experiences as Sonny, maybe not quite as risky, but in essence, he had the same experience of loss for gain, but in his case, Dexter loses Judy basically twice in his life, making his loss all the more painful. Dexter does earn success, money, and power throughout Winter Dreams, but he also doesn’t get the woman of his dreams. Judy treats Dexter horribly throughout his life, but Dexter maintains his love for her even after becoming engaged with another woman. This shows that even after Dexter gains money, power, and a wife, the only thing he thinks about is that he hasn’t gained the woman he loves. Even after it becomes painfully apparent that Judy won’t take Dexter, his remaining love still forces him to dream about Judy, these winter dreams that he continues to cherish create a happy protective bubble around him, only really enjoying Judy’s company when he is left alone to think about her. Even after the loss of Judy, he gains satisfaction from her memories. In the second half of Winter Dreams, Dexter discovers that Judy is married, and has changed to the point of him not loving her any more, but after confronting her, Dexter learns that she now loves him. This rediscovery of Judy makes further enjoyment of Dexter’s prized memories impossible, “When Devlin destroys this imaginative present, Dexter finally and forever loses not only Judy and his love for her but also his ability to keep alive in his imagination the best part of his youth and its winter dreams.” (____) From this loss of everything that made him happy, Dexter gains, or rather avoids, the experience of watching Judy waste away in front of him. Even though Dexter lost having Judy truly in his life, he did gain happiness from his winter dreams of her, and the luxury of preserving that fallacy for as long as he could.

Dexter and Sonny both went through life-changing experiences in relation to what they lost and gained, but their loss was always coupled with their gain. One may say that throughout both of the protagonist’s stories, what didn’t kill them made them stronger, with their strength feeding off of their loss. Like a muscle being torn, and growing back, Sonny and Dexter’s emotions were being tested, and then returning with even more willpower. Some may say that both Sonny and Dexter would have been better off without the whole ordeals, but the events in their lives made them who they are, and to that, there is no argument.

Works Cited

"'Magnificently Attuned to Life': the Value of 'Winter Dreams'" www.enotes.com 4 October, 2008
http://www.enotes.com/winter-dreams/magnificently-attune-life-value-winter-