Ty's 4th essay

Ty LeVarge
Mr. Salsich
English 02
06 October, 2008


Could there be a gain from a loss?

Is it possible to have a gain from a loss for someone who messed up their lives; and is the gain something other than learning from your mistakes? I think that having a gain out of a loss is as possible as catching a fish and that it is very possible to receive a good out of a bad. This exists both in "Sonny’s Blues", and "Winter Dreams". Several positives that come out of the bad can appear in everyday life as well.

First, I will start with "Sonny’s Blues" where the title gives away the fact that someone could make gains from losses. Sonny lost control of himself at the start of Sonny’s Blues by becoming addicted to heroin which represents a major loss for him. He messed up his life because of heroin and that messed up his life more than before, so he paid a hefty price for it. Through using heroin, he also messed up his mental health and he wasn’t thinking straight and ruined his life that way as well. Another loss in Sonny’s Blues is the narrator’s character that loses the brother he once knew. He only sees the brother who has been on drugs and in all sorts of trouble; not the one he remembers from the past. Sonny in the past was like a normal person, no drugs, no fights, a good and healthy life. That’s the brother the narrator remembers from the old days. However, he receives a gift from all of the bad things that he chose to do and went through during his life. At the end of the prodigious story, he plays his blues at a local nightclub along with some of his old friends. He also seems to have fulfilled one of his dreams which is to play the piano and to become a pianist. Sonny’s Blues overall has some interesting ups from downs all around and is sure to pass on the message that you get gains from losses and that it passes the message on to other readers as well.

As in "Sonny’s Blues", "Winter Dreams" had a lot of losses but also a few gains from them as well. The first great loss was when Dexter lost Judy’s love which was a big deal for Dexter because he loved Judy but couldn’t accept love back. As stated in Ms. Burhans’ essay, “Men like Dexter don’t cry” is saying that he doesn’t physically cry, but I think that he does cry mentally or in the inside of his heart. Through all of the things that he has been through, all of the things he has had in his possession, and all of the things he has seen, he cries mainly because the one he loves turns on him. After Judy left Dexter, Dexter lost all sense of love within his heart. His engagement with Judy was over and so was his with Irene. After his heart broke he just decided to give up on being burdensome to get a wife or to even be in love. Although, by making the sacrifice of not loving someone, he was able to gain emotional freedom to his mind and to reduce the stress he was feeling. Through joining the army, he was able to conciliate this emotional freedom and to live without fear of loss from love, live without worry of love, and to live without missing or feeling sad of any he loved. He is now free of any thoughts of Judy or anyone else he loved so he didn’t get emotional about it. Winter Dreams is basically a story of love, loss, and learning from them and the readers of this story should take it seriously.

Winter Dreams and Sonny’s Blues are related very similarly in terms of Losses and gains and they should be respected as so. Sonny’s Blues has a lot more losses that are happening in the world right now and are more emotional because it’s about a brother who gets addicted to heroin and can’t break free. Winter Dreams is still of sadness and loss but isn’t as powerful with the losses within it as Sonny’s Blues has within it. Both Sonny’s Blues and Winter Dreams are both emotional and sad stories, but whether one is more powerful than the other does not matter.


Works Cited“‘Magnificently Attune to Life’: The Value of ‘Winter Dreams’” http://www.enotes.com/winter-dreams/magnificently-attune-life-value-winter-dreams Accesed 2 October 2008