Tristan's Essay!

Tristan Yerkes

Mr. Salsich

English 9

15 April, 2009

Little Brother Blues:
An Essay on “Little Brother Poem” and “Sonny’s Blues”

Johnny Cash was a legendary musician, who started his career as a little brother. He had an older brother who got into a horrible accident, and was only truly kind to Johnny on his death bed. The poem “Little Brother Poem” by Naomi Shihab Nye is about apologizing to Nye’s little brother, like in Johnny Cash’s childhood. Nye uses figurative language to express the themes of cruelty and consequences, sorrow, and regret shown alternatively in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”.

The “Little Brother Poem” expresses these themes through figurative writing. In the third stanza, Nye gives the theme of cruelty. Ms. Nye says in the third stanza, “You followed me and I pushed you in front of a bicycle. […] Your eyes hard on me under the bandages” this was an example of the cruel things that Nye did and later regretted doing. This quote also shows early consequences for the cruel things that Nye did. In the fourth stanza, sorrow is shown in the mood of the writing. In the fourth stanza, Nye compares herself to her brother, “You’re Wall Street, and I’m the local fruit market” this quote shows a sort of sorrow in Nye being inferior to her little brother. Another quote in the fourth stanza, “That’s fine, I’ll take differences over things that match” gives more of a sorrowful air, as Nye shows that both differences and matching things are bad paths to take. The last stanza of the poem shows regret. When Ms. Nye says, “It’s a large order, I know, dumping out a whole drawer at once” Nye uses the drawer as a symbol for all of the bad things she’s done, and “dumping it out” is symbolic for her brother forgiving her. This shows that she regrets the things she had done, and wants to be forgiven. In conclusion, a sentence in the last stanza, “I’m sorry for everything I did that hurt” contains all three of the major themes, cruelty, sorrow, and regret.

The themes expressed in “Little Brother Poem” are alternatively expressed in the passage of “Sonny’s Blues.” Cruelty is expressed in a rather different way in “Sonny’s Blues”. Alternatively (FAST WORD) to “Little Brother Poem”, “Sonny’s Blues” shows cruelty in nature, when Grace gets Polio. This cruelty has more of a “supreme power” theme than the human cruelty in “Little Brother Poem”. Sorrow is expressed in very similar ways in the two stories. In “Sonny’s Blues, sorrow is expressed when Grace‘s mother says, “And when [Grace] did scream, it was the worst sound.” This quote shows the sad mood of Grace’s mother at Grace’s cruel illness. In “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator grows to understand Sonny more, causing regret. When the narrator says, “I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen” he shows his understanding of Sonny’s situation. Later on in the story, he regrets not helping Sonny before, and wouldn’t feel this if he didn’t understand Sonny. These themes are expressed in different ways, but carry the same essential meaning.

The themes of cruelty, sorrow, and regret are somewhat pessimistic (FAST WORD), but they contribute strongly to both of these pieces of writing. These stories, being very different (PARTICIPAL), may seem to not relate, but when looked upon closer, share these three basic themes. The two stories carry the same meanings, relate to each-other, and have very complex themes. (PERIODIC SENTENCE) Whether just listening to Johnny Cash, or reading these pieces of writing, these themes are very powerful.