Kyle Sebastian
Professor H. Salsich
English 02
4 October 2008
“The Gamble of life”:
The losses and gains in “Winter Dreams” and “Sonny’s Blues”
Professor H. Salsich
English 02
4 October 2008
“The Gamble of life”:
The losses and gains in “Winter Dreams” and “Sonny’s Blues”
TS: People can have great gains, like winning the lottery, or have great losses, like the death of a loved one, throughout their lives. SD: But in the stories “Winter Dreams” and “Sonny’s Blues” there was a great loss for Dexter and a great gain for Sonny. CM: Sonny had a greater gain than Dexter, having finally had found his place in the world. CM: Dexter, however lost something of more importance than Sonny had lost, his dream of loving a special someone.
TS: Dexter had many gains; conversely, they pale in comparison to Sonny’s greatest achievement of finding his place in the world. SD: Dexter had many small victories, like having his own business and having his own “glittering things”, but Sonny didn’t care about that kind of life; he simply wished to have his own place in the world. CM: Sonny’s greatest wish was for himself to find a place where everyone accepts him and he can be himself and he made that dream come true. CM: Dexter wasn’t as fortunate. He may have had many small successes, but they were only the minor pretensions of his “Winter Dreams”. SD: When Sonny had finally found his place at the night club he must have felt overwhelmed with joy, but Dexter never felt this immense happiness. CM: He only felt the small ripples of joy instead of the swelling ocean of happiness. SD: Sonny’s dream may have been easier to fulfill because he only had that one dream that he pursued. CM: He didn’t have any other dreams that he really focused on besides playing his music and trying to get his brother and others to accept him. CM: Dexter had many dreams of being rich and owning expensive things and he focused on all of them until he met Judy again years later. CS: However, Dexter had many small moments of joy, but in contrast to fulfilling your greatest joy, like Sonny did, they didn’t really matter to him.
TS: In consequence to Dexter not having made his aspiration of keeping Judy Jones as he once saw her in his memory, he had gained a greater loss than Sonny had ever experienced. SD: The only reason Sonny fell into the dark web of addiction was because his greatest ambition didn’t come true at first. CM: Because Sonny felt that no one saw him for himself, Sonny gave up music and turned to drugs to escape his emotions of not being understood. CM: However, Sonny was able to get help and eventually continued on making his dream come true. SD: Dexter did not have the luxury of being able to “get help” or even try to keep chasing after his dream. CM: There wasn’t any help available for his problem because once he had lost his image of Judy, he had lost their memories together, the times they shared, the beauty he wanted to remember forever, the very essence of why he fell in love with her. CM: “These had been basis of his love for her-not to her reflection of eternal youth or beauty but their physical and perishable realities” (Burhans). The way you picture someone cannot not be changed as easily as trying to get others to accept you. SD: Sonny never really had any small achievements, but he never had a great loss either. CM: He only went through small trials like trying to get his brother to listen and finding a life involved with music. CM: He never felt what it was like to have a loved one never care about you, although he may have felt that way. CS: As a result of Dexter having a great loss and Sonny having small losses I have concluded that Dexter has suffered greater sorrow than Sonny had.
TS: Dexter’s loss and Sonny’s gain may seem like big deals to them, but in reality they’re everyday occurrences. SD: Thousands of people have gotten their hearts broken and thousands have had trouble finding their places in the world. CM: These are all ordinary things that happen all around the world. CM: Life has many things to take away from you and it has many things to give you, but you have to accept any problem or gift that comes your way and just live life.
Key
Yellow=Appositives
Green=Fast Words
Bold=Loose Sentences
Purple=Purposeful Repetition
Works Cited
“‘Magnificently Attune to Life’: The Value of ‘Winter Dreams’” enotes.com 4 October2008
http://www.enotes.com/winter-dreams/magnificently-attune-life-value-winter-dreams.
2 comments:
Kyle,
I thought that your essay was very thought-provoking, and that you really put a lot of effort into this essay. Some things that i liked were your title, "The Gamble of Life" because it grabbed your attention, and it really describes your essay perfectly. Your style really impressed me as well, because it was professional, yet it really connected to the reader. One big thing you could change, and some may disagree with me on this, is the labeling of sentances. I think that your sentance labels are really helpful, and good, but I personally feel that they deteriorate from an essay like yours, only because they seem to detach the reader. One thing you could do, would to maybe put up two essays, one with the sentance labels, and one without them so that they would be there, just not in the way. Again, good job.
Kyle you didn't need the losse sentences but they still are pretty good nice job but also, your comparison of gains to winning the lottery. nice job.(sure wish i was that lucky son of a gun that won the lottery :)) ok the sentence in the last paragraph that says,"These are all ordinary things that happen all around the world." this sentence seems a bit too short try adding a few last details to add on to make it seem more proffesional. also, in the second paragraph,"Dexter had many gains;" you could probably squeeze in an adjective in between many gains like magnificent or small or teriffic etc. just to add some spice to it. ok well.......I SHALL RETURN SOON ENOUGH!!!! (lol)
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