John Updike’s “A&P” is an excellent example of realistic prose, because it focuses on a seemingly unimportant episode which takes place in the life of an ordinary young man, which however represents a transformative event. The narrator of the story, nineteen-years-old Sammy, uses the type of language that one would expect from a boy, being both funny and naïve. He gives nicknames to the customers and is ironical towards his co-worker. At the same time, he is fascinated by the young girls in bath suits, and particularly, “Queenie”, whom he describes with admiring words, which betray his desire and romantic interest. He uses an informal speech tone which causes his language to appear more natural. At a first reading, the story may appear rather frivolous, but close reading of the story reveals its deeper meanings and the way in which the language is used masterfully in order to construct Sammy as the ordinary young man, with strong values and great insight into the temperament of other people.
The structure also contributes to the value of this work. The story begins in mid-action, with Sammy noticing the girls, while he was attending to another client, without a proper introduction into the events. The story then builds slowly, as Sammy describes the girls. As the inevitable moment of their meeting approaches, the tension rises. The moment of crisis when the manager sees the girls is signaled by the narrator. After this moment, the pace of the narration increases, but the ending is unexpectedly flat, contradicting the audience’s expectation that there will be some sort of resolution or happy ending. The only type of resolution the audience gets is Sammy’s insight that his decision will transform his life. His final act of resignation is a manifestation of young idealism, but is heroic drive is not rewarded in the story. As in most realist stories, there is no happy ending but on the contrary, Sammy is disappointed to realize that his gesture was ignored by the girls, who did not even notice it. Standing alone in the parking lot, Sammy realizes that he changed the course of his life for a childish reason.
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
In Baldwin’s story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the relationship between the two characters begins to change when the narrator actually starts listening to his brother. This occurs when they discuss the revival meeting, and Sonny begins to explain his heroin addiction by associating it with the singer’s performance. It is the moment when the narrator begins reconnecting with his younger brother because, perhaps for the first time, he listens without judging, but trying to understand his brother’s pain. This new drive to understand is accentuated when he reaches the jazz club where his brother is going to play, and discovers that Sonny is appreciated here, and that he does have success in his chosen career. Here he is in Sonny’s world, and his willingness to be part of this world allows him to understand Sonny’s music, and the effect that music has in his life, by erasing his sufferance.
Sonny’s “blues”, from this perspective, are his sad life experiences, beginning with his hard life in Harlem, as an African-American boy from a working class family. His experiences with drugs, the death of his parents and the problems he had with his brother, as well as his time in prison, all represent his ‘blues’. However, Sonny’s blues are also the sounds he produces while playing, which are born out of this sufferance, and which he lives for. In a way, Sonny’s performance would have been impossible in lack of strong feelings that could motivate him to play the way he does, so he embraces his sufferance as a creative force. Therefore, the music of Sonny’s blues is the perfect vehicle for conveying the highest and lowest moments of Sonny’s life because it allows Sonny’s emotions to flow unfiltered, and the narrator is able to understand them. Experiencing Sonny’s music for the first time allows him to understand his brother more than ever before, because Sonny’s blues are a clear mirror into his soul.
