Sonny's Blues and Big Black Good Man - Book Report/Review Example

Finally, listening to his brother plays the piano, he finally realizes that he has been pushing away his brother and that he needs to be part of Sonny’s life now and listen to him and his music. Big Black Good ManThe story is neither closer to Olaf’s point of view, nor Jim’s, it is basically an attempt by the author to challenge our prejudices and to let us know that even those amongst us who consider themselves to be racially unbiased, like Olaf, are actually racists at some level.

This is exactly why Wright has used a stereotypical big black man; it is an image of the black man that is deeply ingrained in the white man’s psyche, an image the typical white man is scared of. Jim wanted to show gratitude to Olaf for introducing him to Lena, and he was merely measuring Olaf’s neck size the only way he knew how, it was Olaf’s prejudice that scared him into thinking his life was in danger. Richard Wright mirrors the reader in Olaf; he takes an exaggerated stereotypical black man and confronts the reader directly with his/her prejudices, showing the reader that no matter how unbiased we might claim ourselves to be, most of us are influenced by racial inclinations.

ResponsesTrevor, I agree that the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” underwent a lot of changes, with time and experience, throughout his narrative. However, I do not feel that Jim in “Big Black Good Man” was playing with Olaf intentionally; it was actually Olaf’s own biased and racist thinking that made him believe that Jim was trying to strangle him when he was only trying to measure Olaf’s shirt size the only way he knew how.Michael, I don’t think that the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” changed his attitude towards his brother because of what his friend said about Sonny getting back into drugs once he got out of jail; it was only after his daughter died that he tried to reach out to Sonny, and even then it was Sonny’s magnanimity that made him realize his own shortcomings with regard to his little brother.

It was only after he had a talk with Sonny that the narrator realized how misdirected his anger towards Sonny was.