Sentence Analysis of Sonny's Blues
"There was a long pause, while they talked up there in the indigo light and after awhile I saw the girl put a scotch and milk on top of the piano for Sonny. He didn't seem to notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked toward me, and nodded. Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as the began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling" (48)
In Sonny's Blues, the narrator is a Sonny's brother, who acts as both an observer and catalyst in his life. Sonny, a "free" guy, wants to pursue jazz as a career as he notes several legends of the jazz era have. In the introduction, he is shown to sell and use recreational drugs. Additionally, he has caused trouble around the people he lived around. Take for example, the narrator's in-laws and the tense relationship Sonny held with his father: it was mostly the result of his outrageously rebellious behavior and his love for jazz.
In a way, Sonny's behavior can often be mirrored in aspects of jazz: free, rebellious, and unpredictable. In the passage above, he is served a glass of scotch and milk. I am myself, an amateur bartender (non-alcoholic), but I still somewhat know about the chemical makeup of cocktails. I am also a profound user of the google-search engine. I have never (nor did google) heard of a formal cocktail that mixes scotch and milk (except for third-party websites). It is a weird combination, yet many reviews show that it works.
The drink is much like Jazz and to a larger extent Sonny's behavior. It's weird, but it works out in the end. Sonny seems to enjoy himself in the end. He doesn't only play jazz, but a special type of jazz called Behop. Many people today thought that jazz was the abstract genre of music. However, Behop was known as the "abstract" section of jazz. Perhaps, Scotch and milk, and even Sonny's life itself was an embodiment of this overly abstract quality. He acknowledges this with the nod directed towards the narrator as he drinks the weird mixture.
In Sonny's Blues, the narrator is a Sonny's brother, who acts as both an observer and catalyst in his life. Sonny, a "free" guy, wants to pursue jazz as a career as he notes several legends of the jazz era have. In the introduction, he is shown to sell and use recreational drugs. Additionally, he has caused trouble around the people he lived around. Take for example, the narrator's in-laws and the tense relationship Sonny held with his father: it was mostly the result of his outrageously rebellious behavior and his love for jazz.
In a way, Sonny's behavior can often be mirrored in aspects of jazz: free, rebellious, and unpredictable. In the passage above, he is served a glass of scotch and milk. I am myself, an amateur bartender (non-alcoholic), but I still somewhat know about the chemical makeup of cocktails. I am also a profound user of the google-search engine. I have never (nor did google) heard of a formal cocktail that mixes scotch and milk (except for third-party websites). It is a weird combination, yet many reviews show that it works.
The drink is much like Jazz and to a larger extent Sonny's behavior. It's weird, but it works out in the end. Sonny seems to enjoy himself in the end. He doesn't only play jazz, but a special type of jazz called Behop. Many people today thought that jazz was the abstract genre of music. However, Behop was known as the "abstract" section of jazz. Perhaps, Scotch and milk, and even Sonny's life itself was an embodiment of this overly abstract quality. He acknowledges this with the nod directed towards the narrator as he drinks the weird mixture.
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