- Oct 2024
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All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours. I just watched Sonny's face. His face was troubled, he was working hard, but he wasn't with it. And I had the feeling that, in a way, everyone on the bandstand was waiting for him, both waiting for him and pushing him along. But as I began to watch Creole, I realized that it was Creole who held them all back. He had them on a short rein. Up there, keeping the beat with his whole body, wailing on the fiddle, with his eyes half closed, he was listening to everything, but he was listening to Sonny. He was having a dialogue with Sonny. He wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water. He was Sonny's witness that deep water and drowning were not the same thing-he had been there, and he knew. And he wanted Sonny to know. He was waiting for Sonny to do the things on the keys which would let Creole know that Sonny was in the water.
I think that this is my favorite passage, just because of all of the details that are in it. How the narrator describes the band being held back, how Creole waits and watches Sonny to let him take control.
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They began, in a way, to be afflicted by this presence that was living in their home. It was as though Sonny were some sort of god, or monster. He moved in an atmosphere which wasn't like theirs at all.
I thought this was interesting how they chafed with Sonny because he didn't live like them. I think it's understandable that they started to feel differently about him, because he's living in their house, eating their food, not paying rent, and on top of all of that, he was causing a disturbance with his music, and he didn't appreciate any of it.
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Anyway, I'll have the G.I. Bill when I come out.
I just had an 'aha' moment readinf this sentence because of all I learned from last year's Ap US History class that I know about this Bill and the benefits to the men who served in the military
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Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I'd never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light
I thought this quote was significant because the narrator is saying that sonny is the same person he always was but with experiences that changes him. I also think that the narrator regrets not getting to know his baby brother but that he can still see bits of him buried underneath all of the prison time and drug addictions. There is also the symbol of darkness vs. light reappearing.
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"You may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you's there."
I thought this quote was really significant, not only because it's a really good piece of advice, but also because I kind of feel like I'm going through the same problem at home with my younger sister, who wants to do things, no matter the cost. I wanted to know from my classmates if anyone else has felt this way.
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It was mocking and insular, its intent was to denigrate. It was Page 2 disenchanted, and in this, also, lay the authority of their curses.
Their laughter isn't the childish laughter that you might expect, full of happiness, but instead it's mean and scathing. It emphasizes how this is the angry laughter of men who are already hardened against the world even though they shouldn't have to be.
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