Sarahs Essay 3

English Essay Shourds 1
By Sarah Shourds
English 9
Hamilton Salsich
9 October 2008
Juggling
An Essay on the "Losses" and "Gains" in the Stories "Winter Dreams"
and "Sonny's Blues"
Losses and gains are two of the most popular games people play
everyday. People juggle losses and gains, toss them on fire and even
learn to dance with them. In the stories "Sonny’s Blues", by James
Baldwin, and "Winter Dreams", by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both main
characters learn to juggle their losses and gains, but only one
succeeds in their game. In one case, the protagonists gains
knowledge, and in the other case, the protagonist loses an emotion
thats hard to live without. Both protagonist learn life long lessons,
and have a hard time learning how to juggle.
In "Sonny's Blues," there is a lot of gains and losses between
both Sonny and the narrator. For example, at one point in the
story, it was almost like the narrator didn't even have a brother.
Sonny was never there, and the narrator was even scared to send
Sonny a letter while he was in jail. Sonny had lost himself, lost his
dignity and he had lost his own flesh and blood [purposeful
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repetition]. Going to jail was a rude awakening for Sonny, and it
made him realize his losses, and it made him think of how he can
control his losses and turn them into "gains". One of Sonny's "gains"
was in fact his dignity. He learned that playing music can help him
channel his anger and losses to make good out of them. He gained the
knowledge about the badness of drugs, and also learned that there
are healthier and more mature ways of unlocking the secrets to his
issues. In both cases the gain or loss was fairly important, and it
changed Sonny in a dramatic way. Sonny's loss led to his gain, which
could help him in the long run. His knowledge against drugs could
help him live longer and healthier and maybe even help him become a
better musician. Sonny has learned some life long lessons, and will
hopefully keep heading the way that he is- off of drugs and healthy.
In "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dexter shows
innumerable [FAST] amounts of emotions. He loses the love of Judy
and in which case he loses his sense to love. not only did his love of
his life just walk right out of his life, but she changed when she did so.
She lost the essence of true beauty when she walked out on Dexter,
and that tore him apart every day. On the bright side, Dexter gains
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all of the riches- minus the romance portion. He gained money, he
gained a wife, and he gained his ego back, until Judy stepped back
into his life and crushed it [purposeful repetition]. She made all of his
old feelings rekindle, then burst into flames. In this instance, sadly,
the loss was greater because it took away a key factor in Dexter's life-
his ability to love. He couldn't bare to look at another woman the way
he looked at Judy Jones. There just wasn't the same glow. He may
have a wife, and all of the riches, but love is a passion way above all of
that. It's an emotion deep within your heart, that if you take it away,
your whole life could sink to the bottom of the ocean. Dexter is
officially at the bottom of the ocean, and will never revisit the gates of
"love" ever again. As Clinton Burhans says, "Men like Dexter Green
do not cry," and when they do, it's a very large matter.
Both characters had lost something at one point, then gained
something in exchange. The differences in these stories is that out of
Sonny's loss he gained knowledge, and out of Dexter's loss he gained
wealth. These two stories are example of life and
how it all depends. At one moment, you could have your life totally
under your custody, [FAST] then in a blink of an eye you could lose it
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all. Both characters maintained their game of juggling, just like
everyday people have to do, and learn how to smoothen out the
bumps in their lives whether its drenching yourself in money, or
simply playing music.





Works Cited:

Clinton S. Burhans, Jr.. "Winter Dreams: ‘‘Magnificently Attune to Life’’: The
Value of ‘‘Winter Dreams’’." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose
Napierkowski. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 7 October
2008.
http://www.enotes.com/winter-dreams/magnificently-attune-life-value-winter-dreams