Successful Writing about Failed Relationships

The short stories within Self-Help vary in perspective, tone, and narrative style, yet I noticed some common themes that permeate the stories in the book. To me, the most prominent of these was the theme of infidelity and failed relationships. The first story in the collection, “How to Be an Other Woman” puts an interesting spin on this theme. Throughout much of the story we assume the protagonist, referred to in the second person, to be engaged in an affair with a married man (she has no partner herself). However, at the end of the story it is revealed that the man does not have a wife at all but is simply juggling girlfriends, and their relationship comes to an end. The main character’s moral and emotional struggles shown in this story are effective and show a side of marital infidelity very different to the affair in the story “How.”

            “How” appears much later in the collection and features a woman who is frightened by commitment and not sure her boyfriend is right for her.  This story is also narrated in the second person.  The protagonist decides not to leave the boyfriend, but then he begins to suffer from an unidentified kidney complication. Feeling as if she cannot leave him now, the woman begins an affair with an actor. She does not suffer from the same self-worth issues that plagued the protagonist of “Other Woman,” yet she does feel profoundly guilty. This guilt is shown very well in this passage from page 62: “The houseplants will appear to have taken sides. Some will thrust stems at you like angry limbs. They will seem to caw like crows. Others will simply sag.”

            A discussion of failed relationships in Self-Help would not be complete without a mention of “The Kid’s Guide to Divorce.” This story provides a completely different perspective on an already destroyed marriage. If it were not for the title, the divorce of the parents would not be obvious until the last two paragraphs of the story. However, with this knowledge, many nuances of the child’s relationship with the mother reveal the effects of the failed relationship of the parents on the child.  I perceived the continual battle waged by the child for various sodas as an attempt to exploit the divorced mother’s desire for her child’s affections.

            In the collection Self-Help, Lorrie Moore shows us multiple perspectives on failed relationships, giving us characters ranging from a trapped woman to a philandering man to the collaterally damaged children. Moore’s nuances are made all the more powerful by her use of the second person, which brings the perspective home to the reader.

Music in "Sonny's Blues"

The ending of “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin consists of an extended passage describing the jazz music played by Sonny and his friends in a nightclub. As a musician myself, I really enjoyed this passage and thought it did a great job of conveying the power of the music through text. Starting on page 137, the jazz band begins to play and Baldwin’s writing takes off, using beautiful language to describe what is almost a conversation between the instruments. When the music starts, the narrator notices Sonny struggling to get in the rhythm. But as he continues to play, Sonny finds his place in the discourse between the instruments. I loved the description of the “conversation”:

“Something began to happen. And Creole let out the reins. The dry, low, black           man said something awful on the drums, Creole answered, and the drums talked back. Then the horn insisted, sweet and high, slightly detached perhaps, and Creole listened, commenting now and then, dry, and driving, beautiful and calm and old. (139)

            The metaphor of conversation continues as Baldwin focuses more on the personal aspects of the players, in particular Sonny. The narrator seems to gain a much greater understanding of Sonny by watching him play. The powerful expression of emotion he observes makes him realize Sonny’s inner torment and creative spirit. At the beginning of the passage, he describes Sonny’s struggle to convey his emotion through the instrument. However on page 140 in the last paragraph describing the music, Sonny is successful in conveying his emotions through the piano: “I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only Mama and Daddy.” The “it” in that last sentence refers, I think, to his heritage and his culture, but by making it “his” it also signifies Sonny’s individuality and special talent which his brother has finally appreciated. Because he understands his brother and what has brought him to this point, the narrator is very strongly moved by the music. I liked the ending to this story because it manages to accurately convey the emotional power of music in the story and in general.  In addition, it actually succeeded in giving me a good idea of the sonic nature of the piece the musicians are playing.

Some Extra Stuff about Going to Meet the Man

While I know that one should be careful about claiming connections between an author’s biography and work, I wanted to share some interesting information about James Baldwin that I found online that seems to suggest a certain degree of autobiographical inspiration in the first two stories from Going to Meet the Man. I have linked below my source about his personal life. Here is a selection I found particularly interesting:

“Baldwin was born to a young single mother, Emma Jones, at Harlem Hospital. She reportedly never told him the name of his biological father. Jones married a Baptist minister named David Baldwin when James was about three years old. Despite their strained relationship, he followed in his stepfather's footsteps—who he always referred to as his father—during his early teen years. He served as a youth minister in a Harlem Pentecostal church from the ages of 14 to 16.”

After reading this, it is hard to read “The Rockpile” and “The Outing” without seeing John as being loosely based on Baldwin himself.  

Read more at: http://www.biography.com/people/james-baldwin-9196635#early-works

I also found a fascinating video of Baldwin, in  1963 speaking on race.