Reading Response: Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine

           “Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine” by Amiri Baraka is a short story that illustrates the life of Tom Russ and is narrated by his grandson’s perspective. The author writes the story in a way that the narrator is speaking to his grandfather. Baraka uses a technique style that is similar to lenses. The reader understands the story through the mind/lenses of the grandson who is looking back to family history events. The narrator also collaborated with other characters through his perspective including his grandfather. Throughout the story, the author uses repetition to emphasize the word ‘vibration’. The word vibration can be interpreted in various perspectives. The story is told in a time line events with different settings. The first setting of the story was in Dothan, Alabama in 1889.The reader can see the southern resistance towards African Americans through Tom Russ’s life. During this time period, Tom had a difficult time because people tried to force him and his family out of the town by burning his store multiple times and attempting to kill him. At first, I thought the meaning of vibration is about racial violence. However as I continued to read the story, the meaning of vibration is changed. The text states: “If I were you, Tom, I would have cried. Did you cry, Tom? No, I suppose not. Not with the vibration still moving the ground in front of you” (1). From this passage, the meaning of vibration can be changed to hope, dream and self- determination. The word self-determination can be connected to Baraka and his other book The Blues people. In The Blues people, Baraka was talking about how African Americans changed their mindsets from the freedom after death to the idea of self-determination and hope for self-identification after the Emancipation Proclamation. The setting of this story is in 1898 which was 35 years after this event. Many African Americans were searching for self-identification, similar to Tom’s case, through migration to other places.
          Next place is in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania during 1917. Despite moving to an opposite part of the country and having a good life, Tom feels unsatisfied and wants to migrate to a different place. The text states: “No vibrations here…We’re going north, Anna. Got to hunt them vibrations down. Got to find out where the music goes when we don’t hear it no more…Gonna make a myth for my unborn grandson, who’ll surely like to know” (2). After reading this passage, the meaning of vibration started to shift to something that can be related to music as he cannot find in Beaver Falls. Vibration, in this case, can mean music. Perhaps, something that can be associated with the Blues or Jazz as he wants to created a myth for his grandchild. The next setting helps the reader to understand this vibration is about music. Tom and his family moved to Newark, New Jersey in 1925. This is a place where Tom found his vibration as the text states, “‘Music While you shop,’ George Russ on the piano, rags and stomps, victrola requested played if possible. It’s nice here, one vibration can carry a man a long way if he knows just how to handle it” (2). Tom feels accomplished because he found a place full with music and he can tell a myth to his grandchildren. However, it seems that his dreams are shed away when he got hit on the head and becomes paralyzed which led to his death. Despite the fact that tom has died, Tom’s life story still continues, with us, by becoming part of the narrator’s mind.