“Suppose Sorrow Was A Time
Machine,” by Amiri Baraka is sort of a time line about his grandfather’s life.
This story is written as if Baraka is speaking to his grandfather and he is
telling him about his struggles and how he manages to over come them. For example,
the first part takes place in Alabama where Tom is the owner of a store. Some
people burn the store because they are trying to run him out of town. Tom
doesn’t let this get to him and quickly rebuilds and fixes his store. His store
is then burnt a second time, and again he manages to rebuild his entire store.
Baraka wants to know what all of this means and wants his grandfather to
interpret this for him. The rest of the story is written in a similar way,
where they mention their location and the different things that happen in this
location.
One line
that stood out to me was “ you are a Negro who has felt the ground vibrate, you
are trying to interpret the vibration.” Another one that stood out to me was “A
vibration can carry a man a long ways.” I think that these lines are essential
to the story because in a way, its what the reader is trying to do. The reader
is trying to interpret what this vibration means. At some parts of the story I
thought the “vibration” was referring to his struggles but at others I felt
like it was referring to the music inside of him or his determination.
I think
that this writing piece is very similar to David Henderson’s short story “Sun
Goddess.” Both of them use the same style in some ways. For example both of
them start with a same short line. They also both use the same idea of someone
who is strong who over comes something. They have a sense of freedom and they
also use music. In sun goddess the main character listens to jazz music that
over powers her. In this story Tom says “tah tah tat , tah, yippee, hoorah, Tom
Russ, Tom Tuss.” He is referring to himself in the music and using it to express
himself.
The only
thing that I was unsure of was the ending of the story. It was a bit unclear as
to what was going on.
1 comment:
I found it interesting how you related the story to jazz. i also thought that Baraka included his poetic and musical techniques in this short story. As we discussed in class,short blunt rhythms can be created by short sentences. Baraka uses these short sentences in the story just like Henderson.
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