Anna's Revised Essay

Mr. Salsich
Anna Holt
English 9
October 7, 2008

The Balance of Life:
Loss and Gain between Two Characters

An old man hobbled to the grocery store check-out slowly, looking nervous and staggering his footsteps as if he was walking on rocks. He seemed to be going blind, and as he warily inched across the tile floor, I noticed the light of his wedding ring. The lowly man looked unhealthy and deprived, but when his wife found her way to his spot in line, hurriedly shoving a box of low-sodium butter into their cart, a smile like none other broke out across his wrinkled face, erasing any misfortune that was once there. Every story has its ups and downs, but perhaps there are instances when the good things in life simply outweigh the bad.

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin presents us with a character much like the old man at the grocery store, who possesses a love deeper than his woes. What Sonny lacks is conventional happiness. When he gets up each morning, he does not know the challenges that will face him. He does not know the pain or hardship of the day ahead. (Purposeful Repetition). Sonny opens his eyes not only lacking knowledge of the future, but also lacking a friend. Through the cruelties of fate, Sonny lost both his parents, and through the anguish of drug abuse, he has, in a sense, lost his brother as well. He is alone. Near the end of the story, when Sonny’s life seems entirely lost, a passion pulls him up from his pit of despair. Sonny sits down in front of the piano, entering his own realm of happiness and for once finds a reason to live. Through notes and rhythm and gain and loss, he is one with the music. Sonny has no money, no friends, no plan, (Purposeful Repetition) but his one love casts a light so bright that one need not see his many losses and imperfections.
For Sonny, happiness found a way into his life when there seemed to be no escape from sorrow, but what’s gold to one person is dirt to another, and Dexter Green, the main character from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Winter Dreams", wasn’t so lucky. Looking from afar, Dexter Green had all his wishes come true. He was a shining beacon of success, a light for poor boys that wanted to make a difference in the world of business. His pretty words and charming wit earned him wealth and respect, but this kind of happiness is not the deep passion that can make a life joyful. For him, the thing that could fulfill his life was Judy Jones. Judy, who captured his heart with one smile, was the gain he needed. Judy, who’s nasty comments and hurtful reappearances and “roller-coaster inconstancy (could not) diminish his love for her” (Clinton S. Burhans), was the final piece in the puzzle of Dexter's life. By the end of the story, Judy's spark dies out, and Dexter sits alone, a young man with nothing to live for. With the loss of the woman he once loved, he fails to see beauty in anything he has gained throughout his life. It seems trivial, really, to be worrying about fame and fortune when your true love no longer exists. Dexter has gained an artificial world of happiness, but lost his soul.
In our time, we will lose loved ones and we will lose dreams and we will lose that which we thought belonged to us. We will lose battles, but perhaps we can find something so beautiful that we are able to win the war. What we must remember is that no matter how many inconsequential gains or losses we come upon, there is an ultimate gain that we strive to achieve. It is our calling, our love, our passion, and that is what we live for.