"I Stand Here Ironing"

I decided to read the story “I Stand Here Ironing”, from our textbook instead of “Fall House of Usher”. I truly enjoyed reading this short story about the relationship between a mother and her daughter. It made me think about the relationship my mother and I share.
The mother was narrating. The mother clearly does not really know her daughter. I find didn’t find that too hard to believe. It is possible to know someone and never truly know them at all.
As I continued to read the story I realized that the mother actually did know here daughter more than she had let off in the beginning. When it was described how the mother had to leave her child with different family members that touched me. It took me to a place inside myself. While I read I began to critic my relationship with my mother in my head. Leaving your child with someone is sacrifice. It is also love. The idea that the mother would take time away from work to be with her child was deeply moving. As I said earlier this story really reminded me of my mother and I.
My mother was rather young when she had me just as the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”. I was not my mother’s first child though. The child goes unnamed for quite a while. It was almost the middle of the story when I discovered the child’s name was Emily. Emily did not have it easy growing up. Her mother didn’t have it easy either.
Overall, I must say without a reasonable doubt “I Stand Here Ironing” is the most interesting story I read so far this semester. It is my favorite. When I was reading I didn’t want to stop. I wanted more and more. Finally I am being to enjoy reading from the textbook.

"Sonny's Blues"

When I began to read this short story immediately I was pulled in. I was eager to know the story. The introduction on the subway made me curious. What had happened that was written in the newspaper, talked about on the train and everywhere else? This was the first time that I started to read a story and had some many questions just from the first couple of sentences.
It was not clear to me who the speaker was. I also didn’t know the speaker’s relationship to the character Sonny that was mentioned. Why was the narrator afraid for this dude Sonny?
In the story there was a great amount of dialogue. The story was composed of a series of chunky passages broken up by bits of conversation. I found it very hard to keep up with the dialogue. I found myself say “huh?” a lot while reading. Another thing was the movement of the setting and the flow of the story. The story moved along so rapidly. I think it wad to show the fast pace city life.
As I continued to read I got more and more lost? A million and one questions swirled around in my head. At first I truly could not get a feel for the text. I figured it was because I had just finished reading another story just before. Then finally I began to understand. It was hard because the narrator, who was never named, keep telling stories from his past. He just yapped on and on. It would have been so easy to just write a story about a drug addicted brother and call it quits but the author didn’t. James Baldwin really opened my eyes to the relationship between siblings.