Baldwin and Camus How Much

Baldwin and Camus

How much control, if any, does a person have over his/her destiny? Does fate already hold the answers, or is someone faced with decisions that will result in other choices? What happens when one has to make a decision? Is it necessary to follow through, or can it be ignored? These are some of the questions that are faced by the characters in the stories "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin and "The Guest" by Albert Camus.

The narrator of "Sonny's Blues" is the older brother, by seven years, of Sonny, who is a heroin addict and serving prison time for being at a drug raid. The narrator, a teacher and husband/father of a wife and two sons has always tried to watch over Sonny: It is their mother's last request to him when dying.

Oh, honey,' she said. 'There's a lot you don't know. But you are going to find out....'You got to hold onto your brother,' she said, 'and don't let him fall, no matter how evil you gets with him.'

At first, he blames himself for Sonny's addiction and arrest. As the story progresses, however, he flashes back to earlier situations that better explain how Sonny reached his present position.

The narrator recalls how Sonny's girlfriend's middle-class family does not understand his passion for music. As a result, Sonny runs away, joins the service and then lives a Bohemian lifestyle in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

When Sonny gets out of prison, he joins his brother's family and remains shakily off of drugs. It takes some time and a trip to the nightclub where Sonny plays his music, but finally the narrator better appreciates his brother's painful struggle and how important it is to express himself through music and his audience's reaction.

Then they gathered around Sonny and Sonny played....Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back, he really began with the spare, flat statement of the opening phrase of the song. Then he began to make it his....Freedom lurked around us and I understood at last that he could. make us free if we would listen

Choice is an important element in this story. Several times during his life thus far, Sonny has decisions to make about his future. When he is younger, he decides to leave the frustrating situation with his girlfriend and run away. Although probably not with much thought, he chooses to try heroin and is quickly addicted. After leaving prison, however, he could have once again decided to turn toward this stimulant -- and it takes all his effort not to. He makes his way back into the world of music, although this is not easy either. "And Sonny's hands hadn't been near a piano for over a year."

The Guest" relates the story of a French Algerian schoolteacher, Daru, who has taken a position in the Algerian desert to escape from the pressures of urban life. By doing so, he has isolated himself from family and friends and more so than ever forced himself to be the one making choices about his life.

Balducci, a soldier who Daru knows, approaches with an Arab prisoner. Balducci's government papers give custody of the prisoner to Daru, who must now take him to the French jail in Tinguit. Upset, Daru wishes to refuse. He does not want to become involved. Balducci likewise does not want to be in the lawmaker role. "You don't get used to putting a rope on a man even after years of it, and you're even ashamed-yes, ashamed." Balducci, in fact, is shirking his responsibility for decision making by passing the buck on to Daru.

Daru understands that the Arab is being made a political example -- in other words, a guinea pig. He killed his cousin in a family feud, which is not a case for the French colonial courts but the involved families. Daru accepts his charge, but relunctantly. By doing so, Daru is taking a clear position, defying the "rules" and authorities that Balducci blindly obeys, in addition to rejecting the actions of Arab. He then states, "Every bit of this disgusts me, and first of all your fellow here. But I won't hand him over. Fight, yes, if I have to. But not that."

Daru unties the guest and gives him the opportunity to make his own choice:

First he points to the east. 'There's the way to Tinguit,' he tells him. 'You have a two-hour walk. At Tinguit are the administration and the police. They are expecting you.' He then points to the south. 'There's the trail across the plateau. In a day's walk from here you'll find pasturelands and the first nomads. They'll take you in and shelter you according to their law.' In other words, the schoolteacher makes no attempt to influence the prisoner that one course might be honorable or even just, but is suicide; or that the other, less honorable, could mean freedom.