Sonny’s Blues

Title: Research Essay on “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin Write a research essay (minimum 5 pages) on James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” Your essay must use the sources from forums 1 – 5: Sipiora, Phillip. “Ethical Criticism.” Reading and Writing about Literature, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2002: 73-79. Print. Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” Reading and Writing about Literature, 2nd ed. Ed. Phillip Sipiora. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2002: 79-99. Print. Baldwin, James. “‘Fifth Avenue, Uptown’ by James Baldwin.” Esquire.com. 1 July 1960. Web. 1 March 2015. Reilly, John. “’Sonny’s Blues’: James Baldwin’s Image of Black Community.” Negro American Literature Forum, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jul., 1970): 56-60. Print. “Sherard, Tracey. “Sonny’s Bebop: Baldwin’s ‘Blues Text’ as Intercultural Critique.” African American Review, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Winter, 1998): 691-705. Print. The research essay must have an introductory paragraph that logically leads to a clearly defined and well-developed thesis or main idea that your discussion of the assigned sources from forums 1-5 will prove. Your body paragraphs must use details and examples from the assigned sources to develop your thesis toward a logical concluding paragraph that shows how your paper’s discussion of the sources have resulted in proving your thesis. The forums are set up so you can start the research essay assignment by using all five of your forums in your paper. Add an introduction and thesis at the start of your paper, then add transitions/topic sentences between your discussion of each source, then a well developed concluding paragraph. Do not just copy and paste your forums, however. You will need to reword and make adjustments to the forums after you have put them in your paper in order to make sure they make sense and fit the college essay format. You will also need to write your essay for a general college educated audience, and not just this class or me as your audience. To be sure you include enough information in your paper and that it is written objectively and with enough detail, imagine you are trying to explain “Sonny’s Blues” and all that you know about it from what you have learned in forums 1 – 5 to someone who has not read the story nor knows who James Baldwin was.