The Perception of Ignorance When it comes to culture and identity ignorance can play an important role between success and failure. The stories below will provide examples of how our ignorance as a society can determine how we perceive others as well as how we are perceived by others.
Sonny’s Blues Sonny’s Blues is a short story that illustrates the ignorance of the narrator to his Brother Sonny’s dream of becoming a jazz musician. The narrator thinks that life flows on the ability to just make a living that people do not have to find happiness in working to live. However, this way of thinking is different for Sonny, For example, the narrator says “Well, look, Sonny, I’m sorry, don’t get mad. I just don’t altogether get it, that’s all. Name somebody—you know, a jazz musician you admire.” (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575). Sonny responds with “Bird” (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575) and the narrator responds with “who?” After lighting a cigarette and taking a step back from the conversation, the narrator realizes how out of touch from society he has become. He is shocked and entertained by the fact that his body is trembling. The narrator tells Sonny that he will have to be patient with his ignorance on who Charlie Parker is (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575). This is Sonny’s world through his own eyes and this is what happiness is to him, the culture of jazz playing is his identity. As stated above, Sonny relates to jazz in ways that the narrator cannot understand. The narrator’s ignorance of Sonny’s feelings and desires effects his ability to relate to Sonny and challenges his connection as a brother. The narrator and Sonny have been physically together growing up and living in the same places, however, mentally they have never been on the same wave length. Now the narrator has to take a step back and try to reconnect with Sonny on his level. For example, the narrator has never had to really play a serious role as big brother to Sonny in the past. This is an uncomfortable feeling for the narrator and he is not quite sure how to handle this situation. Furthermore, because he does not understand how to handle this situation with Sonny, he will have to buckle down and honestly listen to Sonny and his feelings towards being a jazz musician to truly acknowledge his passion (Baldwin, 1957, pg.574). As the narrator takes on his new identity as big brother he feels the need to change Sonny’s identity to integrate him into society. The narrator is trying to change Sonny’s identity instead of embracing his dream of being a musician. The narrator wants to erase Sonny’s love for music and bring him into the realty of surviving in the real world and this gives off the wrong vibe to Sonny. Additionally, when he sees Sonny light up at the fact of chasing his dream the narrator gets jealous. Throughout the story, they have several conversations describing Sonny’s plans as a musician and the narrator constantly replies with what could be considered as rude remarks. The narrator feels as though Sonny is going through a childlike phase stating to Sonny that “You getting to be a big boy, it’s time you started thinking about your future.”(Baldwin, 1957, pg.575) This still proves the narrators ignorance and refusal to accept Sonny’s dream of being a musician. By thinking this way, it strips Sonny of his identity and slowly tears him down piece by piece. Sonny’s goals and dreams revolve around playing Jazz. Even though the narrator does not agree with his brothers choices of becoming a jazz musician, he should still embrace and support his decisions. The narrator should also consider the positives of being a musician instead of constantly focusing on the negatives. Also, the “can look at things from his brother’s perspective. He needs to stop being so closed minded about his brother’s life and look for ways in which he can support Sonny in his musical endeavors.
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“The Cambridge Ladies Who Live in Furnished Souls” is a poem that exhibits the ignorance of these closed minded woman of status who are oblivious to the world around them as well as the ignorance of the author in viewing their way of life. Throughout the poem the writer expresses instances where ignorance can be portrayed. At the beginning of the stanza the writer says “The Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds.” (Cummings, 1923, pg.679). When E.E. Cummings states that the Cambridge ladies are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds, possibly he is misunderstanding them and their way of life. To him, these ladies are arrogant and stuck up and only seem to care about themselves and their status. Perhaps they are happy with their lives as secluded wives and their minds are completely free of stress and guilt making them completely oblivious and ignorant to the outside world. Thus, his way of thinking only proves his ignorance about them. Cummings states that “They believe in Christ and Longfellow” (Cummings, 1923, pg.679), this line portrays to the reader that these ladies are likely putting on a fake persona allowing us to believe they accept Christ as their savior when they are in church or in public, but in reality, they are naive as to what it means to believe in a higher power than themselves. These ladies actually do not comprehend what it truly means to be Christian or what Longfellow’s writings actually means because they have been sheltered behind white picket fences, freshly cut green grass and drinking tea on Sundays. Ignorance can be interpreted throughout this poem, however when first reading this poem, you could be lead to believe it was mainly about the ignorance from the ladies standpoint but quickly after reading it for a second time you could start to get the feeling the ignorance is actually from E.E. Cummings point of view. For example he writes, “One still finds delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles? While permanent faces coyly bandy scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D,” (Cummings, 1923, pg.679) this phrase almost sounds like the writer is angry and uses a hint of sarcasm, this sentence can make the reader depict these ladies as being in their own little bubble sitting around knitting sweaters, mittens, and even scarfs completely oblivious to what is actually happening around them. Maybe they are knitting for themselves? Or perhaps they are knitting for charity? The writer says “is it the Poles?” it seems the writer feels these ladies are knitting for charity, but in reality do they have a clue to what they are actually knitting for? Not to mention, they are gossiping about a scandal between two people once again proving their ignorance about the daily struggles of the “commoners.” This sounds like the writer looks at these ladies as a nuisance to society and stuck in their beliefs to the point that they will never change their ways to integrate into society. It could be they do not know how to change, this lifestyle is what they know and how they were raised so this is the world as they know it. To them they might be delicate birds trapped in nicely furnished bird cages unable to escape their tragic reality. Cummings never shows or explains the feelings of the Cambridge ladies, only the feelings he has towards them and that shows some ignorance on his part. An example of how heartless Cummings feels these ladies are is when he ends the poem with this passage “The Cambridge ladies do not care, above Cambridge if sometimes in its box of sky lavender and cornerless, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy” (Cummings, 1923, pg.679), Cummings believes these ladies care very little about the life of others and that the moon is like a small insignificant piece of candy that can be unwrapped and destroyed in the blink of an eye without even a second thought.
PARAGRAPH 3 A Raisin in the Sun is a play that depicts the ignorance of a colored man and his family. There are plenty of instances in this play were ignorance is demonstrated, for instance, there is a conversation between Beneatha and Mama discussing how Beneatha wants to become a doctor and Mama replies with “‘Course you going to be a doctor, honey, God willing.” (Hansberry, 1959, pg.739) This frustrates Beneatha and she responds with “I mean it! I’m just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He got to do with anything? Does He pay tuition?” (Hansberry, 1959, pg.739) as the conversation progresses, Mama gets upset with Beneatha’s behavior, Mama is trying to establish a positive foundation for her daughter by saying God is the giver and the savior, however, times have changed and Mama does not understand her daughters generation. In this scene, you can see how naive the her mother is as well as notice her inability to adapt to changes in the modern world, in Beneatha’s world the new “savior” is working hard to achieve success and to move forward. Mama believes her daughter is going to run off with someone or commit horrible sins, she also believes because her daughter went to church every Sunday, she was raised to believe in God and this belief was going to resonate with Beneatha. However, Beneatha states to her mother that “Mama, you don’t understand. It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don’t believe in God. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort.” (Hansberry, 1959, pg.739-740). Mama cannot accept the fact the world she was raised in no longer exists and this new generation is slowly leaning towards school and hard work rather than prayer every night. Walter is another example of portrayed ignorance, he is driven by his own pride. Walter is so focused on getting his father’s check and investing in a liquor store that he does not even notice his family is slowly falling apart. His wife Ruth becomes pregnant and decides to get an abortion and does not tell him, when he finally finds out he says “– No – no – Ruth wouldn’t do that.” (Hansberry, 1959, pg.752). However to his surprise she replies with “Yes I would too, Walter. I gave her a five-dollar down payment.” (Hansberry, 1959, pg.752). Walter is so consumed with himself and money that he is blinded by the fact his wife is suffering right under his nose. As the play progresses, Walters’s actions are driven by money and this is his identity, every decision he makes involves money and this makes him ignorant to other’s feelings because if Walter cannot be happy then no one can be happy. At the end of the play Walter finally realizes how ignorant he had been towards not only his family but towards himself by realizing how much money had consumed him. To prove to his family that he cares about their well-being and opinions he refuses to take the money from Mr. Lindner and moves his family into the home of their dreams.
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