About Stories The Gospel According To Garcia By Ariel Dorfman And Sonny’s Blue By James Baldwin

Everyone will always experience an opposing force or obstacle that gets in the ways of his or her own belief. To keep one’s belief safe, each person has a different way of rebelling. In the two stories “The Gospel According to Garcia” by Ariel Dorfman and “Sonny’s Blue” by James Baldwin, both pieces of fiction have a character fighting an enemy that goes against the character’s faith. In “The Gospel According to Garcia”, it is the students against the substitute’s belief on conformity, and as for “Sonny’s Blues”, it is Sonny going against the unnamed narrator’s rules to success. The theme presented from both the students and Sonny is that one must display disobedience and be in denial to fight against society’s norms and expectations.

Students in “The Gospel According to Garcia” think highly of their missing teacher Garcia so having a substitute who thinks opposite from Garcia and is in Garcia’s position is wrong in the eyes of the students. When the substitute tried to continue to make the students more open, the narrator says, “We still said nothing” (Dorfman 776). Tolerating someone like the substitute to be in Garcia’s position is not acceptable to the students. It is important to realize the act of silence in unity is representative of the students’ devotion to protecting Garcia’s ideology and going against social norms. To add on, the students see the substitute as not only a figure disrespectful to Garcia but also an opposing force that wants to trick the students to live like society. For example, the substitute states, “… there can be forgiveness, yes, but only if there are signs of repentance” (Dorfman 779). The substitute uses “forgiveness” as a reward to make the students fall in his trap of conformity. Regardless of the situation, the students remain silent to repudiate the presumption the substitute has for these kids. If the substitute causes the students to conform, the standard way of thinking will triumph, and Garcia’s lessons will lose.

As for Sonny in “Sonny’s Blue”, Sonny trashes his older brother’s lessons on a good life to struggle for his own desires. The narrator describes the time Sonny lied about his academics by saying, “One day a letter came from the school board and Isabel’s mother got it – there had, apparently, been other letter but Sonny had torn them up” (Baldwin 353). Although Sonny told his brother earlier, he would try to finish school, he broke the agreement. Sonny is in rejection with everything being placed upon him, so he makes fake promises and fake expectations to not worry anyone. Later, the narrator tries to change Sonny’s mind on becoming a musician by saying, “You know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do –” (Baldwin 351). The narrator is in a panicked situation where Sonny will not reconsider his path, so he asks Sonny this question. Although the narrator’s statement causes many people in the real world to rethink their decisions, Sonny does not cave in. Baldwin uses this quote to demonstrate Sonny’s determination to go another route even if it is the wrong one. Sonny does not want success, he wants what is best for himself.

Overall, both the stories “The Gospel According to Garcia” and “Sonny’s Blue” has someone that is going against another character’s way of thinking. Society will always challenge a new concept, so one must be in contradiction to not transition into the normal expectation. Both the students and Sonny are faced with an expectation, but in the end, the two make a stance on their own beliefs and tarnishes the assumed one. The students want to live based on Garcia’s thoughts of thinking differently compared normal people while Sonny hopes to find his road to living happy, no successfully. To accomplish these wishful goals, the two independent groups violate almost all the rules of the other side, the side of social expectations.