There are three main criteria that reoccur in short stories. The first criteria are that all the elements in the story work together to communicate a central idea. The second criterion is that the situation in the story is plausible, and the third criterion is that the story stays fresh. There is always new insight that is gained upon rereading the story. All of these criteria put together well-written short stories and they help the reader understand the underlying message that the author tries to portray.
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is about a boy named Sonny who gets arrested for selling and doing heroin. The story starts out with an unnamed narrator, who finds out that his brother is put into jail. The narrator is shocked by this information so teaching his algebra class becomes a difficult task. After leaving his job that day he runs into Sonny’s friend. His friend informs him that Sonny lived a difficult life while dealing and consuming. He also tells him that he feels bad because he has a small part in what happened to Sonny. Sonny’s friend does the best he can to ease the tension for the narrator, but he only ends up making him more frustrated. It takes the narrator awhile to contact Sonny, but he eventually writes to him after the narrator’s daughter passes away. They keep in contact for the time being, until Sonny gets out of jail. Sonny is welcomed to live with the narrator and his family at their apartment. After some time has passed the narrator and Sonny get into an inevitable argument. They argue about Sonny and his reasons for using heroin. The narrator doesn’t believe anything he says and blames it on the music industry. After they calm down from the fight, Sonny asks the narrator to attend one of his shows. Once they arrive at the jazz club Sonny is automatically recognized by everyone. The narrator realizes that he has stepped into Sonny’s world. He is mesmerized by his brother’s piano playing. The point that Baldwin is trying to...