Sonnys Blues, Lost in the Funhouse, Videotape

Sonnys Blues-
Sonnys Blues was a very interesting read. It told the story of two brothers who in reality barely knew each other. The narrator and Sonny are two completely different people with completely different lifestyles and morals. These two brothers were seperated for most of their adult life, only to find each other again when Sonny got into drugs and his brother read about him in the newspaper. The narrator tried the entire story to understand the life that Sonny led. A life of music and a life through drugs, herion specifically. Sonny had many struggles in his life, and in his life he had merely no one to turn to since music was his life. So, instead of turning to people for guidance, he turned to drugs. The narrator led a very different life, so in retrospect he turned to people who cared about him, like his family.
I found it interesting that the huge age gap between the brothers presented such a problem. Granted seven years is much greater than four, I have a brother thats four years older than I am and we are best friends. Sonny felt that he could not do everything around his brother that he wished to do, and when he smoked the cigarette for the first time, he told his brother he just wanted to see if he could bring himself to simply smoke the cigarette in front of him.
Reading about someone with such an addiction was very interesting. Hearing his own explanation of why he did what he did was different to hear, coming from someone who has never been addicted to anything that serious or even knowing someone addicted to something that serious. I found it interesting hearing or seeing how an addiction to drugs even starts. For Sonny, it was his crazy lifestyle as a musician and having no one to turn to. Though the man in the beginning of the story had a very small role, he had one of the most important, for he changed the narrators mind a bit on his feelings for him and Sonny. The man in the beginning is the one who got Sonny into the bad things that the narrator spoke of the entire story. All in all, in using drugs, Sonny was trying to escape from the hectic lifestyle he led. He escaped through music and drugs, and his brother, had a tough time understanding how and why Sonny did what he did. Though he was his brother, so he tried to be there to help him after years of not being a part of his life.

Lost in the Funhouse-
This piece of writing was confusing and tough for me to understand. The writer jumped around and spoke of different things in different ways and used different meanings to get his point across. I couldn't really get a firm grip on what this story was even about, but I think it was about a young boy going through rough times in his adolescent phase. He was growing up and facing things he did not know how to deal with, but like any other kid he had to face reality and grow up. The funhouse, I think was the place that helped him to escape when he was younger and just relax. However, I do not know what the funhouse was in reality. I did not specifically care for this writers style. Jumping around and not making clear note of what was being talked about, I became confused a lot and didn't know what was going on in many parts.

Videotape-
This story, in many ways, disturbed me. This seemed to be a story of a little girl simply learning how to work a video camera when she was young, making a home video. The little girl had her head stuck out a window of a car, taping the car behind her. Later in the story you come to realize the little girl is taping a drive by murder. This makes the reader realize how much violence is out in the world and that even at such a young age, we in America are exposed to violence everywhere we turn. Weather it be in the media, homelife or anywhere else, you really cannot escape it. Though violence is an awful thing, people today are so used to being exposed to it, that when they see it they simply just turn the other cheek to it and act as if it is no big deal. This story also goes to show that little kids are curious and have to be looked after no matter the age and what they are getting involved in.