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Earle, Elliot

English

2005

MA

This paper serves as an investigation into the nature of suffering. The texts upon which it draws include: James Baldwin's, "Sonny's Blues," Genesis, the Gospel of John, and various critiques of Baldwin's work. The primary purpose of the paper is to establish a meta-construction of suffering and to determine the manner in which the texts cited contribute to or relieve this construction within a textual participant. Special emphasis is placed on the similarities found in the continuum of presentations of suffering within the English canon, the techniques humans employ to contend with suffering, and suffering's role as a formative agent.