The Louisiana Blues

When life gets to be too much for you, what do you do? You turn on music that speaks to your emotions. There is a specific genre of music created for these kinds of moments in life and it is known as The Blues. The blues is so much more than just music. Let’s say your dog just died, you now have the blues. Your husband just left you for your best friend, you now have the blues. That is what blues artist do in order to create such music. They take an unfortunate situation in their lives and turn it into something beautiful.

   There are many types of blues songs but the blues that I am going to focus on is The Louisiana Blues. I believe that this is the type of blues that parallels to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I chose this type of blues because it clearly depicts sadness, sorrow, and despair. There are various instruments played in the Louisiana blues such as the trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and piano. Each of these instruments can represent certain characters in the book.

     Pecola Breedlove has lived in the blues her entire life, so it would only make sense that she represents the strongest instrument in the song, the trumpet. Her sorrow is so high that it over powers everyone else’s sorrow just like the trumpet over powers all the other instruments within the song. With her shyness, ugliness, and constant misfortunes, Pecola silently screams her depression at the world while a trumpet screams her voice in the background.

   Claudia and Frieda are represented by the piano. The piano is the first instrument you hear in this particular piece of music. It comes in soft with a nice melody right before the trumpet makes its bold entrance. Claudia and Frieda are the first characters we are introduced to in this book and they also become friends with Pecola. It is safe to say that they compliment Pecola’s character just like the piano compliments the trumpet’s sounds.

The Trombone is heard just a few seconds before the trumpet comes in but still very noticeable. Cholly and Pauline can take on this role due to the fact that they are a slightly lighter sorrow than Pecola but still very sad. The trombone is very deep in tone and hard to miss although overpowered by the trumpet. Cholly and Pauline are hardly unnoticeable even though their daughter, Pecola, has a worse life than they do.

The clarinet is supposed to be the instrument that contradicts the other instruments in the piece. While the trumpet, piano, and trombone flow together in harmony, you constantly hear the clarinet making its statement against the flow. That is why the town is represented by this instrument. They talk so badly about the Breedloves and judge them; it’s just like the clarinet judging the rest of the instruments.

 Pecola, Pauline, Cholly, Frieda, Claudia, and the town are all apart of the blues. With their sorrow, despair, and questionable luck, the sounds of the blues spills out of them all with harmony.