The theme of education is not central yet tightly woven into both “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. Exploring this theme in two short stories revealed that Baldwin made a more significant focus on education comparable to Walker. Nonetheless, both stories contain similar notions, topics, and perceptions of education. Both works highlight and discuss the impact of education’s presence or absence on the characters’ lives.
These short stories tell about siblings: Walker’s work narrates about two sisters while Baldwin describes the life of two brothers. In both stories, one of the siblings graduated from high school while another lacked education. Thereby, it seems that stories aim to compare the lives and intelligence of siblings. Initially, in both stories, the authors emphasize the success linked to education and the necessity of school attendance. Sonny’s brother claims that Sonny is “going to be sorry later” if he does not finish school (Baldwin 34). Sonny’s brother meant that education was the only way to prosper and forget the disadvantaged past; that is why finishing school was a condition that the narrator has set for Sonny (Baldwin 34). On the contrary, Mama, the narrator of “Everyday Use”, mentioned “a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know,” referring to her daughter’s Dee education (Walker 50). She does not exaggerate the importance of education because she was not educated but had a lot of valuable knowledge and skills.
Interestingly, in both stories, uneducated siblings appear wiser and more aware of specific topics and issues. Back in time, education might create a delusion about one’s intelligence, overstating the significance of existing knowledge and competencies. Education was perceived as a privilege in the stories, and those who could attend high school and graduate seemed to be given the right to condemn less fortunate people by default. Stories of Walker and Baldwin revealed the truth: particular skills, worldly knowledge, daily human experiences, and understandings of life frequently cannot be achieved in high school.