Sounder
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- The article is about the book and film named "Sounder". For other uses, please see Sounder (disambiguation).
Sounder is a book by William H. Armstrong, which won the Newbery medal in 1970, and in 1972 was made into a film. It tells the story of an African-American sharecropper family in Louisiana in the 1930s who must struggle when the father is sent to prison. The film stars Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal and Eric Hooks.
The movie was written by Lonne Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Winfield), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Cicely Tyson), Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
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Summary
Since the family is African American, they have to try very hard to make friends and almost everyone acts against them. The dad is the main worker as a sharecropper. He spends many days out in the sun and hardly makes any money. The mother and the sister of the boy spends long days inside the house, trying to make the best out of the food they had.
One day when there was a good smell from the kitchen. They were cooking a nice big piece of ham. The family knew that the dad had been stealing the food, because that was what he had to do in order to keep his family living. Minutes later, the Sheriff arrived and took the dad away under the charge of robbery. Sounder ran after the dad and got shot in the ear by the Sheriff.
For about three months after the father’s arrest, Sounder stayed under the house of the family. No one in the family knew what was going on with the dog, but the mom kept on convincing the boy that Sounder was fine. It was even harder living without the dad since they had lost their main worker. The family had to work even harder.
Sounder finally came out of the house, and the boy started visiting his dad in jail more often. The guards at the jail treated him poorly. When the boy arrived with a cake for his father, the guard tore through it and wrecked because he was “looking for weapons.” After the boy passed through the inspection, the guards let all the white guests bring whatever they wanted into the jail.
Then, when the family heard that the dad had been transferred to another jail in the south, they could no longer visit tie dad because they didn’t receive any more information. The boy and Sounder went to see if they could find the dad, although the mom strongly apposed it. He didn’t find his dad, but he sees a group of convicts working hard in the sun behind a fence. When he came on his way back, saw people discard books and picked one up since he always wanted a good education. He then saw students running out of a school building. He wished that he could have an education, but then after people asking him some questions, a teacher asked him if he would want to live with him, so he could get a proper education.
He goes home and asks his mom. Although this would mean that the mom would have to work even more, she agrees. The boy spent about a year at the teacher’s house, with a couple visits to his mother. After that, he went home for good. The dad was finally released, but when he arrives, he looks like he was going to die. His clothes were all shaggy and he looked really sick. Although the family tries to help as much as they could eventually, the dad died, and along with the dad, so does Sounder.
The boy eventually figures out his dad is doing hard labor once he transfers jails and a big guard throws iron at his hands making many bruses then the boy goes away.
Background
The book Sounder by William H. Armstrong won the Newbery Award in 1970. Sounder was also made in to a major movie in 1972. The book Sour Land, also written by William H. Armstrong, was not a sequel of Sounder but a “tribute” of the book, since Sounder was so successful.
Sour Land was and you are following the idea of Sounder. It also shared the idea of discrimination. It is about a white family living around the same time. The mother in the family had just died, so it was tough for the family to get along. But in the “Sour Land” that they live in, no one else understood them. The only other person was a black man. The family quickly became friends with the man, but the community was very disappointed with the friendship between a white and a black man. The community was willing to go through some drastic measures before they would allow the friendship.
William H. Armstrong
Template:Mergeto William H. Armstrong was born in 1914 in Lexington, Virginia. He grew up and worked on a farm. He lived in Lexington almost his whole life and then went and graduated at the Hampden-Sydney College in 1936. After graduating, he continued his work and went to the University of Virginia for graduate school.
After graduating from University of Virginia, he started teaching ancient history at the Kent School in Virginia for fifty-two years teaching the ninth grade. While he was teaching, he wrote over a dozen adult and children’s books.
In 1956, he wrote his book, which was called Study is Hard Work. He followed with many other books for help and in 1963, he won the National School Bell Award. After writing many other books, Armstrong wrote Sounder in 1969.
After Sounder, he wrote more books such as Sour Land. He won the Doctor of Letters Degree award in 1986 from the Hampden-Sydney College. After writing many books, he died in 1999.
Sounder is a classic tale of a boy and his dog who discover many things but also get hurt by the truth. This story is not only packed with many historical facts, but it displays them in a very exciting manner. This book should always be remembered as an American classic and William H. Armstrong’s best book.
See also
Sounder ISBN 0064400204