The Blues: in The Blues I'm Playing by Hughes and Sonny's Blues by BaldwinIn The Blues I'm Playing by Langston Hughes, the blues it is the source of Oceola's life and her choices. Langston is trying to illustrate the conflict between life and art. The art in this story is depicted in a limited way, as a disciplined career with a white woman acting as an overseer in the young woman's life. Art for Oceola, with its profits, comforts and privileges, offers a number of benefits, but being embodied in Dora Ellsworth, art seems to distance itself from the vitality of life. Life in Oceola sings itself in the jazz and blues of Harlem, ignores the art of East 63rd Street and the rules with which it claims its superiority. There is a closeness between the blues and Oceola's life as he summarizes his life for his patron. She remembers Mobile's roast pig and the big mouth of Billy Kersands, the minstrel leader who allowed her to stick both hands in it as a child. The relevance of the black experience to blues and jazz is the point, in his memory, that his parents, both musicians, we...